Episode Details

You’ll hear JCK editor-in-chief Victoria Gomelsky and news director Rob Bates interview two guests—Vikki Tobak author of Ice Cold: A Hip-Hop Jewelry History, and Jules Kim, owner and designer of Bijules Jewelry. They discuss how both women came up in the New York City club culture scene, and how it influenced both of their careers. Vikki talks about the early days of hip-hop and how its connection to jewelry began and evolved. Jules notes some jewelry styles that have their origins in African and African American culture, and the beauty of their evolution through time.

Show Notes

02:30 The hosts introduce their guests, Vikki Tobak and Jules Kim

03:05 Vikki shares her background and interest in jewelry and hip-hop

07:40 Jules goes into her background

15:20 Vikki talks about why the hip-hop world got interested in jewelry

19:00 Jules describes grill culture and how it evolved from its humble origins

23:45 Vikki’s favorite quotes and moments from her book

Episode Credits

Hosts: Rob Bates and Victoria Gomelsky

Guests: Jules Kim, Vikki Tobak

Producer and engineer: Natalie Chomet

Plugs: jckonline.com @jckmagazine, Bijules, Ice Cold: A Hip-Hop Jewelry History

Show Recap

The Intersection of Hip-Hop and Jewelry

Vikki is a longtime journalist and curator. Both of the books she has written so far have been focused on hip-hop. She was an immigrant kid in Detroit, rooted in a city that was founded on music culture. She fell in love with hip-hop as a kid in the 90s, and moved to New York, during an immersive time of music and club culture. She started out working for a record label at age 19, then started writing about this culture.

The book tells a different angle to the culture, following this through line that’s been a constant throughout Vikki’s whole life. When asked when she started researching this topic, she says, “Informally? Since my mom bought me a Nefertiti pendant when I was living in Detroit in the 1980s.” Formally, she started in the beginning of the pandemic. It was challenging at that time because she couldn’t visit the diamond district or Canal Street, as she would have wanted to do in person. Jewelry is part of the fabric of hip-hop and club culture. You see it reflected in what people are wearing when you walk down the streets of New York.

Musical Influences

Many musicians contributed to Vikki’s book: Slick Rick—known as the don of hip-hop jewelry—wrote the foreword, and LL Cool J contributed an essay about a trip he took to Cote D’Ivoire in 1988 and the African link to hip-hop jewelry; A$AP Ferg, the first hip-hop ambassador for Tiffany. The common thread across these stories is the shared value o