Nigo is Originally from Gunma Prefecture. His major influences were his parents and DJ/Head Porter designer Hiroshi Fujiwara. He’s nickname NIGO literally means “numbre two” in reference to Hiroshi Fujiwara. After studying fashion and editing he work as a editor in “popeye” magazine. He later borrowed four million yen from a friend and   opened “Nowhere”, his first store, on April 1, 1993 in Harajuku, Tokyo. Deciding to start his own brand he named it after the 1968 film Planet of the Apes.To expose the brand he gave T-shirts to the lead singer of Cornelius who wore them when performing.

 Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Bathing_Ape

Murakami developed his own style called Superflat. Superflat is a style of art that uses flat planes of color and graphic images. This Superflat stye, has allowed Murakami to creat different types of chracters. His world famed characters allowed him to collaberate with world famous designer Louis Vuitton in 2002, and create a $5,000 hand bag. He also uses his Superflat style to sell paintings, sculptures, videos, T-shirts, key chains, mouse pads, plush dolls, and cell phone caddies.  A 30 foot sculpture of Murakami’s sold for a reported 1.5 million dollars in 2005.

The album cover features a cartoon version of kanYe’s signature mascot bear, which is also featured on both of his last albums “College Dropout” and “Late Regristration”.The Album cover was designed by famed japanese pop artist Takashi Murikami, who also creataed the album art work for kanYe’s single’s “Stronger” and “Can’t Tell Me Nothing”.
The single “Stronger” features a sample from harder,better,faster,stronger which was produced by world famous electronic duo Daft Punk. The video was shoot in Japan over a three month period and features Cassie a famous singer. The video features shoots of Shibuya a famous area in Tokyo, and shoots one of the stores of Ayoma based clothing brand Bathing Ape. It also feature harajuku based clothing brand Billionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream stores. Aswell as the shoots of tokyo the video also includes kanYe’s reanactment of 80’s anime Akira. 

http://freshnessmag.com/v4/2006/06/28/freshness-feature-swagger/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Bathing_Ape

Hip Hop culture has also influenced various artist to come up there own line of clothing. Super Producer/singer/songwriter Pharrell Williams has collaberated with BATHING APE’S Nigo, to create the Billiionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream Clothing lines and sneakers. More artist like Swizz Beatz another Super producer have gone the the fashion industry as well. Swizz Beats recently bough half of Kidrobot which is a toy company that also makes clothing. More and more artist are creating with fresher lines, like KanYe West’s Pastelle line which is do to come out this Fall. More inivative artist like Lupe Fiasco have come up with diiferent areas to express there love for fashion, his Rightous Kung Fu line is a mixed of all the thing he cant do with music, which envolves a clothing line, toys, skateboard, and many more endeavors.