A few months back I was invited to host a Taz Arnold showcase at Tammany Hall. I was surprised that I got the invite but I can thank the homey Meyhem Lauren who was cool with the show promoters and respects my Polo steez. Taz Arnold set the Polo Ralph Lauren collecting world on fire when he repurposed his archive of holy grail I.T.’s into the project he called ‘The Americans‘.
The Americans was at first perverse to me because I thought it mocked some of the items which people tried to acquire and would subsequently defend with their everlasting manhood. It wasn’t until I met Taz in person, and saw some of the pieces firsthand where it all made sense to me. The Americans isn’t a mockery, but a celebration. Taz Arnold is a fucking iconoclast. He is Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Ralph Lauren and Karl Lagerfeld with the Blackness of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Willi Smith.
I chilled in Taz’ hotel room at the Hudson Hotel for a few hours and kicked it with him about his motivations for fashion, music and style. It’s crazy that you watch this dude from the prism of social media and think that maybe he is wrong for his shit. Maybe he’s forcing his shit?. Nope. This dude is more centered and focused than 99.9% of the people who you might look to for artistic inspiration. Taz Arnold doesn’t play that safe lane because he’s been doing his thing for at least twenty years.
That blew my mind. Taz Arnold was more like me than I would have cared to admit before we had this meeting. I privately gave him props for pulling MCM from the vintage dustbin and making that shit hot again, but I secretly thought he might have lucked up with that move. Nah, Internets. Taz Arnold is locked in on that future funk flow flavor. You might will not be able to understand what his doing right now with this latest musical project.
Taz calls it ‘rAd AmericA‘ and this shit is nuts. File this under future vintage cocaine blow flow bounce.
‘cAliforniA $uite’
‘who fuckin’ with u$’
