Before it was a mindset, it was a technique.

Somebody tells you to find your flow and they mean a feeling.

It started as a description of something exact: the rhythmic relationship between an MC's syllables and the beat underneath them. Not what you say. Where you put it. In 1986 one MC moved the rhymes off the beat, inside the line and across the bar — and modeled the whole thing on a saxophone player.

Know the history, link to the free Vault article: Off the Beat: How Rakim Rebuilt the Way MCs Deliver

THE DETAILS

• THE FLOW centre chest, broad handstyle, acid green, upper impression
• Flow beneath, grotesque, charcoal, offset down and left, article dropped
• Back yoke: BX Originals mark, charcoal
• Back imprint: Rhymed off the beat, / not on it. in acid green, with 1986 bold beneath
• QR on left sleeve with THE VAULT handstyle above, light ink

COLORWAY

• Black body, acid green and charcoal print — single colorway.

MATERIALS & CONSTRUCTION

• 100% combed ring-spun cotton
• Fabric weight: 4.3 oz/yd² (145.8 g/m²)
• Set-in sleeves, side-seamed, ribbed collar with shoulder-to-shoulder taping, double-needle hems
• Regular fit
• Pre-shrunk
  
  

SIZE SPECIFICATIONS

All measurements in inches. Width is measured flat across the chest.

This product is made especially for you as soon as you place an order, which is why it takes us a bit longer to deliver it to you. Making products on demand instead of in bulk helps reduce overproduction, so thank you for making thoughtful purchasing decisions!

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BX ORIGINALS — TRUE TO THE CULTURE
Hip-hop has four elements: DJing, MCing, Breaking, Graffiti. Each product in our collections carries one, set in that element's own lettering tradition. Not four versions of one graphic — four distinct hands held together by one system.

THE BX VAULT
Every BX Originals piece connects to the BX Vault — our library of long-form writing on hip-hop history and practice. Not marketing copy. Real research on the people, places, and decisions that built this culture. The culture on the product. The context behind it.

FROM THE BRONX
BX Originals documents hip-hop's four elements from where they started. We're not a fashion brand borrowing an aesthetic. We're building an archive that happens to make things you can wear.

BX Originals. True to the culture.