Nelly has broken his silence on the debate about which hip-hop icon made Air Force 1s popular.
Nike should probably be paying a monthly stipend to the “Hot In Here” rapper for the PR work he has done for their famous high tops. Originally produced in 1982, the sneakers got new life in 2002 thanks to Nelly’s hit, “Air Force Ones.” Despite the song’s prowess, which clearly made the shoes a household name as a result of the track, ASAP Rocky thinks that he is responsible for the popularity of Air Force 1s.
“Coming out with the Air Force 1 thing, man, I lie to you not,” Rocky said during an interview with the Oxford Union back in 2015. “You can ask my manager, it was all premeditated. I said, listen, I’m gonna wear these whack sneakers. It was 2011. I said I’ma wear these whack sneakers just to test the scene.”
ASAP Rocky says he’s the reason everyone wears Air Force Ones pic.twitter.com/4kwXmpQqJI
— Saycheese TV ?? (@SaycheeseDGTL) April 22, 2020
The old interview was revived on Twitter and Nelly fans were having none of it. Posting dozens of memes on Twitter, they made reference to the song which is now old enough to vote, and how they bought dozens of pairs of the sneaker back in the day all because of the St. Louis rapper.
Nelly himself has now weighed in on the debate as he was asked about the debacle on The Breakfast Club. “Don’t get it twisted, we weren’t the first to start rocking Air Force 1s, we wasn’t the first ones that discovered Air Force 1s,” he said. “But when you say ‘made em famous’ you gotta understand that Air Force 1s were more of a New York, east coast thing. We didn’t rock Air Force 1s in the south or the midwest, they wasn’t rocking them on the west coast. Until we did what we did, Air Force 1s went from $59.99 to a hundred dollars in a year. The same year after we made our song, shot our video, and had our tour. I don’t know what A$AP is on, or whatever he’s talking about, but if he’s in any doubt, all he gotta do is ask Nike. They sponsored our whole tour that year. We had a whole Air Force 1 that flew from the back of the stadium to the front of the stage during every show.”
And there you have it.
