9/23/2023 0 Comments Nyc hip hop jewelry![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Among his most famous pieces are the 24 carat, solid gold eagle cuff created for Ghostface Killah (2001), and Lil Jon's Crunk Ain't Dead chain - which entered the Guinness Book of Records as the largest diamond pendant ever made at the time of its creation (2006). It was he who, in the 2000s, together with other names «started laying the foundation for a new generation of jewelers with a vision to match hip-hop’s “sky’s the limit” outlook,» Tobak writes. MORE TRADITIONAL JEWELRY IS USUALLY DEMURER AND HIDES BEHIND BEING "CLASSIC." IT USED TO BE THAT HIP HOP JEWELRY STAYED WITH DIAMONDS, BUT NOW YOU SEE MORE COLORED STONES COMING INTO PLAY» - JASON OF BEVERLY HILLS HIP HOP IS OVER THE TOP AND IN YOUR FACE. «THE SHEER SIZE AND OPULENCE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HIP HOP JEWELRY AND THE TRADITIONAL ONE. The fact that Taschen put the book out says a lot about how mainstream hip hop and its influence has become,» says Jason Arasheben, aka Jason from Beverly Hills, a jeweler cited several times in the book. It is a testament to the longevity of hip hop and its impact. «It was interesting to see the evolution of jewelry in hip hop and the trends all laid out like that. During the 1990s, when it became so popular that it was the best-selling music genre of all, its jewelry ushered in the era of platinum and all-over diamonds. In the late 1970s, when the movement was beginning to take off, the jewelry of choice was the same as what was already popular on the street: large belt buckles, necklaces with plaques or medallions symbolizing Madonnas and Nefertiti, chains and gold dental grills, also known as grillz. This role is highlighted in the book “Ice Cold: A Hip- Hop Jewelry History”, published by Taschen last September 2022 an important book in which the journalist and editor Vikki Tobak traces the course of jewelry in hip hop culture from its beginnings to present day, emphasizing the value of jewelry as self-expression but also as evidence of a collective human history, «a history as ancient as it is universal, that explores the intricate dialogue between culture, ornament and identity.» With a DNA of its own, shaped by indigenous influences, hip hop jewelry design has evolved hand in hand with the growth of the movement, becoming increasingly innovative and extravagant over time. Much of hip hop style encompasses aspiration, inventiveness, remixing existing forms, customization, and individualization, which have been read by naysayers as outside the bounds of propriety, good taste and generally, as “too much.” Yet, pushing at the boundaries is also an overarching tenet of hip hop style, and inevitably, what hip hop has started, mainstream culture has adopted, adapted, and appropriated.» These considerations also involve a type of, ostentatious, brash and exaggerated jewelry which has always been a sign of hip hop’s identity distinction and belonging. As the invention of Black and Brown working class youth, hip hop style has been criticized, stereotyped and oversimplified in the ways that institutional racism affects most marginalized people’s cultural expressions. A reminder of this is the “Fresh, Fly and Fabulous: Fifty Years of Hip Hop Style” exhibition, held at the FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) museum in New York from 8th February to April this year, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of a style of music that, «since that time, has spread around the globe, lending its influence to innumerable spaces. That night, during which, for the first time, familiar disco notes were replaced by an alternative mix of soul and funk, marked the beginning of the long history of hip hop. In New York, Clive Campbell, a Jamaican DJ known by the name of “Kool Herc”, together with his sister Cindy, organized a party in a hall of a dilapidated building at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx.
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