Earlier this month, it was announced that the esteemed Sotheby’s auction house would sell Tupac Shakur’s diamond ring designed to its highest bidder. However, it has now been sold for a staggering $1 million, which was unprecedented. It is now become the highest-selling hip-hop relic of all time.
The ruby-filled diamond-encrusted crown ring was worn by 2pac during his last interview alongside Snoop Dogg at the 1996 VMA’s in New York and was put up for auction by the ‘Dear Mama’ rapper’s Godmother Yaasmyn Fula.
According to several sources and Fula herself, Shakur was inspired by the majestic crowns worn by medieval European kings and esteemed figures such as Niccolò Machiavelli, whose work he read extensively while in prison.
Sotheby’s, which has auction houses in New York, London, Paris and other global cities, has sold hip-hop artefacts before and, in 2020, sold the plastic crown worn by the late Brooklyn legend Biggie Smalls.
The crown became the highest-selling rap music item coming in at $600,000. However, Shakur’s ruby-filled diamond-encrusted ring has completely eclipsed that sale and is now at the top spot.
The late ‘California Love’ musician is now in the news for several reasons, including significant developments in the case of his murder. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department recently received new evidence related to the 1996 drive-by shooting, which allowed them to issue a search warrant for a house in Henderson, a city 26 km south of Las Vegas.
That said, all the public is privy to is the knowledge that the house was the residence of Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis, the uncle of Orlando ‘Baby Lane’ Anderson, who many in hip-hop already know to be the killer.
