Sonic Youth Gossip - Blingwear auctioned for charity

From the Guardian site today:

What am I bid for the diamond-encrusted C60? Crown jewels of bling put up for sale

· Stars donate jewellery worth up to $3m to charity
· Pieces from late rappers Tupac and Notorious BIG

Lil' John shows off his large necklace. Photograph: Getty

Hip-hop legend has it that the rapper Ghostface Killah once insisted his record company give the marketing budget for his album directly to him. He then spent it on a bespoke 14-carat gold eagle statuette, which he wore on a bangle on his wrist. "For any normal person, that is the stupidest thing you could do," writes Minya Oh, author of Bling Bling: Hip-Hop's Crown Jewels. "But you can't argue that his strategy didn't work. Everyone talked about it, and no one will forget it."
The love affair between hip-hop and jewellery will be celebrated in New York in a high-profile auction of some of the most spectacular pieces of status jewellery to be found outside of the Tower of London. The auction, originally scheduled for October 1, has attracted so much attention it has had to be postponed to allow pieces only recently brought to the auctioneers' attention to be included.
Lots will include a crown ring belonging to the late Tupac Shakur, who was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in 1996. The ring was commissioned by the 25-year-old a few months before his death, an emblem of self-coronation in the wake of his success. It boasts 10 carats of cabochon rubies and pavé diamonds, and is inscribed "Pac & Dada 1996" in honour of Shakur's relationship with Quincy Jones's daughter Kidada. The estimated selling price is between $10,000 to $20,000, although this may be conservative - it is said Shakur was wearing the ring when he died.
A piece made for Missy Elliot, which features a miniature turntable of black diamonds with a solid gold needle arm on a diamond studded cocktail ring - all parts fully moveable - is listed with an estimate of $8,000 to $12,000.
The auction will raise funds for Rush Community Affairs, a charity founded by hip-hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons, and for the Smithsonian Institution's fledgling hip-hop archive. Phillips de Pury auction house believes the sale will create a new collecting category of historic hip-hop jewellery.
The jewels being considered for the auction tell the story of how diamonds overtook shell-toe Adidas as hip-hop's signature look. A gold, mushroom-shaped ring embossed with the profile of Nefertiti, worn by MC Lyte, recalls how the first generation of female rappers saw themselves continuing the style of the queens of African history.
Meanwhile, the cassette and headphone pendants given by Biz Markie, encrusted with black and white diamonds, show that even during its early "two turntables and a microphone" era, diamonds were a (hip-hop) boy's best friend.
Jewellery, the bigger and sparklier the better, became a loudspeaker for many messages. Featured in the auction is Lil Jon's Crunk Ain't Dead necklace, a defence of the southern style of hip-hop, which weighs 5.4kg (12lbs) and features 3,756 diamonds. A diamond-studded black Jesus pendant worn by Kanye West, who often refers to religion in his lyrics, is also likely to be included.
The acquisition of ostentatious jewellery became a rite-of-passage for hip-hop stars. Flaunting bling forced the world to acknowledge their success, as measured in material wealth. A yellow gold and stainless steel Rolex with diamond bezel in the auction was the first sizable piece bought by the late Notorious BIG when he achieved fame.
As hip-hop entered the mainstream, a new generation of self-styled "hip-hop moguls" took conspicuous consumption to levels undreamt of by their 1980s predecessors. Sean Diddy Combs, says Oh, "elevated 'ghetto fabulousness' into public theatre".
Combs' princess- and diamond-cut diamond and platinum bracelet, which will be offered in the auction, exemplifies hip-hop at its bling extreme, as does Pharrell Williams' multicoloured diamond and white gold Gucci link necklace, which carries an estimate of up to $250,000.
The total sale value of the 70 lots in the auction is estimated at $3m (£1.6m).
"It's all about getting people to look at you," says rapper Big Daddy Kane in Oh's book. But the level of interest in this auction, now scheduled for March 5 next year, suggests that there is more to it than that. There are subtleties and historical differences in the meaning of bling. Ghostface Killah, after all, might have been following the advice of the Duke of Newcastle at the time of the Restoration. "When you appear... show yourself gloriously, to your people: like a God," counselled the Duke to Charles II on the eve of his coronation. Self-aggrandisation via diamonds has a long and illustrious history.
Backstory

Hip-hop's obsession with jewellery began with a serious point. It represented rappers transcending their hardscrabble origins and, unlike previous generations of black musicians, refusing to be ripped off by the industry: a flashy, street-level version of black capitalism. On the cover of their 1987 album Paid in Full, Eric B & Rakim underscored their message ("Don't nuthin' move but the money") by flaunting oversized gold watches and medallions. During the 90s, rappers fetishised the most ostentatious fruits of wealth. By the time bling made its way into rap's lexiconat the end of the decade, conspicuous consumption was a well-worn cliché. Recent years have seen a minor backlash. Public Enemy's Chuck D is an opponent and Kanye West (right) re-recorded his 2005 single Diamonds from Sierra Leone to address concerns over conflict diamonds. The song namechecked celebrity gemsmith Jacob Arabov, aka Jacob the Jeweler, who was recently jailed for his part in a drug ring. But it will take more than a little controversy to separate rappers from their beloved bling.
Dorian Lynskey