Last year I contributed to a book named Bling Bling: Hip-Hop's Crown Jewels, an overview of hip-hop's relationship with diamonds and jewelry. With my contributions I tried to provide some dissenting views on the bling phenomenon, by interviewing artists from what's become known as hip-hop's "golden age" or "conscious era" when gold chains were pushed out of style by beads and medallions. This is one of the convos I had back then, with the great Prince Paul:
