Where did the baggy pants trend come from?

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Where did the baggy pants trend come from?

Posted: 5/14/2004 9:43:31 AM EDT

I've heard two reasons for it:

1. Minority kids living in a large family that can't afford new clothes so everything is hand-me-down and sometimes they don't fit (too big), so for rappers to wear such stupid clothes it shows that they're returning to "their roots" or something similar.

2. Baggy clothes have enough "give" to stop a .22, so it was a way to protect themselves from the cops and other gang members.

----

I think they're both wrong because neither makes sense to me. I think the "baggy clothes stop a .22" is wrong, not to mention that I haven't heard of any cop carrying a .22, or any gang member carrying anything other than "a nine, foo."

So where did it come from?

Posted: 5/14/2004 9:45:52 AM EDT

[#1]

Prison.

Posted: 5/14/2004 9:47:11 AM EDT

[#2]

Who knows? It's been around for fifteen years. We used to ride skateboards with the baggies and such.

I'd still wear em if it weren't for the Belt Holster issue.

The baggier pant/shorts is why I carried a Shoulder holster for years.

Posted: 5/14/2004 9:47:16 AM EDT

[#3]

Quoted:
Prison.

I concur.

Posted: 5/14/2004 9:48:18 AM EDT

[#4]

Prison....also the hanging downy our ass, as we give them no belt and the clothes are too big. The one leg up is a gang thing, hard to tell what gang when you are all in orange.

Posted: 5/14/2004 9:48:19 AM EDT

[#5]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Prison.

I concur.

Yep. I heard it was a way of advertising "availability" in prison.

Posted: 5/14/2004 9:48:28 AM EDT

[#6]

You are correct, they are both wrong. Here is the fact. This is true and it is based on LE data and training information provided in gang classes.

Baggy pants that sag and expose the undergarments on or about the buttocks come from the fashion of California prisons and quickly spread to the rest of the US prisons and through this to the urban streets in general, and then to the suburbs. What the kids on the street didn't know is what this so called fashion statement truly meant and what its origins were. In fact, this styly of wearing trousers was done in prisons as a sign that the person who was sagging was prepared for homosexual anal copulation with other men. This is not a joke, it is a fact. That is where it comes from and that is its original meaning.

Posted: 5/14/2004 9:48:39 AM EDT

[#7]

Quoted:
Prison.

We have a winner!!!!!!!1

Thats the same place the no shoelaces in yer adidas came from. Run DMC started some of that stuff, as well as Public Enemy. Chuck D talks about it in his book, I forget the title of it though.

Posted: 5/14/2004 9:54:06 AM EDT

[#8]

The same place that bellbottoms, tight pants, uniforms, suits, dresses, skirts, and printed t-shirts came from. Clothing designers. If the people that design popular clothes think that something looks good, that will dictate popular fashion. While I'm a bit old for the really baggy stupid looking pants, I still wear my pants bigger than most people because I get a full range of motion and comfort. I also think that it looks cool. Additionally, I can carry a full size 1911 without anyone noticing.
Edited to add: My pants also sag a little bit when I am not carrying for obvious reasons.

Posted: 5/14/2004 9:54:42 AM EDT

[#9]

Prison, huh? Good. Then the useless pukes strolling around that way looking for trouble will already be prepared, when they inevitably wind up there.

Posted: 5/14/2004 9:55:04 AM EDT

[#10]

I thought it was so I could hide their "GATS"?

Posted: 5/14/2004 9:56:16 AM EDT

[#11]

M.C. Hammer.....Hammer time!!

ByteTheBullet (-:

Posted: 5/14/2004 10:34:52 AM EDT

[#12]

I think it's all the skinny American kids who are jealous of the fat American kids, so they try to dress like them until they are old enough to get on a diet of McDonald's.

Posted: 5/14/2004 10:38:22 AM EDT

[#13]

Quoted:
Prison.

A class about gang activity put on by the police said prison clothes are like that to make running more difficult.

Posted: 5/14/2004 10:45:01 AM EDT

[#14]

I thought Bellbottoms were a Navy thing?

Posted: 5/14/2004 10:46:21 AM EDT

[#15]

Baggy clothes worn by gang members was meant to hide weapons. And for people to hide stolen merchandise.

Posted: 5/14/2004 10:54:03 AM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:
M.C. Hammer.....Hammer time!!

ByteTheBullet (-:

As for the prison thing, you idiots.

Posted: 5/14/2004 10:55:53 AM EDT

[#17]

Field Note: A Hispanic gang specialist told me "Most of these [Hispanic] gangs got their start in prisons. Since inmates are not allowed to wear belts, the baggy pants were worn below the waist. That's where the trend of 'saggin' [wearing one's pants below the waist] came from. It always amazes me that the street gang members have no idea why they do some of the things they do - like saggin' - and don't know the history behind them.

"Prison gang members considered any inmate a fag [homosexual] who allowed the skin above his knee to be exposed in public. So inmates always pulled down any shorts that they wore so the hem was below their knees. Today, that has translated into three-quarter length pants among gang members and, again, they don't even know why that is done, or why it was done in the first place.
"Bloods and Crips ripped off their colors from the Hispanic gangs. In the California prison system the only two colors of bandanas could be worn by inmates - red and blue. That's how the Hispanic gangs got their respective colors. One day a Surenos [southern California Mexican Mafia] gang member began wearing a red bandana and his amigos began wearing red, too. The Nortenos [northern California Mexican Mafia gang members], of course, started wearing the blue bandana to separate themselves from the Surenos. I bet there isn't a Crip or Blood anywhere that knows why they wear red or blue!"

Posted: 5/14/2004 10:56:11 AM EDT

[#18]

MY favorite segment on COPS was the fleeing felon with his pants falling down to his ankles. The pants caused him to face plant into a curb and the officer didnt see he had falling down and the cop tripped over him just as the felon was getting to his knee's thus knock the felon face back into the curb and cutting his chin.

The only way I would have laughed any harder would be if they let the dog bite his ass too.

Posted: 5/14/2004 10:56:33 AM EDT

[#19]

It is like the urban version of combat fatigues

Posted: 5/14/2004 2:30:16 PM EDT

[#20]

Trousers, Giant: In many jurisdictions, probationers and parolees are required to wear giant trousers as a means of ensuring officer safety and to limit the offender's ability to flee from the authorities. The giant trousers ensure that the offender cannot simultaneously run and shoot, nor can he use an accuracy-enhancing two-handed grip on a handgun or effectively fire a rifle. If the suspect elects to run, he must use at least one, and probably both hands to hold up his giant pants, or immediately trip and fall to the ground. No more than one offender in a hundred has the cognitive ability to run while holding his pants up with one hand and shooting with the other. In the machismo code of "urban" culture, it is unthinkable to shoot at a policeman while one's pants are wadded around one's ankles. Thus, all stationary shooting (rifle and handgun) must be done one-handed.

Giant pants were adopted after field trials demonstrated the ineffectiveness of giant shirts (no effect at all), giant hats (though the offender's vision was obscured, the hats fell off immediately when the offender began to run; obscured vision led to auto accidents involving otherwise compliant offenders), and giant shoes (the offenders ran right out of them).

From The Dictionary of American Corrections , (c) Merriam-Webster, 1999.

Posted: 5/14/2004 2:32:57 PM EDT

[#21]

1. Hand me down clothes in the hispanic community.

2. Baggy clothes make it easier for the prison bitch to drop trousers.

3. White guy wishing he was a poor mexican, or black prison bitch. See above.

Posted: 5/14/2004 2:36:51 PM EDT

[#22]

Michael Jordan helped too. He changed the tight shorts of the 70's NBA to the loose, long shorts.

That is too funny about the meaning of the bagginess, I will have to tell my homies about that.

Posted: 5/14/2004 2:43:35 PM EDT

[#23]

I am just wondering what the deal is with the new ghetto oversized shirt fashion. Gangster types are starting to wear short sleeve shirts that go all the way down to around 6 inches above their knees.

Posted: 5/14/2004 2:51:59 PM EDT

[#24]

They make fat people look better. Covers up all the fat rolls. And this country gets fatter every day.

Posted: 5/14/2004 3:53:31 PM EDT

[#25]

Quoted:
Prison.

Yeah, prison. They dont bother too much to give inmates a proper fitting pair of trousers, and they dont allow belts because they could be used to hang yourself.

When they visit their big brothers in the joint, the little brothers see the older boys they look up to wearing baggy pants falling from the waists and they imitate it. Then it gets on MTV, and everyone copies them.

Keepin' it real.

Posted: 5/14/2004 3:53:50 PM EDT

[#26]

crack dealers?

Posted: 5/14/2004 4:16:18 PM EDT

[#27]

everytime I see a clown with baggies on and that ballcap on backwards regardless of race I can't help but mutha fuckin laugh.

Posted: 5/14/2004 4:20:45 PM EDT

[#28]

Quoted:
everytime I see a clown with baggies on and that ballcap on backwards regardless of race I can't help but mutha fuckin laugh.

The backwards cap looks fading out. Now its worn forward with a flat brim.

Posted: 5/14/2004 5:23:11 PM EDT

[#29]

Quoted:
Quoted:
everytime I see a clown with baggies on and that ballcap on backwards regardless of race I can't help but mutha fuckin laugh.

The backwards cap looks fading out. Now its worn forward with a flat brim.

no, it's forward, to the left about 30 degrees. still looks stupid as heck.

Posted: 5/14/2004 5:55:03 PM EDT

[#30]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
everytime I see a clown with baggies on and that ballcap on backwards regardless of race I can't help but mutha fuckin laugh.

The backwards cap looks fading out. Now its worn forward with a flat brim.

no, it's forward, to the left about 30 degrees. still looks stupid as heck.

Oh yea, forgot to add that its usually two sizes to big so it rests on the bridge of the nose.

Posted: 5/14/2004 7:17:21 PM EDT

[#31]

I didn't read any of the replies here but, it came from prison. As did "sagging." Sagging came from prison bitches. Broken buttons make your pants sag...all those anal rapings...

Posted: 5/14/2004 7:27:26 PM EDT

[#32]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Prison.

A class about gang activity put on by the police said prison clothes are like that to make running more difficult.

No.

In prison, all inmates were forced to wear the same clothes, so to gain "individuality," they wore them baggy. Plus, it pissed off the prison guards and was their attempt at insubordination. Then, after leaving prison, they would wear their clothes extra big so that they could show that they had done time and that they demanded a certain respect that all guys who've been arrested, tried, convicted and ass raped deserve.

There's your Prison Clothes 101 lesson, straight from Riker's Island and Downstate Prison officials.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Where did the baggy pants trend come from?

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