Esteemed hip hop jeweler Ben Baller announced his retirement last October.
He semi-unretired a few months later, ("Usually I can do five clients per month—but I’m limiting it now to one a month and it’s a $75,000 minimum. I don’t give a fuck.") and his 2017 pieces—A$AP Ferg's "Yamborghini Bull," Lil Uzi Vert's "Marilyn Manson," Drake's "OVO Owl" and "Stone Island"—rank among some of the best chains of the year, as do Icebox's "Dat Way Napoleon" piece for Quavo and Jon Guven's "Bart Simpson" piece for Lil Yachty. But the man taking the most orders for custom ice from rappers these days is New York-based jeweler Eliantte.
Eliantte's client list includes hip hop luminaries like Lil Wayne, Young Thug, Future, and Cam'ron. In 2017, we are all living in Migos' world; their post-"Bad & Boujee" prosperity has led them to commission numerous chains from Eliantte, a few of which rank among hip hop's weirdest and most exhilirating chains of all-time.
Check out a handful of Eliantte's gaudiest custom chains of 2017 below.
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Quavo: “Ratatouille”
Quavo: “Crash Bandicoot”
Quavo: “Yoda”
Takeoff: "Solar System"
Offset: "Freakazoid"
Offset: "Raindrop"
Dipset: "Dipset Eagle"
Kodak Black: "Sniper Gang"
21 Savage: "Slaughter Gang"
A Boogie: "Highbridge"
Metro Boomin & Future: "Wave God"
Flatbush Zombies: "Zombies"