Saucedo tells Complex that the placement has already had a positive impact on the brand. Its Instagram has gained around 10,000 followers since the video’s July 4 release with many comments clamoring for new hats. In a perfectly-timed twist of fate, the collaborative cap was recently released on Ghetto Rodeo’s web store to purchase. Next up, the brand is dropping a restock of its Spring/Summer 2024 “Ghetto Runway” collection on July 12. It is also prepping a runway show in Los Angeles in the coming months.
“We’re a small brand doing big brand things,” says Saucedo.
Ghetto Rodeo’s collaborator Kaló Soil had some other pieces worn by Kendrick Lamar in the “Not Like Us” video. The rapper wore the brand’s distressed black cap and zip-up hoodie in the scenes where he is dancing around a living room with his longtime fiancé Whitney Alford and two kids.
“It took a good 15 watches probably before it really started to even settle in,” says Kaló Soil co-founder Ryan Sullivan. “There’s just this moment of looking at it like, ‘this can’t be possible.’”
Sullivan and Baker started the brand just a year and a half ago. The 22-year-olds are actually originally from Lexington, Kentucky and have been working together since high school. Four years ago, they moved out to Los Angeles to pursue design. Now, LA is the city they call home. Their faith is a driving force behind the brand.
“The broad idea with Kaló was to just let God do what God’s going to do. We don’t know exactly what this brand is going to look like. We feel like we were called to start this luxury brand,” says Baker. “It’s an all-encompassing luxury brand focused on clothing and design that’s able to pivot at any moment if the Lord says to.”
The connection to Kendrick Lamar came by way of his stylist McNeil and her assistant Kennedy Smith who they had worked with previously for shoots with other artists like Omar Apollo. When McNeil reached out inquiring about pulling pieces for the “Not Like Us” shoot, Baker and Sullivan sent over everything they had on hand in hopes that something would resonate enough to make it into the video.
“We found out probably about a week and a half prior to the video’s release that it was going to be the two hats and the hoodie,” says Sullivan. “It’s so funny, the things they selected were not on their deck, their moodboard, they were unlike anything else we sent over. But growing up following Kendrick and knowing his artistry I was like, ‘I could see this guy wearing that.’”
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