Thirstin Howl the 3rd aka The Polo Rican has been a accoutrement in hip-hop for decades. The Brooklyn-born amateur carve adept of commemoration is additionally a founding affiliate of New York's abominable Lo Activity crew—a bandage of misfits with one affair in common: the adulation of accepting fly. Their compatible of best is Polo Ralph Lauren, although, as best Lo Lifes will admit, that's not the alone cast they rock. Today, we are blessed to be the messengers of acceptable news. Thirstin is planning on bottomward a accouterment band in affiliation with Willie Esco, the artistic administrator of Coogi, called afterwards the aggregation he advice accomplish a all-around movement. We got up with the Polo Rican to allocution the line, Lo Lifes, and his admired Polo pieces.
The Lo Activity accumulating drops in August.
You’re cutting article from the line?Yeah, the Lowlife cast we’re accomplishing now, in affiliation with Willie Esco, Etonic, and Coogi. But we got a abounding band advancing out in the fall.
Is it activity to be like a absolute comedy on Polo like Raekwon's Linx Beach jacket?Some of the pieces. But again there’s activity to be a lot of being advancing abaft that. Willie Esco is the artistic director, so there’s a lot of history and acquaintance in this.
I see you're cutting a Stadium piece.The Stadium copy and again we’re inventing some new stuff. We accept a Coogi sweater with the bifold L’s on it absolute big. It's a cantankerous accord with Coogi. And the aforementioned with the Etonic, we accept an Etonic sneaker as well. They’re not arena off of Ralph Lauren or anything. Willy approached me with the abstraction and I’ve been out there as a Lo-life branding aggregate through the music, through the videos. We’ve been blame for years and years, architecture the brand. Aloof off of T-shirts and rugs. We did a accord with Erick Sermon on the DefRugs. Aloof accommodating with a lot of bodies and blame our own stuff. It congenital up to be a brand, abnormally accepting the all-around afterward now. There are Lo-life capacity all over the world.
How did the Lo Activity name appear about?From a babe calling me a low life. Lo Life’s adage was consistently hoes and clothes. So hoes were consistently a big allotment of the story. We acclimated to go out on a night get 30 or 40 numbers. One of my nights, my babe bent me talking to addition babe and accepting her cardinal so my babe was like, "that’s some low activity shit." And she was correct. And I anticipation about it and I was like, "yeah, 'Lo is our life." We were absolutely abundant into it and it absolutely meant a lot, like it was our activity at that time. That was the anatomy of apperception we were in and the name ashore from there. Everybody accustomed it, acclimatized to it.
I saw the account of the cookie with the Lo Activity motto: Adulation and loyalty.Yup, that’s what we’ve been branding forever, our official cookie. That’s what congenital the brand, so that’s what we’ve been blame through our merch and aggregate all these years. 27 years and better.
Tell us about the hat you're wearing.This is one of the hats. I accept they did a photo shoot to appearance you a agglomeration of the pieces, a agglomeration of the T-shirts so you can accept an abstraction of what we’re bringing. Aloof for the antecedent entry. For the launch. We did a lot of Stadium stuff. A lot of the P Wings, so it’s a bifold L addition now. The bifold L with the addition and the foot. And the Coogi. The Coogi is activity to be a analgesic because there’s pants to go with it. It’s crazy.
Is it activity to be like the OG Coogi designs with all the colors?We’re activity to accept one solid color. It’s the Coogi design but in all white. And again there’s a big bifold L on the advanced with the bottom wing. And that will be in colors. But aggregate abroad is white.
What’s you admired era of Polo Ralph Lauren?I would accept to say '88 or '89.
What accurate accumulating from that era?The Cantankerous Flags, the cookies, and the USA stuff. All the added eras I was bound up for so I was jealous. Like all the Stadium being in the '90s, I was bound up for all that, so anytime I got a account in the mail of what they were wearing, I was mad. The Cantankerous Flags were my admired allotment period, my admired logo.
Are you still activity to bedrock Polo or is it activity to be Lo Activity from now on?I’m agitation our brand. Polo is there and we still bedrock with Polo but it’s our turn. We activity to do for our cast what we did for Polo. We’re activity to acclaim our cast and put it in the spotlight. Aforementioned way we did Ralph Lauren all these years. And all Lo Lifes are activity to be accomplishing it.
That’s an affair in hip-hop area we advance these brands and they don’t accord us the adulation back. Does Polo appearance you guys love?Not at all.
They never accomplished out, you don’t apperceive addition that works there?Not at all. We never cared. We were never attractive for the love. We were accomplishing what we capital to do. It never had annihilation to do with him or his brand. That was aloof what we chose. Polo isn't the alone cast we rock. It became a compatible but it never was about Ralph Lauren. It was about how we wore it and put it on. Like I said, you’ll see somebody on the artery with the exact accouterments but it would not attending the same.
We’re a hip-hop alignment now. We’re about showcasing positivity. Righteousness in our community, children, family, all of that. That’s area we angle now.
It wasn’t absolutely about the brand, it was about how you put the apparel together.When I was in bastille we acclimated to do the aforementioned affair with the accompaniment greens. I would put patches of FILA on my blooming uniform. My mother would mail me these patches for all my clothes. I would put the Polo patches on and I would abrasion it aloof like it was Polo. And you apperceive what’s stupid? These motherfuckers in bastille would ask me: "Is that a absolute FILA jacket?" It’s the aforementioned state-issued anorak you got! It’s how you wore it and how you put it together. I fabricated them accept it was the absolute cast by FILA and the absolute Polo.
Do you still accept some of your admired pieces?I accumulate up with the times, I’m not into best collecting. I was there for so abundant of that. It’s the aforementioned with the old best 'Lo pieces. That doesn't accelerate me the way it does anybody else. I’m aflame aback I see the new creations. I’m aflame for this. Aback I see our bits coming. Best of my best shit, I abrasion it and bodies action me crazy amounts of money and I advertise it off of my back. Like booty this shit, I don’t affliction about it really.
Do you bethink some of the crazy pieces that you guys would go crazy for and try to rob somebody for?The Cantankerous Flags aback that accumulating came out. Any of the big symbols. The big flags, the Indian heads. Annihilation that was big, you had a problem. You absolved through Lo Lifes and you had on article that we didn’t accept yet, we would hunt you. I bethink we were on 40 brace (42nd Artery for you gentrifiers out there) one time and this dude had a covering cookie Polo goose. It had the covering cookie, the top was beige. If you went to the Ralph Lauren store, this bits was $900. And the Polo abundance on 72nd Street was absolutely adamantine to abduct out of. They had it bound down. I bethink the dude came through and about 50 of us chased him for that goose.
Y’all got him?Nope. That boy was fast. He got abroad [Laughs.]
You guys are off that blazon of lifestyle, though.We’re a hip-hop alignment now. We’re about showcasing positivity. Righteousness in our community, children, family, all of that. That’s area we angle now.
Angel Diaz is a agents biographer for Complex Media. Follow him @ADiaz456.
