These designers make expensive bling for rappers

When rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine was robbed, shot in the leg and kidnapped two weeks ago in Crown Heights, the 22-year-old lost some signature jewelry - including, according to insiders, a shimmery My Little Pony pendant and a jewel-encrusted rendering of Billy the Puppet from the "Saw" movies While old-school rappers showed their success by sporting diamond-laced dollar signs and Mercedes-Benz logos, the new trend is pieces based on cartoon characters and goofball icons out of pop culture On a recent Friday at Avianne, a West 47th Street jewelry shop that's a favorite of Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj, Toronto-based rapper Killy, 21, dropped by to pick up his latest accessory: A 3-inch high pendant of the Pokémon character Gengar.

"The more diamonds you get, the more you're a target," warned Ezra Averill, a manager whose acts include Carter and Tay-K, the incarcerated Dallas rapper accused of participating in a home invasion and fatal shooting Part of the game also is to commission one-of-a-kind pieces that are bigger, wilder and more complicated than what other rappers rock Christian Johnston and Dan Folger, partners in the Miami jewelry line GLD, crafted the My Little Pony for 6ix9ine and are currently creating a pendant, for a rapper they cannot name, that takes things completely over the top.

Judging by the GLD guys' newest pendant for 6ix9ine, the Brooklyn-born rapper might be outgrowing his predilection for nostalgia. . Source