SLUG Style: Icky Rogers

Icky Rogers is a hip-hop artist on the rise and injects a cosmic sensibility to his rapping, which reminds of Del the Funky Homosapien. Much like the conceptual layers in his music, Icky Rogers embraces layering in his clothing style and splashing it with accents that reflect his own personal touches. Be sure to listen to his music while you treat yourself to his style!

Every month, “SLUG Style” features a distinct and unique member of the community and asks them why they do what they do. Exploring more than just clothing, SLUG Style is an attempt to feature the people who give Salt Lake City flavor through personality and panache.

SLUG: What are your stylistic influences? This could be a band, decade, fictional character—anything.

Icky Rogers: Style-wise, I tend to fluctuate between dressing like Luther Vandross and/or The Wire’s Omar Little. I enjoy playing around with layering/hard textures and adding just a splash of color or some sort of funky accessory to my outfits.

SLUG: Please tell us about your music as Icky Rogers. What’s your style of music, and what makes it your own?

Icky Rogers: I would describe my music as cosmic hip-hop. I enjoy experimentation, conceptual thinking and blending influences from both new and old-school artists. Blending traditional and cutting-edge sounds in my production adds a unique touch to my artistry. 

At the moment, my music is deeply inspired by the nighttime, by nightlife and by all manner of after-hours activities. Exploring the duality found in nightlife is a theme I am deeply interested in right now. 

SLUG: How do you feel that hip-hop inflects your style of dress?

Icky Rogers: While I do have my own personal style, you will find a little hip-hop in almost every outfit I wear. Whether it’s in the way I wear my jeans, what shoes I choose to wear or simply my attitude while wearing whatever I have on, hip-hop is infused in my style all the way.

SLUG: As an artist, what are your personal spins on both your style and music? How do you feel that they might interact, on some level?

Icky Rogers: My personal spin on both my style and my music, as I mentioned above, is adding a splash of color to whatever I’m creating, performing or wearing. I prefer taking traditional constructs and flipping them to fit my own personal narrative. I’m queer, I’m Black, I’m obsessed with mysticism and obsessed with street culture. That special blend of elements is not something traditionally found within the genre of hip-hop. I admit, that while sometimes it’s awkward, it’s always unique, and that’s just the way I like it. 

SLUG: What are your interests or hobbies? What is the hobby or interest that you have that no one would realize to ask you about?

Icky Rogers: For the past 6–7 years, I have been extremely interested in ASMR. I find the online ASMR community fascinating. 

Before the release of my song “Birth Chart,” most people probably didn’t know that I am also deeply interested in Vedic Astrology and sometimes moonlight as an astrologer.

Aside from that, I’m a huge media junkie and try to ingest as much media as I can on any given day but usually stick to films, records and books. 

SLUG: Whether it’s jackets or vests, it seems like you like to layer. What goes into these pieces of your look?

Icky Rogers: I have always preferred fall/winter clothing and layering. Personally, I feel that I just look better in multiple layers and textures, and I enjoy the challenge of blending certain patterns/layers together. I also really enjoy jackets/vests/coats to serve as staple pieces in my wardrobe, which I tend to cycle by season. 

SLUG: Are you always “on” or would someone see you at the grocery store, for example, with less elements of your style?

Icky Rogers: Depends on the day. I usually dress as comfortable as possible while grocery shopping and those types of activities, but again, it depends on the day. 

SLUG: What had you excited about performing for Craft Lake City’s DIY Festival this year?

Icky Rogers: Over the past two years, I’ve had the opportunity to perform for quite a few smaller audiences and have received a really great response, so it was very exciting to perform for a much larger and much more diverse audience at the festival.  

SLUG: How’d it go?

Icky Rogers: It was really great, especially the Prince tribute song I performed with my engineer, Cris Ibarra, on the guitar to close out my set. After my performance, many different people throughout the festival from backgrounds told me how much they enjoyed my performance, which is always a good feeling.

SLUG: If you had to describe yourself in three words, what would those be? 

Icky Rogers: Adventurous, mischievous and mysterious. 

SLUG: How has your personal style evolved over time?

Icky Rogers: At this point, I think I found a nice middle ground between looking “cool” or “street” and looking “sexy” or “handsome.” It took me a while to value and play into my natural sex appeal/swagger.