Early Hip Hop Jewelry
The early trends of jewelry in Hip Music were nowhere near some today's extreme. Of course there were some stand outs from Rakim and Eric B over to Rick the Ruler aka Slick Rick. The trends of their times were thick gold dookie rope chain and large medallions. On the hands and wrists of rappers were big gold 2 finger rings, gold nugget watches by Rolex, and bracelets that were cold as antartica. Hip-Hop music Artists from Run DMC, the Juice Crew, and even the Beastie Boys sported some sort of jewelry that fit into those trends during the 80s rap music scene.

As seen in the pictures on this page, street rappers definitely put a higher self-worth on those that wore gold Hip hop jewelry. As the rebel image of emcees became more marketable and followed by women, it virally spread across the music scene as a 'way to be' amongst artists. The bad boy image came equipped with the Hip Hop jewelry because it certified you were a King in the concrete jugles (aka streets), able to wear the most expensive gemstones and metals amongst people so poor they survive like 'wolves' in the streets. Those rappers were recognized as a Lion living amongst other animals which did whatever it took by nature to survive. These gold and diamonds wearing rappers survived amongst animals, striking fear and admiration amongst those that would possibly attack the average rich human being.

Hip Hop Jewelry definitely helped set the tone for the 'rebellious' image of rapping young men. Any youth looking to get into gangster rap without having a gold chain and some diamonds would probably be looked at as a wannabee. If not claiming gangster rap, that Hip Hop artists would probably be called a socially concious rapper (which is not a bad thing). However, even those artists would wear light jewelry such as a diamond cross. That cross would probably be hanging on a figaro, herringbone, or other trendy gold chain.

One stand out for Hip Hop Jewelry during these early days of urban music and culture, was not in fact a rapper. It was a Hollywood star on a tv show called the A-Team. Those who were watching television could not miss the infamously known television bad boy, Mr T. He wore several

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