George Billips, better known by his stage name Rack-Lo, is an American author and rapper[1][2] from Brooklyn, and a founding member of the Lo Lifes.[3][4][5][6][7]
Lo Lifes
In 1988, Rack-Lo co-founded the Lo Lifes, a Ralph Lauren Polo "racking" or "boosting" (shoplifting) crew that formed from the union of two smaller crews from Brownsville and Crown Heights neighborhoods in Brooklyn.[6][8][9][10] His nickname combines "rack" with "lo", short for Polo.[3] In an interview with Fader, Rack-Lo recalls the appeal of Polo:
"By seeing the clothing it inspired us to know that there was more to life than being in Brooklyn and being stuck here, living at this limited pace. It inspired us to pursue those things: to go yachting, to be on Fifth Avenue, to be a part of the rich and the elite, and to try and acquire the American Dream the way we know how to do it. And that was through fashion and boosting."[6]
In 2016, powerHouse Books published Rack-Lo and Jackson Blount's book about the Lo-Lifes entitled Lo-Life: An American Classic.[4] A book review in the F-Stop Magazine called it a "remarkable story of a small group of teenagers fighting to make a name for themselves",[7] and one in the New York Journal of Books considered it "somewhat of a revelation as it is not a varnished and glorified telling of fashion but much more of a down and dirty gritty tale of the sociological, visual, and material value."[11]
In a 2018 interview, Rack-Lo stated "Yes, I have been caught on many occasions. As a result I was locked up in juvenile detention and I was an inmate on the infamous ‘Riker’s Island’. But in my case I was still fortunate because I never spent time in prison — only in city jails for very short time periods. The longest I spent incarcerated was four months."[12]
Discography
Rack-Lo has released several albums and songs,[13][14][1] often in collaboration with or production by fellow Lo-Life Thirstin Howl the 3rd.[15]
^ abGeorge "Rack-Lo" Billips (2021): Lo Life - An American Classic Soundtrack. Digital music album. Claimed to be the "sound track" to Rack-Lo's book "Lo Life: An American Classic". Mixed by DJ Mathmatics (Australia), recorded at All Elements Studios. Available through Bandcamp.
^ abCarey Benbow (2017): Book Review of Lo-Life: An American Classic by George “Rack-Lo” Billips and Jackson Blount. Posted in 2017-01 at the F-Stop Magazine site. Accessed on 2021-03-04.
^Sowmya Krishnamurthy (2023): Fashion Killa: How Hip-Hop Revolutionized High Fashion. Gallery Books, 304 pages. ISBN978-1982176327.
^Sowmya Krishnamurthy (2023): "The Lo Lifes: The Hip-Hop Shoplifters Who Birthed Street Culture". Excerpt from Fashion Killa on the Lo Lifes. On the Vice magazine website, dated 2023-10-16. Accessed on 2024-07-27.
