Hip Hop Jewelers: The Biggest Scammers in Hip Hop

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If there’s any genre that has diamonds built into its very DNA, it’s hip-hop. Since the days of thick gold rope chains and Slick Rick’s early displays of decadence through to the logic-defying creations that Ghostface used to sport and the dawn of the bling era, transferring those record sales into record-setting jewelry purchases is nothing new in the game. In truth, it’s become such an accepted part of the culture that even before an MC has truly accomplished anything, the lure of the diamond district can be too strong to resist.

#IceBox #BenBaller #HipHopMadness

Narrated by: Spencer Pearman
Written by: Robert Blair
Edited by: Roman Bill
Music by: Josh Petruccio

© HIPHOPMADNESS 2021. All rights reserved

[notarobot]

Im a jeweler. Buy weight. Melee diamonds are worthless. If you buy under 1 carat you can get a decent price break by the carat. Buy gold and have your jeweler work the metals you provide. If a client provides the material i only charge my labor. Saves them a ton. And i don't mark my stuff up 1000% usually around 300%. Do my best to be as fair as possible with also making my wages. Take care.

[ValdoMorais]

No other music gengre flexes bad financial investments like hip hop

[kajw.]

s/o to savage and cordae for deciding that there are more important things than buying jewelry. that's the sort of mindset a respect.

[derrickcrumpton]

What 21 said is something I noticed in HS when I went to a private school. None of my white friends wore jewelry or a chain. I found it ironic and hilarious that every black person I knew felt like we needed one. A chain of all things... just think about it.

[netto]

The danger of getting ripped off is inherent to wanting ridiculously ostentatious, tacky jewelry. One guy said “they’re not fleecing Wall Street traders”, but they’re not the ones buying this shit.

[regissanders]

I can't take AK seriously when he said "you're taking hundreds of thousands of dollars that these rappers could have spent on their families" If they were going to spend it on their families, they wouldn't be blowing it on what they thought was real jewelry!

[leiahmarie]

What 21 and Cordae said is 100% legit. Growing up my parents always insisted how wealthy people don't show off their wealth materially at least. So many millionaires you wouldn't know are millionaires...stop putting yourself in debt pretending you got money?

[Spongebob-lfdn]

If you're willing to spend 400k on a watch and you can't even time travel with it, you deserved to be scammed

[jonathanb.]

“Carbon vaccinated diamonds” had me weak. CVD stands for chemical vapor deposition. It’s one of the 2 processes that creates lab diamonds.

[umthombHER]

The real scam is that diamonds, even the real ones, are inherently worthless.

[jbmp]

Jewelry itself is not a bad purchase or investment. The issue comes with CUSTOM pieces. It doesn't matter how many diamonds and how much gold, platinum etc are in your chain. If you have something along the lines of T-Pain's Big Ass Chain, it doesn't matter if it cost you 100k or more. You're not gonna be able to resell it later for anywhere near that, unless you get lucky and find a super fan who also happens to be obscenely wealthy, and that's not common. There's nothing wrong with buying some nice, expensive jewelry whether you're a rapper or not. But don't buy a rolex or a pendant that's so full of stones that it doesn't even make sense. Just buy the actual Rolex, or just a nice Cuban Link. The difference is that they'll hold their value, or even go up in value, the shit that's custom or "bust down" will NOT.

[Thebearmre]

One of worst things that happened to hip hop is the need they felt you had to waste your money on jewellery to be certified. One of dumbest thing ever.

[missrudy]

I worked in jewelry. I remember when a local rapper came in to get his jewelry cleaned and tested. He was pissed when I told him all his stones was fake.

[taylorstep]

If I can't buy a Rolex straight from the Rolex store then I'm not buying it that watch from anywhere else.

[TheJrockfreak]

Their scamming them because they know how to make the rappers feel they can trust them. You start by selling them real pieces then once that bond is formed you know you can start selling them fakes because you know they wont question that your stuff is real.

[michaelwatkins]

I remember getting my first job. I saved up the whole summer. Even walked to/from work every day. Picked up extra shifts, etc. Had a little over 2k saved and bought a gold chain that I really wanted. Literally a few days later, I’m damn near broke and so frustrated with myself. I saw some of my peers putting down payments on cars/ apartments, but my dumbass went and bought a chain.

Almost a decade later, I still have it lol. Daily reminder to be financially responsible.

[alexgonzales]

A jewel thief along time ago told me if you ever go to buy some diamonds, if you ever walk into a store and they don’t have a 10 karat loupe(the thing they use to look at diamonds) walk out Instantly they arent their to show you the flaws they’re their to scam you.

[chelle]

It's ok to wear fake jewelry, what's important is that the customer is aware of what they're buying.

[BaronSemediLive]

I'm glad someone is finally saying it out loud. "A fool and his money are soon parted." These jewlers are deliberately scamming rapper's to get rich.

[Imetalman]

I like that Em had the sense to call his accountant and make sure he had enough money to afford a chain.