Since the birth of hip-hop, jewelry has been an integral part of it. At a time when rapper Kurtis Blow released the album “Kurtis Blow”, doubts were expressed about whether rap music could achieve both commercial and artistic value. Kurtis Blow used the album to dispel these people’s doubts.
Kurtis Blow wore six gold chains on the cover of the album, laying the foundation for hip-hop jewelry. Since then, countless singers have followed his style, and the gold chain has become one of hip-hop singers’ standard configuration.
Thirty years later, three members of the hip-hop group Migos showed up on Met Gala’s red carpet night with jewelry carried with hip-hop characteristics. Although they were dressed in suits, it could tell that they are hip-hop stars.
Hip-hop aesthetics has changed a lot over the years from gold to diamonds, but dreadlocks, black-framed glasses, huge gold chains, thick gold bracelets, and rings have always been symbols of hip-hop style.
Like every star has their own hairdresser or stylist, these top hip-hop singers also have their preferred jewelry brand.
Four Top Hip-hop Brands
JACOB & CO Jacob
Jacob Arabo, a young American jewelry watch brand, is 31 years old compared with the traditional German and Swedish jewelry watch brands. Its wristwatch line was not formally established until 2002. In the beginning, Jacob & Co was a small jewelry workshop dedicated to designing jewelry for private clients.
After dozen years of development, there is a long list of rap stars in their customer list, including Big Guy Jay, Big Big Guy, Ghost Face Killah, Missyn Elliott, and Usher, among others.
Ben Baller
Founder Ben Yang
If anyone can challenge Jacob & Co’s position as the king of hip hop jewelry, it’s probably Ben Baller. Founder Ben Yang is a Korean born in New York. Backed by Denzel Washington (American actors, directors and Dr. Dre (music producers), he founded the jewelry company if & Co in 2000, which is known for its luxury and quality. He has also accumulated a lot of popularity from hip-hop singers to A-list stars for his reputation in the jewelry circle.
“Flower Boy” designed by Ben Baller for Tyler the Creator
Kingice (kingice.com)
Work with Wu-tang and other famous basketball players, Kingice is also a brand popular among young people. Having worked with hip-hop and rap royalty like Wiz Khalifa, The Game, Snoop Dogg and Rae Sremmurd, King Ice remains one of the biggest hip hop jewelry maker on the Web. It mainly focus on customizing jewelry for famous hip-hop stars.
Terrence Howard
KRKC&CO
As a new-founded hip-hop jewelry brand, KRKC&CO was established in 2014 by two young men named Akari Shimazu and William Stanley.
Compared with other brands, KRKC&CO strives to make each piece of jewelry fully demonstrate the youthfulness, individuality, fashion, and outstanding personality, which is more exclusive.
KRKC&CO‘s products range from men’s bracelet, men’s rings, Cuban chains, custom pendants and most importantly, its KRKC design series. And in the near future, it will also work with other famous clothing brands in the world to create its own fashion brand.
KRKC&CO’star products
Since the year KRKC was established, it has been on its way up to the most popular hip-hop jewelry brand among young people worldwide. You may wonder why KRKC&CO brand can endure the market test and finally stands out as a bright star. So next, let’s explore the reasons together.
1. A Group of Talent People
KRKC has a group of skilled designers came from American, Italy, France and Germany who uses the most fashionable elements in New York, Tokyo, Dubai and other countries to create every KRKC pieces. All of the jewelry are created by 3D software, which make sure that every piece of jewelry can be returned to its original condition and shape at a largest extend. They will attend big fashion shows worldwide to explore inspirations, most of which will become their unique designs, and later become the hottest products. With these intelligent designers, KRKC is now ranking first in the most popular emerging brand and it has been continue unabated.
2. Novel Design Philosophy
Another reason that KRKC continues to grow bigger and bigger lies on its unique design ideas. Every KRKC’s jewlery was designed and produced by a special reason, which means every piece of jewelry is not only limited in making people look dope but also inspiring people to express themselves loudly, telling the world that everyone is unique. For example, KRKC&CO has launched a series of marvel characters and anime characters. All characters are the most popular and the most representative ones in their circle and each one has a very distinctive personality. I believe that everyone has once or twice think he/herself as a certain character when they are watching films, such as black panther, the king of Wakanda who symbolizes courage, intelligence and justice. By making these characters into pieces of art, KRKC&CO wishes to inspire more people to show themselves bravely, be themselves, be true and strive for their lives.
3.Jewelry Quality and Skilled Craftsmanship
The third reason is the skilled craftsmanship. The making process of every piece of jewelry is extremely complicated. From the chioces of materials to the production procedure which includes modeling, cutting, polishing, inlaying, etc, jewelry makers has devoted all their efforts. Every CZ stone is carefully handcrafted to ensure that they won’t fall down and the surface is plated 5 times to keep the shine and the bling. All of these efforts came from one aim – providing every KRKC’s customer the best hip-hop jewelry and best shopping experience in the world.
4. Keep Real Keep Champion
The most important reason that KRKC&CO is such a success should be contributed to its business philosophy, which is also its brand concept —keep real keep champion. Keep real, from the persepctive of business, is to win customers by its real and qualified jewelry products. But from the point of cultural communication, “keep real” is a spirit that KRKC intends to tell hip-hop lovers from the world. It’s a spirit of non-sex-discrimination, non-racial-prejudice, non-region-discrimination. It’s a spirit of pursuing the inner self and trying to be who you really are. It’s a spirit of pursing your dreams and not to care what other think of you. As for “keep champion”, it means perseverance, not-giving-up and keep fighting until the last moment. KRKC&CO hopes to deliver such messages to every customer, making them unique and be able to express their true self-confidence, so that everyone can be the focus.
So how much do you know about these brands and what is your idea about brand concept? Is it necessary or not?