In April of 1997 Yomi Martin, Cornell "Nelly" Haynes Jr, and Nick Loftis founded Vokal clothing. With the teamwork of those three, along with Vice President Ian Kelly, Voakl's team begain selling t-shirts, jerseys, and custom clothing from their homes and car trunks. The group was also retailing themself without the help of stores, malls, or outlets.

At the time, Vokal's team of Yomi and Nelly were creating pieces that were inspired a lot of times by the home metro, St. Louis, Missouri. Vokal began selling successfully within the county limits after a short period of hustling the Vokal name throughout the streets of St. Louis. While official sells were not released, sells were said to be well beyond a few thousand pieces.

Over time, Vokal was officially creating custom jerseys for baseball superstar and co-founder Cornell "Nelly" Haynes Jr, as well as his cousin's Hip Hop group, the St. Lunatics. With the group's name growing in popularity, Vokal's business group even put began touring with the St. Lunatics, repping Vokal and selling clothing after the St. Lunatic's events because many people wanted to buy what the then, independant artists were wearing. Vokal essentially grew right along with the career of Nelly and the St. Lunatics.

With a regionally diverse compilation of clothing marketers, Vokal's business group brought a wide ranging background of flavors to the Hip Hop Fashion market as one by 2002. The groups partners, executive officers, and designers hailed from all over. Including the cities St. Louis, Los Angeles, Washington DC, and New York, the Vokal team used their creative diversity as an advantage to develop a new nationally aware edge in urban fashion. Vokal clothing was also highly seperated from most other clothing lines at the time because their celebrity founder and media model, Nelly, took an active role in helping design, edit, and create clothing.

In his own time, Dame also found time to launch two subsidiary Rocawear lines, "Wash House" and "Team Roc" apparel labels.

"Wash House", which Dame said in 2004, was not a new line, is Rocafella's co-founders' attempt to reach into a new demographic of clients. Dame told AllHipHop.com reporters in 2004 "Well its not really a new line its still Roc-A-Fella but we are trying to take over every demographic and make sure we are the best at everything... We have good urban wear, so we are not going away from what we’ve been making, we’re just adding to. As you can see Jay is wearing dress shirts and things like that, a more adult look a more boutique look sometimes a tighter fit but we’re not going to stop making what we’re making - it’s just in addition to." "The creation of the Team Roc line is a dream come true for me," said Dame Dash in 2004 about Jay and his athletic line "Team Roc". He even went on in detail saying "It’s been in the works for a long time. Every great company, every empire, should have its philanthropic goals. The idea is simple: to put something back into the community that has given us so much. Team Roc started with the Mission Society up in Harlem, where I’m from. Now we have the opportunity to turn it into something really big on a national level. My love for sport really equipped me with the tools I needed to succeed in business and in life; competitiveness, will, teamwork. That’s what Team Roc is all about."

The Team Roc athletic line - which is available in sporting goods, specialty and department stores now - was inspired by and grew out of Damon’s long-standing work with the New York City Mission Society, an organization serving the children and families of Harlem, the South Bronx, and other communities in need with programs and initiatives in education, preventive services, personal growth and development, and recreation. Now a full-fledged brand unto itself, a portion of net proceeds from sales of Team Roc will go towards the newly established Team Roc Foundation – co-chaired by Dash – and will benefit the development of sports programs in economically challenged neighborhoods.

2004 was also a big year for Shawn Carter aka S.Dot. Ultimately known as Jay Z, Shawn Carter was presented the opportunity to produce his own footwear through Reebok. Given his own collection known as the "S.Carter Collection", like the duo's clothing company "Wash House", Jay's footwear also directly related to his "Grown and Sexy" trend.

Since it's initial launch in 1999, Rocawear has risen to new heights producing exceptional quality denim jeans, original, flavorful designs, as well as accessories such as hats, belts, lounge wear, and boxers. On top of those accomplishments, Rocawear also launched a women's line, a children's line, and international sites that offer fashion exclusive to only certain countries.