Jun 10, 2015 pretty great (and short) read: http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/790-an-interview-with-jojo-zarur-young-thugs-stylist/ Pitchfork: So how did this all start? Joanna Zarur: I studied politics and pre-law at Stanford. I loved fashion but my parents wanted me to be a lawyer. I always did fashion on the side as my hobby. I’d make pieces for myself. One day I came to Atlanta to visit one of my friends, and that’s where I met Young Thug. He was my first client, I had never styled before. I’ve just been doing that ever since. Pitchfork: How collaborative is your working relationship with Thug? JZ: When I met him he was so new to everything, you know? He would tell me what he wanted, and I would tell him what I wanted. I’d come to the s---t with a bunch of clothes and he’d be like, "I’m not wearing none of that, I’m wearing the jacket that you’re wearing on right now." It was scary at first. But every s---t that I’ve worked with him I’ve learned more and by now, I know exactly what he likes. Pitchfork: Before you started tailoring for him would Thug buy women’s clothes off the rack? JZ: It wasn’t even the women’s section, he would go to the kid’s section and buy a kid’s dress. When I first met Young Thug, Birdman came up to me and he was like, "You need to help him." They saw potential in him, 'cause he’s really creative and different, but if you’ve seen pictures of him before, he would wear all girls clothes. People send me pictures all the time of Thug wearing a five year olds’ leopard print dress as a shirt. Pitchfork: So how do women’s clothing and silhouettes figure into what he wears now? JZ: He doesn’t wear anything loose. He told me, "I only feel comfortable with really tight pants." I will go buy him a pair of men’s pants, and I cut and sew them to a women’s fit. I might buy a dress, and then I’ll cut it, and I’ll add a men's t-shirt, and do something crazy. Mixing men’s and women’s, that’s how I work. I’Il look at three pieces and make one out of it. I put Thug in this cool red coat with fur in one of his videos. Everybody called me, like, "What designer is that coat?" I was going by a theater costume store and I saw a red coat. I cut up this other coat I had with fur, and I added it to it. The other day I made a jacket out of a backpack. I have no limits. Pitchfork: What do you think of the way Young Thug’s style makes people mad? JZ: Everything about it, how he speaks, how he paints his nails, people are so mad about it. Pitchfork: Does the hate ever get to Thug? JZ: Definitely not. I don’t understand how he’s so above it. Sometimes he’ll do stuff on purpose that he knows will piss people off. If people start talking s--- about his nails being red, he’ll put crystals on the nails. Talk about his jeans, he’s like, "I want tighter jeans." He goes out of his way to make sure people know he doesn’t care. He finds it funny, ‘cause at the end of the day, he’s setting a trend. He’ll look at Instagram and read the hater comments and laugh, and show his friends. He’s the perfect person for what he’s doing. I could not see anyone else doing it better, honestly. Pitchfork: You and Thug must be close friends at this point. JZ: We’re all like a huge family. Pitchfork: Was it stressful working with all the members of Rich g--- while they were breaking up? JZ: Very, very stressful. It was actually really sad. For a minute, we were all so close. We did everything together. I was always at the studio with them, we were always talking about ideas, all of us, Birdman, Thug, and Quan. We were a huge family. When Lil Wayne was like, "I don’t want no more part of [YMCMB], I want money," it was a shock. Everything turned upside down. I’m just happy that what we did was epic while we were all together. Pitchfork: Anything else people should know about Young Thug? JZ: He’s definitely not gay [laughs]. I hear a lot that he’s an a------ or stuck up—he might be one of the sweetest, most caring people on earth. He’s so respectful, "Yes, ma’am, no ma’am." My parents have met his whole family. We’re all really close. He always makes sure that everybody’s good, takes care of his family, his mom, his sisters. They’re all so nice and polite and loyal, literally have nothing bad to say about any of them.
Jun 13, 2015 people dont like to actually learn anything about the guy they blindly hate kinda like kanye tbh
Jun 13, 2015 Hard not to when your music hinges on your identity and your identity is so flawed and mercurial. He makes great music and that's his only redeemable quality. His fans are WOAT.
Jun 13, 2015 =( i think hes an awesome dude who gets way too much hate (as if he rapes babies for a living) and that anything he does for bad press is calculated for the most part ur the WOAT
Jun 13, 2015 no its like when he says beyonce should win over beck, just because he believes certain groups of people get marginalized during this awards... and then he admitted a week later (after all the press he wanted on the topic did its thing) that he never even heard beck's album, rofl. he just knew what he needed to say/do to shift the dialogue. thats not even all that hard to pick up on if you dont blindly hate the guy
Jun 13, 2015 Sorry if I don't think being a pop culture meme is a significant step forward in the fight for race equality. Maybe it's just because I've heard Public Enemy or read a Ralph Ellison novel, but being a giant baby feels like the most counterproductive way to approach things. Kanye's closest political counterpart might have been Ali, but I think that's a really, really generous comparison.
