The thought may sound cliché, but the main reason rappers wear so much jewelry is to boost their self-esteem and emphasize their success. The thing is, the general image of a rapper is built in a certain way. The story should start with the poorest and dirtiest street and end with the riches untold and worldwide fame. And the best marker of wealth and status is, of course, pounds of gold and diamond jewelry.
The main purpose of every rapper is to be the best in everything: music, outfits, cars, jewelry. That’s why their trinkets tend to be large, chunky and shiny, to make it loud and clear who’s the Boss here.
Chains make the base of the image in hip-hop fashion. The right chain creates the look and highlights all the other jewelry, such as pendants. Years and decades the rap culture exists, have determined the best chain necklaces suitable and appropriate for rappers.
The Cuban link chain is among the leaders in hip-hop jewelry fashion. The rappers wanted to increase their fame through the jewelry, instead they made this chain known all over the world. How popular is the Cuban link chain? It’s in the hottest trends of 2022, though it was introduced in the 1970s. The distinctive pattern shows twisted flat oval links that secure the chain to the point it’s considered one of the strongest chains existing. The Cuban link chain has many properties that ensure and explain the love of rappers. The durable necklace chain proved how reliable it is by becoming the base for quite a few famous weighty pendants. The chain’s look is rather impressive even in small width, and the width inherent for the rappers’ necklaces will certainly be noticeable from afar. The Cuban links are also designed in such a way to provide maximum luster to the chain and make it impossible to draw away the gaze. And the iced out version of it has already become classic of hip-hop necklaces.
The rap chain that differs from the previous two by style, but not in terms of durability is the rope chain. The famous rappers Run D.M.C. and Eric B.& Rakim were the first in the industry to discover the practical beauty and luxury glamor the rope chain brings. Since the 1980s the piece remains one of the main accessories obligatory for every respected rapper and has even started the severe jewelry “battle”, which resulted in several world records. The design of the chain unsurprisingly reminds the rope, picturing twisted threads made of the links interlocked tightly together. It’s a statement jewelry but instead of the bulky concept it is made to display an intricate and interesting look. The chain is perfect for combination of different colors of gold, and it is a frequent design seen among rappers’ real gold chains for men. The rope chain adds unusual texture and volume to the layered chain look making it more vivid.
A pendant is probably the best way to express personality and make it scream out loud your name, label, verse of your song or just a favorite catchphrase. The famous rappers won’t spear diamonds on such a purpose. The bright examples are Juice WORLD’s “999 Club Pendant”, T-Pain’s “Big Ass Chain” ($410 000), Pharrell Williams’s “Billionaire Boys Club” ($1 000 000), Mike Jones’s “Ice Age” ($1 000 000). Some rappers have gone even further, portraying themselves in gold and diamonds, like Lil Pump ($300 000 pendant) and Rick Ross ($1 500 000), while Quavo’s pendant displays himself as the protagonist of the “Ratatouille” cartoon along with the famous Remy rat ($250 000). The cartoons and movies are actually a very popular topic for the rappers’ pendants. Hence, the creativity here has gone wild:
Trippie Redd and Quavo both possess the pendants picturing Uka Uka Mask, the villain of the Crash Bandicoot series; the Tekashi69’s “Shark Chain” depicts Bruce, the shark form “Finding Nemo” (over $750 000), he also owns the “Saw Jigsaw Pendant”, displaying spooky Billy the Puppet; Yung Berg decided to pay homage to transformers’ franchise wearing a pendant with the mask of a transformer ($70 000). The religious motifs in rap culture are very significant, thus the pendants representing them are really popular. Such prominent rappers as Kanye West and Big Sean have the “Jesus” pendant (approximately $200 000) in their collection, Waka Flocka Flame is the owner of the “Angel” pendant and Lil Skies is proud of his “Diamond Cross Pendant”.
Those oversized pendants are actually the symbol of a long and hard journey the rappers had to endure from their most often humble origins to success. They mark the accomplishments they’ve made and compensate for all the hardships and deprivation they’ve been through.
For average people jewelry is the way to accessorize their outfit and finish their look. It is used for sheer beauty purposes. Sometimes it may be used as the way to invest money. But for rappers it’s an integral part of their image and lifestyle. Pounds of gold and carats of diamonds are the way to demonstrate to the world how far a poor boy gets with his talent and determination. Even if he didn’t get the chance to be born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he’ll get the world to respect him and his art eventually. And the gold and diamond jewelry symbolizes that he’s on the right path.
