- 3 years ago
Moses the Jeweler reacts to 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. From Tyler, the Creator's $500K Bellhop chain to Drake's custom '42 Diamond' Alex Moss necklace, representing every time he has gone to propose, Moses breaks down the details.
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
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
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
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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