Hip-Hop Jewelry Owned By Diddy, B.I.G., Tupac Going to Auction

Jewelry owned by 50 Cent, Notorious B.I.G., Alicia Keys, Tupac Shakur, Diddy, Pharrell and many more will go to auction in what's being called "Hip Hop's Crown Jewels." The auction will feature over 70 pieces of custom-made bling, worth an estimated $3 million and worn by hip-hop's finest. The Phillips de Pury Company will host the auction, with three non-profit organizations run by Russell Simmons' the benefactor. Among the prized items is Tupac's "Diamond and Ruby Crown ring," Slick Rick's multicolor diamond eye patch, Lil Jon's "Guinness World Record Diamond Pendant" and Diddy's "Important Diamond Bracelet." The bling hits the gavel October 1st, and the bidding goes down here.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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