Extravagant gold ring designed and worn by Tupac to go on sale for nearly £250k
A jewel-encrusted 'crown' bling ring designed and worn by Tupac Shakur during his last public appearance is to go under the hammer - and could sell for nearly £250,000.
The extravagant gold, ruby and diamond sovereign ring will sell as part of auction house Sotheby's sale marking the 50th anniversary of hip-hop.
Widely regarded as one of the genre's prodigal sons, rap royalty Tupac was gunned down in 1996 in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, aged just 25.
The killing came just three days after wearing the ring at his final public appearance at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs).
The self-designed ring marked a new phase in the rapper and actor's life, in which he abandoned his 'Thug Life' persona following a spell in prison and founded media conglomerate Euphanasia Incorporated.
The piece of hip-hop history is expected to sell for between £152,719 and £229,079 ($200,000 and $300,000) at auction in New York later this week.
Sotheby's auction comes just weeks before the 50th anniversary of hip-hop - a culture founded by African Americans in New York incorporating rap, DJing, breakdancing and graffiti.
Though the true location of the culture's birth is hotly contested and claimed by several different boroughs across New York, many credit the unlikely event of an August back-to-school party held in the Bronx in 1973 by Clive Campbell - better known as DJ Kool Herc - and his younger sister Cindy as marking the beginning of hip-hop.
Campbell used two turntables at the party to play two copies of the same record and loop the percussion of each track to keep the beat of the track going.
From there, other pioneers of the genre emerged, firstly from other boroughs in New York and later, across the United States and the rest of the world, a thriving new community and culture was born.
Two years before DJ Kool Herc's back-to-school party, a young boy destined to take the genre to new heights was born in East Harlem, New York, the son of Black Panther Party members.
Originally named Lesane Parish Crooks, the boy's name was changed at age one to Tupac Amaru Shakur after Peruvian indigenous revolutionary leader Túpac Amaru II - a descendant of the last Incan ruler who led a failed revolt against Spanish rule.
After moving further downcoast to Baltimore and later to the West Coast, and following several collaborations with rap group Digital Underground, Tupac's first album - 2Pacalypse Now - was released in November 1991 and was later certified gold after selling more than half a million records.
Throughout his career, the artist was also seen as a hip-hop fashion icon who redefined 'cool' in the 90s with his streetwear and bling.
Three albums and several film appearances later - as well as surviving a robbery-shooting in 1994, later blamed on rival East Coast rapper Notorious BIG (AKA Christopher Wallace) and his entourage - Shakur entered a new phase of his career in 1996.
The extravagant gold, ruby and diamond sovereign ring will sell as part of auction house Sotheby's sale marking the 50th anniversary of hip-hop.
Widely regarded as one of the genre's prodigal sons, rap royalty Tupac was gunned down in 1996 in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, aged just 25.
The killing came just three days after wearing the ring at his final public appearance at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs).
The self-designed ring marked a new phase in the rapper and actor's life, in which he abandoned his 'Thug Life' persona following a spell in prison and founded media conglomerate Euphanasia Incorporated.
The piece of hip-hop history is expected to sell for between £152,719 and £229,079 ($200,000 and $300,000) at auction in New York later this week.
Sotheby's auction comes just weeks before the 50th anniversary of hip-hop - a culture founded by African Americans in New York incorporating rap, DJing, breakdancing and graffiti.
Though the true location of the culture's birth is hotly contested and claimed by several different boroughs across New York, many credit the unlikely event of an August back-to-school party held in the Bronx in 1973 by Clive Campbell - better known as DJ Kool Herc - and his younger sister Cindy as marking the beginning of hip-hop.
Campbell used two turntables at the party to play two copies of the same record and loop the percussion of each track to keep the beat of the track going.
From there, other pioneers of the genre emerged, firstly from other boroughs in New York and later, across the United States and the rest of the world, a thriving new community and culture was born.
Two years before DJ Kool Herc's back-to-school party, a young boy destined to take the genre to new heights was born in East Harlem, New York, the son of Black Panther Party members.
Originally named Lesane Parish Crooks, the boy's name was changed at age one to Tupac Amaru Shakur after Peruvian indigenous revolutionary leader Túpac Amaru II - a descendant of the last Incan ruler who led a failed revolt against Spanish rule.
After moving further downcoast to Baltimore and later to the West Coast, and following several collaborations with rap group Digital Underground, Tupac's first album - 2Pacalypse Now - was released in November 1991 and was later certified gold after selling more than half a million records.
Throughout his career, the artist was also seen as a hip-hop fashion icon who redefined 'cool' in the 90s with his streetwear and bling.
Three albums and several film appearances later - as well as surviving a robbery-shooting in 1994, later blamed on rival East Coast rapper Notorious BIG (AKA Christopher Wallace) and his entourage - Shakur entered a new phase of his career in 1996.
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