Personalized Hip Hop Jewelry: The Origins of Hip Hop Style and Expression in Jewelry
Personalized hip hop jewelry is the ultimate expression of hip hop style because it really is about personalization and personal style. Rap lyrics that started in the 1980s have been customized and improvised to fit the local cultural scene, so why not the jewelry? To understand this type of personalized jewelry, we must understand its origins. Since many rappers came from humble beginnings, wearing this type of jewelry was like earning a symbol of success. Jewelry has always been a status symbol, but with rap artists, basic jewelry just wasn’t enough. The jewelry was symbolic as a reminder of how far they had come and they wanted everyone to know it.
This started the trend of big, exaggerated iced-out jewelry and the revival of dookie jumbo rope chains from the 1980s. Again, it wasn’t about jewelry being big and flashy just to show off. It was more about being a symbol of the journey of hard knocks and the trials and tribulations that one had to endure to get to the point of success and also for others to know of their achievements. The most popular form of jewelry that symbolizes this is the personalized iced out pendant.
The larger than life iced out pendant is the centerpiece of any hip hop jewelry collection. It is usually a custom piece that is a unique design made especially for the person. This gets the most attention, as it is usually adjusted so that it hangs right down the middle of the torso, the very center of your body. Jewelers can make these unique designs when it comes to pendants because they have more scale to work with. The design is made to be substantial and heavy with whatever design you desire with the metal and gemstones of your choice.
It can become quite a creative work of art worth tens or even millions of thousands of dollars. Many may remember an ad that aired a couple of years ago where Snoop Dogg is in a recording studio with many artists in their own private recording booths and he can’t find his personalized pendant so he walks by and stops at the David Bowie’s recording booth and beckons David through the soundproof glass and asks if he’s seen his pendant. David shrugs as if he hadn’t seen it. Then, as Snoop moves forward in search of him, David smiles as he slowly unzips his jacket to reveal Snoop’s huge personalized jewel as he rests on his torso. If this isn’t an overt complement to personalized and mass-customized jewelry, then I don’t know what is. It signifies how high this generational attitude has risen as a commercially important part of popular culture in all its manifestations, including personalized jewelry.
Custom made rap pendants, also known as dog tags, incorporate various symbols of masculinity and achievement. As in the case of Snoop Dogg, his pendant has his name “Snoop” written in letters studded with diamonds and gemstones. The design can be as simple as that or you can incorporate crosses, dragons, dollar signs, skulls and bones, gang symbols, and other symbols into the overall design. These symbols in various combinations and styles can be designed in one piece for a particular artist’s own expression of individuality, just as tattoos can be fine works of art crafted as an expression of a person’s past or aspirations. .
Custom designed rap jewelry has come a long way with new themes and motifs introduced on classic designs but with a new twist. The skull and crossbones look, for example, has become quite popular in rap culture, as well as in the world of biker gangs. For artists it is a symbol of their toughness in enduring the rough streets, difficult childhoods and daily violence they grew up with. It symbolizes where they come from and reminds them of who they are, which is why this theme regularly appears in the different interpretations seen in custom designed jewelry. Personalized hip hop jewelry can be seen as another important mode of hip hop artistic expression that can be worn and conveys instant recognition to the wearer.