From the start hip hop jewelry has always been about catching the eye and attracting attention. Since the late-1990s, hip-hop artists began wearing platinum jewelry since it was the premier metal of choice. Platinum being 95% pure, heavier and much more expensive than gold was a natural choice because the artists could wear jewelry that was a cut above the rest. After platinum replaced gold as the most popular precious metal in hip-hop fashion, fans and artists began to compete to see who had the most outrageous most dazzling display of diamonds showcased on their platinum pieces. Of course there is a great percentage of Rap and hip hop fans that simply cannot afford precious metals and stones but still want the iced out look that hip hop bling provides. Hip hop jewelry made from silver, base metals, diamond simulants, and to some extent glue provides this look without sticker price shock.
You can obtain good quality silver and cubic zirconia reproductions of pieces worn by your favorite hip hop artists from one to ten percent of the cost of the precious version. Silver being the versatile white metal that it is takes a good polish and its tarnishing nature can be mitigated to a great extent by electroplating it with Rhodium for a pure white look on silver jewelry and 18kt gold for a yellow look. Silver can also be finished au naturale with a bit of carefully applied antiquing for that vintage look.
Silver is not as malleable or ductile as gold is but is fairly easy to work with from a setting point of view. For hip hop jewelry that is mass produced, stones are not really set one by one on the jewelers bench. Instead, they are fixed on wax itself in a process called wax setting before the wax is immersed the liquid mold material. Once the mold material solidifies molten silver is introduced and the wax is burnt out, hence the term “lost wax”. The silver solidifies in the mold where the wax used to be and so the original wax settings are replaced with silver and the stones are thus preset once the mold material is broken to extract the silver settings. This lowers the cost of stone setting considerably and is a fairly routine process in silver jewelry manufacturing.
The use of sterling silver for hip hop jewelry allows for the mass marketing of our favorite hip hop jewelry styles and for its availability from many retailers at very affordable prices. Although one would not consider such jewelry to be “handmade jewelry” nevertheless, it is appreciated greatly by hip hop’s fans and can be measured in the serious growth of this category of hip hop jewelry.
