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Quick shout out to J.R. over at Certified RANDOM. For random videos, news, humor, and even a bit of hip hop, he's got the hookup. Check him out.
Now for today's question: Is the Diamond era coming to an end in hip hop? There have been some recent signs that there's going to be a little less bling in the game.
Diamonds have been a source of trouble for Africa since the late 1800's, when Cecil Rhodes turned the tribes of South Africa against each other to gain access to the diamond mines in the region. In the 1990's things got a lot worse, as Sierra Leone, Angola, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo were all involved in brutal wars to gain control over the area's diamond resources. Though members of the hip hop community for years had been fitting diamonds onto every accessory they could think of, the controversy over conflict diamonds didn't have much of an impact until Kanye released his video for Diamonds From Sierra Leone. Though the lyrics in the song didn't have anything to do with conflict diamonds, the video does focus on the situation in Africa. Its worth noting that Lupe Fiasco released a mixtape track over the Diamonds beat specifically dealing with the issue of conflict diamonds, which was released before the video, though Kanye claims he came up with the idea for the video independently.
Diamonds aren't just causing trouble in Africa, though. As those of you who read the comments section know, Fabolous and Jim Jones recently got into a scuffle after they argued over who was the first to start wearing the yellow and white combo chains (or maybe they were arguing over the logo for Fabo's new clothing line, though most sources are saying it was over the diamonds).
Some rappers have even said that they now only wear diamonds because they believe their fans won't buy into their image if they don't have some shine on them. Saigon, in a promo ad for MTV, stated that the only reason he wears a chain is that fans on the street will think he's broke if he doesn't, and fans won't buy an album from a broke rapper. Sadly, there's a lot of truth in this. More recently, Nas has spoken out against the fashion trend, saying "IÆm old fashioned, I believe diamonds donÆt belong in the ears of guys". If you caught the interview Sway did with Jay-Z and Nas on MTV earlier this year, you probably remember Nas' swipe at Cam'ron, mocking the big yellow diamond Cam rocks in his ear (though Nas didn't have any comment on the jewelry that Jay-Z was wearing just 2 feet away from him).
Yet another blow to the diamond movement came last night, with the announcement that the feds arrested Jacob "the Jeweler" Arabov on drug charges. It is also alleged that Jacob has been involved with the Black Mafia, an Atlanta based drug ring that was rumored to have handed rapper Gucci Mane a severe beatdown last fall. Jacob, last seen in the video for the Biggie/Nelly Nasty Girls remix, is the go to guy for gaudy jewelry among the hip hop community and has had his name shouted out in a number of songs. If you need a 2 million dollar multi-colored watch, he's your man. Need a pair of $800 sneakers with some diamonds on them? Yeah, Jacob's got 'em.
If Jacob does get convicted, who is going to fill in the void in hip hop's diamond market? Now that marginal pop stars are rocking grillz, it looks like that trend is soon to be declared dead, so its doubtful Paul Wall can step into the Jacob role. Without a go-to jewelery dealer for rappers, maybe we'll see a return to plain ol' platinum (or sterling silver, for those of you rappers without a major label deal).
I'm not naive enough to believe that rappers are going to stop walking around with jewelry any time soon. Since the days of the Sugar Hill Gang, gold dookie ropes have been on prominent display in the rap game. However, when Ghostface started rocking this beast, perhaps it was a sign that we needed to tone things down a bit.
Here's the Lupe Conflict Diamonds track, from one of his promo mixtapes:
Lupe Fiasco's Conflict Diamonds
Latest word is that Lupe's Food & Liquor album has now been pushed back to August. The good news is that Jay-Z is going to drop a few verses on the album, and hopefully it will sound better than his lastest 50-Cent-sounding verses on wifey's new track. In the meantime, you can go pick up his Touch The Sky mixtape here.
6/16/2006 9:52:22 AM posted by Fresh