On first glance, it would appear to be a simple gold crown, like the plastic headgear worn by many little boys playing king in an elementary school play. This one was bigger, with a few fake jewels, and it was signed.
This crown had sat atop the head of a bigger player, one of hip hop’s most talented and beloved superstars: The Notorious B.I.G. He wore it for a “K.O.N.G. (King Of New York)” photo session on March 6, 1997, a few days before he was killed in Los Angeles.
Earlier this week, that gold plastic crown fetched $594,750 at Sotheby’s first auction of hip-hop memorabilia. When hip hop began as the rhythms of rappers in the 1970s, I’m sure Sotheby’s was not on their radar. It would not have occurred to them that such old venerable and stuffy auction houses would ever understand their music and the culture that spawned it.
But there they were, the symbols of hip hop in clothing, posters, flyers, album covers and a diverse group of memorabilia that told their own story. Most of the items were from the 1980s and 1990s. There was Missy Elliott, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Run DMC, Slick Rick and Grandmaster Flash.
Barron Claiborne, who photographed Biggie, consigned the crown, which was signed by the star. It was part of a lot that included three prints from the original photo and a contact sheet. Five people bid on the grouping.
One of the other fascinating lots at the auction were 22 love letters handwritten by Tupac Shakur to his girlfriend Kathy Loy when he was a 10th grader at the Baltimore School for the Arts (a classmate was Jada Pinkett, now actress/producer Jada Pinkett Smith). The letters ranged from the time they first met – Loy was in the 11th grade – to their breakup, as well as a letter Tupac wrote a year later regretting it.
Those letters sold for $75,600. Nearly all of the items in the auction sold, bringing in about $2 million.
I wonder what both Biggie and Tupac would make of all this. Maybe they would not look askance at it but rather shrug when they learned that some of Sotheby’s proceeds would go to youth programming, while others who consigned items were also donating to charities.
Besides Biggie and Tupac, I was curious about what else was in the auction. I’m not a hip-hop connoisseur, so I didn’t recognize many of the names. But then I came to two jackets donated by Salt-N-Pepa, whose song “Push It” is one that I love.
The jackets, owned by Cheryl “Salt” James and Sandra “Pepa” Denton, sold for $23,940. Both will donate a portion of the proceeds to charitable organizations.
You can’t listen to that song without moving – or at least I can’t. It’s my modern-day Temptations singing “Silent Night,” which is one of my all-time favorites.
After seeing the leather jackets in bright red, yellow and white, the song came to mind. So, I found the 2009 video of the song. They wore their signature jackets, which I learned have an interesting background.
“The story of these jackets is legendary, and the jackets so sought-after that the originals were in fact stolen right out of Salt-N-Pepa’s dressing room many years ago,” according to the auction description. “When the pair were booked to do the wildly popular ‘Push It’ Geico commercial (Broadcast during the 2015 Superbowl), the jackets had to be included, so the producers tracked down their original designer, none other than Christopher ‘Play” Martin of Kid ‘N Play, to help recreate them. Martin who designed the original ‘eight-ball’ jackets and oversaw their production at the atelier of Dapper Dan would go on to design numerous other looks for Salt-N-Pepa and others. After the commercial, Salt-N-Pepa wore these jackets on tour.”
Dapper Dan is the go-to designer to the stars of hip hop. He was also represented in the auction: a private session that consisted of a four-hour behind-the-scenes tour of his atelier in Harlem. The winning bidder gets a chance to work with Dapper Dan on his or her own custom design (the meet could also be done virtually). The winner can bring along three guests for the experience but not the design. The session sold for a cool $11,340.
