Long before East Coast vs West Coast, there was The Bridge and the Boogie Down.
As in, who came first?
The year was 1985; MC Shan released a track called “The Bridge” that declared his Queensbridge Houses the birthplace of hip hop.
Over in the Bronx – home of Afrika Bambaataa and Kool Herc – Boogie Down Productions staked their own claim in the song “South Bronx.”
Enter, The Bridge Wars. Read more about it here.
In examining the feud from a fashion perspective, this is where things get interesting. Lyrically, the major shoe brands seemed to fall along different sides of the divide, with each artist propping up his own sneaker of choice, while putting down the rival’s favorite. It was as if footwear corporations were sponsoring The Bridge Wars.
Puma shoes and Puma tracksuits decorate the cover of MC Shan’s seminal 1987 album Down By Law. And as you can see below the cover, Boogie Down Productions provided some colorful commentary on Shan’s style preferences in Criminal Minded, released that same year.
Hailing from Hollis, LL Cool J was a peripheral character in The Bridge Wars. On that same album, MC Shan accused LL of lifting his music, hence the name of the song “Beat Biter.”
LL was a big fan of Troop sneakers, clearly. A rumor sprang up around that time that the Ku Klux Klan were behind Troop – sort of like the old school version of the Tommy Hilfiger controversy. MC Shan only fueled the myth in this song, plugging his beloved Pumas instead.
It doesn’t end there. LL seemed to take a jab at Shan with these lyrics, from his 1987 album Bigger and Deffer.
Not so fast. The lone rhymer, MC Shan, seems to have emerged victorious from the great shoe battle of 1987: In 2007, Puma collaborated with Yo! MTV Raps to honor their biggest fan with his own pair of “wack” red suede sneakers. And just what happened to be emblazoned on the shoe in gold ink? None other than the Queensboro Bridge.
