Trick Daddy has claimed Polo Ralph Lauren asked him to stop mentioning the brand in his music after he asked for some exclusive gear.
Early in his career, the Miami rapper earned a reputation for sporting Polo shirts and would often mention the brand in many of his tracks.
On “Nann N***a,” a highlight from his 1998 album www.thug.com, he raps: “You don’t known nann n***a / That wear mo’ Polo shit than me.” When he approached the brand with a proposition, however, he said they shut him down.
“I had one of my A&RS as well as one of my publicists reach out to Polo because I had been saying Polo on the record,” he shared in a new interview with The Art of Dialogue. “And I know Polo spiked in the South, because if I did a concert, everybody would be rocking Polo.”
He said that he learned that Polo would often stock different pieces in different regions of the United States, so he would pick up Polo whenever he was on tour. Because of that, he reached out to them so that he could get a catalogue so he could get exclusive items delivered directly to him. Someone from Polo got back in contact with his team, and shut down his request.
“They told me, ‘No , thank you. We’d appreciate it if you won’t even mention our name again in your songs,'” he laughed. “So I wrote another and said: ‘I used to be a Polo kid and then I thought about all the other stupid shit that I did.‘”
The track in question was his 2002 Rick Ross collaboration, “Let Me Ride.” Elsewhere on the track, he raps: “I used to sport it talk about it / That’s the reason why shorty went in the hood and bought it.“
“I started wearing Iceberg… It was over for me with Polo,” he explained. “I buy a few pieces here and there, because I know it was nothing personal. It was a bad decision that one of their reps made, and they disrespect the king of Polo. But it’s cool. I made them some muthafuckin’ money, and they owe me an apology. And they need to send me free Polo, Ralph Lauren, Golf, Jean, and Sport for the rest of my life, ’cause I’m the reason why your shit spike in South Florida and the rest of the South.”
He suggested that the whole situation upset him, because he wasn’t even trying to get a deal with the brand or anything. “I wasn’t trying to get a deal,” he shared. “I just wanted a catalog. … They broke my heart.”
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