Jeweler Critiques Celebrity Chains & Pendants (Drake, Tyler, the Creator, Polo G & More)

GQMagazine

From Tyler, the Creator's $500K Bellhop chain and pendant to Drake's custom '42 Diamond' Alex Moss necklace, representing every time he has gone to propose, Moses the Jeweler reacts to the most epic pendants and chains worn by some of today's biggest stars, including Drake, A$AP Rocky, Tyler, the Creator, Nardo Wick, Lil Baby, Ice Spice, Meek Mill, Polo G, and more.    Director: Robby Miller Director of Photography: Josh Herzog Editor: Graham Mooney Producer: Kristen Rakes; Camille Ramos Line Producer: Jen Santos Production Manager: James Pipitone Production Coordinator: Jamal Colvin Camera Operator: Lauren Pruitt Production Assistant: Shenelle Jones Post Production Supervisor: Rachael Knight Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant Supervising Editor: Rob Lombardi Assistant Editor: Billy Ward

Transcript

00:00 The real GOAT.

00:00 I know I've been throwing the word GOAT around a lot,

00:02 but Pharrell is number one.

00:04 Everyone's gotta pay homage to Pharrell

00:05 when it comes to this jewelry game.

00:07 Got the multi-colored Gucci links

00:08 with the famous nerd piece.

00:10 Probably the most iconic piece of all time.

00:12 It just went into auction right now.

00:13 I actually believe Drake bought the piece.

00:15 Yo, yo, what's up GQ?

00:16 I'm Moses the Jeweler.

00:17 I'm a jeweler in New York City

00:18 who's been doing this for the past decade.

00:20 And today we're gonna be looking at chains and pendants

00:21 worn by the biggest rappers in the game today.

00:23 (upbeat music)

00:26 (upbeat music)

00:29 What we got here is Drake wearing

00:36 one of the craziest pieces I've ever seen.

00:37 Will probably be in a museum one day.

00:39 This piece was called, I believe, Previous Engagements.

00:41 It was done by Alex Moss.

00:42 Think it took around like 14 months to make this.

00:45 So right here we got 42 different diamonds.

00:47 Every single one is supposed to represent

00:49 each one of Drake's lovers in this lifetime.

00:51 Of course, being the certified lover boy that he is.

00:53 Supposed to be engaged wearing every single stone.

00:55 That add up to a total of 351 carats.

00:57 If you do the math on that,

00:58 that's an average of eight carats to nine carat per stone.

01:01 To even own one of those in a lifetime is shocking.

01:04 And Drake has 42 on his neck over here.

01:05 You have emerald cuts in there, you have asher cuts,

01:07 you have pear shapes, you have rounds.

01:09 Literally every single special cut, which is--

01:12 - [Interviewer] What do you think something like that costs?

01:14 - Over 10 million, easily.

01:16 Van Cleef and Arpel.

01:18 This is actually one of the biggest trends

01:20 that's going on right now in the last year.

01:22 Actually wear a couple myself, as you can see.

01:24 Very classic piece.

01:26 He's wearing the one with the white Mother of Pearl

01:27 in the 18 carat white gold.

01:29 This is something that's just a

01:31 if you know, you know type of piece.

01:32 You know, he said, "All right, I'm gonna wear this

01:34 "with my iced out Sky Dweller."

01:35 I believe that's a factory Sky Dweller on his wrist.

01:38 It's over a million dollar piece over there also.

01:39 Mother of Pearl is a natural stone from the ocean, of course.

01:43 In order to create this, you actually have to cut the stone

01:45 in the motif shape and then set it inside.

01:47 Actually, you're not supposed to wear it in water or anything

01:49 because it could get dehydrated.

01:51 That at Van Cleef would probably be around 18,000 retail.

01:54 (upbeat music)

01:57 I'm assuming A$AP Rocky's a big art collector.

02:02 And he said, "You know, I have a couple of these

02:03 "special bare bricks in my home.

02:04 "I actually wanna bring one to life and put it on my neck."

02:07 So whichever jewelry he had to make that,

02:09 again, takes a crazy amount of skill

02:12 because as you can see, all the pieces are done separate

02:14 so they're able to move.

02:15 This is a fully functional jewelry piece.

02:17 You need to have a very skilled jeweler

02:18 who also understands mechanics.

02:20 Of course, every single piece has to be done separate

02:22 and you need to make sure that everything is able

02:24 to move correctly without the piece breaking on you.

02:28 Again, it's very different when you're handling gold

02:30 and diamonds as opposed to just a regular base metal

02:32 because gold is a lot softer.

02:34 So when you're dealing with gold,

02:36 you wanna make sure that this can handle the wear and tear

02:38 as opposed to a regular base metal.

02:40 The OG Koofy Jesus over there.

02:42 Shout out Biggie Smalls who popularized it.

02:44 OG Jesus piece, man.

02:46 This is a piece that was huge from the '90s

02:50 and now we're seeing rappers like A$AP Rocky

02:52 bringing 'em back, you know?

02:53 Trends always come back.

02:54 Whatever was hot in the '90s, you had the big baggy clothes,

02:57 then it went to the tight and now we're back in baggy

02:59 just like we're seeing right now with the Koofy Jesus.

03:02 (upbeat music)

03:04 This is a direct inspiration from Pharrell's chain.

03:09 But Tyler said, "Let's go a little different.

03:11 "I wanna have that gumball machine feel on my neck."

03:14 And when it comes to a piece like this,

03:16 it takes a lot more work because when it comes

03:18 to those balls, those balls are iced out 360.

03:21 So with the diamonds over here, of course,

03:22 you have the natural white diamonds.

03:24 And I would assume he used natural yellow diamonds

03:26 'cause they don't get so crazy expensive

03:28 when it comes to the natural yellow.

03:30 But with the blues and pinks, I would have to assume

03:32 that they went through an irradiation,

03:34 which means that you color intensify the stone.

03:36 So they are natural diamonds, but they do go through

03:39 a certain process to bring out a different type

03:41 of color in the stone.

03:42 'Cause if those were natural pinks and blues,

03:44 we'd be hearing it on the news.

03:45 This piece could have been worth $10 million.

03:48 Crazy 3D work.

03:50 I'm the big money man holding the briefcases over there.

03:52 It's crazy work on that just to make all that stuff done.

03:55 Again, the briefcases have to have been done separate

03:58 and to continue to hold all that detail

04:01 while still drilling into the piece and setting the stones.

04:04 I believe this is Alex Moser who made this piece.

04:06 Great job.

04:07 (upbeat music)

04:09 Another wick over here.

04:13 Probably woke up that morning and said,

04:14 "All right, I'm throwing on everything I got

04:16 "because I really wanna show what I put my money into."

04:20 So as you can see, we have three different

04:22 huge custom pieces on his neck,

04:24 accommodated by three different Cubans,

04:25 all different lengths to hold the pieces

04:27 in different areas of his neck.

04:28 The top Cuban, the shortest one,

04:30 actually got bigger pointers in there.

04:31 Those are like three to four pointers on his neck.

04:33 And that gives you a different effect

04:35 as opposed to like the tighter, smaller,

04:38 one pointer type Cuban.

04:39 So he said, "I wanna have that contrast

04:41 "between all these different Cubans."

04:42 Superstar stuff.

04:44 100 points will equal one carat.

04:45 So when people say, "Oh, I got a 10 pointer chain on,"

04:47 that means I have one tenth of a carat per stone on my neck.

04:51 Chain like this is 60 pointers each.

04:53 This will run you around $100,000 for a chain like this.

04:57 So every single stone here is 60th out of 100.

05:02 So it would be a little bit bigger of half a carat.

05:04 So it's 60% of a full carat.

05:06 So an order wick on the smaller Cubans,

05:08 those are around one pointers each.

05:09 And then on the top Cuban that he's wearing,

05:11 holding his wick piece,

05:12 those look to me like three to four pointers.

05:14 Of course, the bigger a diamond becomes,

05:16 the more value it is.

05:18 So everyone says, "Oh, if I bring you 100 stones

05:20 "that are one pointers each,

05:21 "can you make me one single stone, a carat out of it?"

05:24 Unfortunately, no.

05:25 Because a one carat stone will cost you around $6,000.

05:29 And one carat in small stones will run you around $500.

05:32 [upbeat music]

05:34 Ice Spice Baby.

05:38 The queen of New York now.

05:39 She really made a name for herself.

05:41 I'm feeling spicy when I see a piece like that on her neck.

05:44 Extremely three-dimensional.

05:45 That piece is probably holding,

05:47 I'd say, 6,000 stones in there.

05:49 I believe Benny the Jeweler made this one.

05:52 So a piece like this, first of all,

05:54 to even set those diamonds in the hair,

05:56 as you can see, all those different nooks and crannies

05:58 over there, very hard to set,

06:00 but they obviously got it done for her.

06:01 And then after they put that hot pink lipstick on the lips,

06:05 which was done after the diamond setting, of course,

06:07 because if you're gonna put enamel on a piece

06:09 before diamond setting,

06:10 then the diamond setter could mess up the enamel

06:12 by touching it with his tools.

06:14 So of course, to give the contrast to the piece also,

06:16 after the diamond setting,

06:17 they did a nice little outline of black enamel

06:20 out the ice to really give it its definition

06:23 and three-dimensional look.

06:25 [upbeat music]

06:28 One of the jewelry goats over here, Meek Mill, man.

06:33 Since that roll he first touched his wrist,

06:34 he really went crazy.

06:35 He said, "I'm gonna go down as one of the biggest

06:38 "jewelry collectors of all time in the hip hop game."

06:40 And as we can see over here,

06:42 he just threw on a whole bunch of different pieces

06:44 on his neck.

06:45 He's got the DC Emerald cuts.

06:47 Can't even imagine how many times

06:48 he made this DC piece also.

06:49 He did it with one characters, with shine jewelers.

06:52 He did so many different micro pave ones

06:54 that he gifted to his team.

06:55 And over here, he got done by my brother,

06:58 Pristine over there.

06:59 He got the custom DC done in Emerald cuts.

07:02 And then he has the DC Dreamcatcher piece right next to it,

07:04 which also amazing piece.

07:07 A lot of details, a lot of definition.

07:09 All those balls separately done,

07:11 attached, assembled together.

07:12 A piece like that does take a lot of effort,

07:15 a lot of time.

07:16 Very colorful, very fun.

07:17 Outlandish and stands out almost anywhere.

07:20 He hiding in between all those chains.

07:22 As you can see, he's got those yellow diamonds,

07:24 which look to me around like 80 pointers to a carat each.

07:27 And a chain like that, every single stone

07:29 could run you around six, $7,000.

07:31 So you do the math.

07:32 He's got a hundred stones in there.

07:34 That's a $700,000 drawing him back in his bank account.

07:42 Polo G's been going crazy in the jewelry game.

07:45 You know, now I've been seeing this trend

07:47 where whatever he's creating, everyone's now following.

07:49 In the beginning, I remember when Meek Mill

07:51 was like that trendsetter.

07:52 First, he did the picture pendants

07:53 and everyone wanted the picture pendant.

07:55 Then he did the DC plates

07:56 and then everyone wanted the plate with their own logo.

07:58 Now I feel like Polo G took that throne

08:01 where he's creating the pieces

08:02 and everyone's now following his footsteps.

08:04 What you got over here,

08:05 you got Polo G wearing this insane custom piece

08:08 that I only think is gonna last

08:10 probably a year or two for him

08:11 'cause iPhone changes their design every single year.

08:13 And what you got over here,

08:14 you got this big vicious dog holding his iPhone.

08:18 It's custom done, of course.

08:19 Every single B has to be done separately.

08:21 You have to create different waxes for every single B,

08:23 cast them, clean them up, set the diamonds in there,

08:27 and then you have to enamel that outer rim,

08:28 which he did the red color

08:30 to represent the Boston Red Sox color.

08:31 And then you have to attach every single link together.

08:34 So a piece like this takes a lot of time,

08:36 a lot of creativity, and you cannot make any mistakes

08:39 when you create a piece like this.

08:40 Everything has to be done to the exact T

08:42 to make sure there's no issues while he wears this piece.

08:45 Back in the day, it was either you had a Cuban link,

08:47 a tennis chain, or something like that.

08:48 And now you're able to get very creative.

08:50 If you have your own logo,

08:51 you can create your own logo chain.

08:53 As you can see over here, Polo G wearing the B chain.

08:55 There's so many different links that have been created.

08:58 Even, for example, this was a chain that I made over here

09:00 that I did with the special fox.

09:02 And on this link, we did the foxtail link

09:04 with some fox paws.

09:06 So you're able to think of any design,

09:08 and if your jeweler is skilled enough

09:09 and has the correct people on his team,

09:11 he's able to make any of your dreams come true.

09:13 (upbeat music)

09:16 So we got here Lil Baby, a huge innovator

09:20 and a huge influencer in his jewelry game.

09:23 Got unimaginable amount of pieces

09:25 and unimaginable amount of chains.

09:26 And as you can see over here,

09:27 he's wearing his special wham piece.

09:29 A different type of nameplate where he said,

09:32 you know, I did so many 4PF pieces that were straight.

09:35 He said, let's change it up.

09:36 I wanna do a wham piece.

09:38 Let's have the letterings done different.

09:40 And I really want it to stand out.

09:41 So maybe he's creating a new trend right now

09:43 for the nameplates.

09:44 Maybe people are gonna be following this now.

09:45 Of course, he's got a bunch of different tennis chains

09:47 with huge rocks in there.

09:49 He's got an infinity link on his neck

09:50 with also one row solitaire big diamonds.

09:55 Solitaire means single stone.

09:57 You know, instead of doing a cluster

09:58 and having a bunch of smaller stones,

10:00 in the infinity link,

10:01 you see it's just one row of big diamonds.

10:04 We would call that solitaire.

10:05 When he says, make my jewelry,

10:06 he says, I got no budget, just go crazy for me.

10:08 I need to stand out.

10:09 I'm little baby.

10:10 I'm the man in this jewelry game.

10:11 So let it be known.

10:13 Let me show the people how big I am in this.

10:15 Cardi B over here rocking this insane Playboy piece.

10:24 Letting everyone know that she's the real player over here.

10:27 She's the big dog.

10:28 Just imagine, even those four small bunnies

10:30 you got over there,

10:31 could be someone's regular pendants.

10:33 But she said, I wanna make the big Playboy piece

10:35 and then make four smaller ones hanging off my chain

10:37 because I'm Cardi B and I need to show out.

10:40 My chain is not like anyone else's.

10:42 So she really went crazy with the flare.

10:44 I see a big, nice ruby as the eye to give it that contrast

10:47 and really bring the piece to life in its fullest form.

10:50 400,000 on this piece.

10:52 If that is a natural ruby,

10:54 even a one, two character in that quality

10:57 can run a lot of money.

10:59 I've seen some rubies go for 10, 20,000 per carat.

11:01 So you do the math on that one.

11:04 (upbeat music)

11:07 ESTG went on stage.

11:11 He said, let me go crazy.

11:13 I'm throwing everything.

11:14 And it really is giving that crazy effect.

11:16 And you got Glorilla in the back shining with her.

11:18 Also pearly white teeth sticking out, matching the diamonds.

11:21 Now that chain, I'm looking at it,

11:22 it's like he's paying homage to Nas' QB piece.

11:26 Nas had his famous Queensbridge piece that he did.

11:28 And that was the same exact structured build

11:30 that Nas did back in the 90s.

11:32 He said, you know, let me go for that same style.

11:35 Let me pay homage to the old school,

11:37 but let me do it in a new school style.

11:39 So as you can see, he did all this micro pave setting,

11:41 which is assuming he's got 70, 80 carats in diamonds

11:45 just in that piece alone.

11:47 Big showstopper.

11:48 They have a bunch of different levels in that piece.

11:50 As you can see, the letters are sticking out.

11:52 And then he has also that bezel around,

11:54 which has that big like pillowy effect,

11:56 giving it all its contrast

11:58 for the diamonds to hit its best way.

12:00 We've seen the game change tremendously

12:01 just in the last decade.

12:03 If you saw the earlier pieces done with Jacob the jeweler

12:05 for Pharrell and stuff,

12:06 you don't see as much as I mentioned.

12:07 Even though the pieces are so legendary,

12:09 you see the difference just in the last 10 years

12:12 in this game.

12:13 So somebody wants to design their first piece.

12:15 First of all, make sure you have the correct budget

12:17 for the piece you want to bring to life.

12:18 You know, I always have people that they come,

12:19 they got a 5K budget, but they want a 50K piece.

12:22 You know, I always say it's also a marathon.

12:24 Don't rush yourself into your first piece.

12:26 If you want to save up, find the jeweler

12:28 that you like his work and go make sure

12:30 that he brings what you want to life.

12:32 Yo, thank you guys for watching.

12:33 I'm Ulis the jeweler.

12:35 Love with GQ.

12:36 Peace.

12:37 (upbeat music)

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