Brooklyn’s own multi-hyphenate artist Joey Bada recently joined sports journalist and cultural commentator Ashley Nicole Moss for "Ball on the Budget," a series from Chime and Complex designed to prove that money does not equal style. The challenge involved raiding the racks at Vintage on 46 in New York City to put together a complete look for $300 or less. Ashley Nicole Moss presented Joey Bada with several scenarios, and they ultimately decided to shop for an outfit appropriate for "Night at the Studio".
Joey Bada revealed his preferred shopping strategy to Ashley Nicole Moss: "I like to find a bottom first... I kind of get dressed from the bottom up". While he initially liked a pair of pants priced at $256, Ashley Nicole Moss quickly reminded him of the budget, advising him to "put that back on the rack". He soon located a "real crucial bottom": a pair of camouflage pants priced at $100. This successful find accounted for a full third of the budget.
The final look—the $100 camouflage pants, a $30 t-shirt, and a $30 hat—totaled $250. Joey Bada confirmed the outfit was "studio night worthy" because the cargos felt "almost like sweatpants", making them cozy, while the ensemble still offered "a little razledazzle".
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His default color palette as a New Yorker is black, beige, and white. While he likes colors, he does not like wearing them. However, he noted that a yellow t-shirt could work with the camouflage pants as a "nice little pop of color". Joey Bada named three staples that are the "epitome of New York culture": butters (boots), some "calm denims" that can rotate with anything, and Air Force ones. He admits that he regrets wearing skinny jeans between 2013 and 2018, a period of "experimenting".
Regarding his creative process, Joey Bada told Ashley Nicole Moss that he finds inspiration in "all walks of life," viewing it as filling up an "invisible bucket" through various experiences. In the studio, he prefers to be isolated because "creativity is like a very sensitive thing," and he is easily influenced by his environment. He recalled a "fire" studio session with Big Sean and Ab-Soul, emphasizing that the magic came from them being from different parts of the country—Brooklyn, Detroit, and California—coming together to find a "happy medium" and make a cultural moment.
Ultimately, Joey Bada believes the idea that you have to have money to have style is a misconception. He makes a key distinction: "fashion is something that you go to the store for, but style is something that you were born with". He concluded that "The style is in you the fashion is on you". His top three swaggiest rappers of all time are Method Man (raw, rugged, and dope), Nas (super smooth and fly), and Yasiin Bey (whose eccentric style "works"). With the final purchase totaling $250, Joey Bada chose to invest the remaining money to make "financial progress," tapping the Chime device to complete the transaction.
