Drake has reportedly purchased Tupac’s crown ring for more than $1 million
The ring was originally projected to sell for $200,000 at a Sotheby’s auction
Drake has reportedly purchased Tupac Shakur’s self-designed crown ring at a Sotheby’s auction for $1,016,000, more than five times its projected sale price.
The ring - worn by Tupac at the MTV Video Music Awards in September 1996 shortly before his death - is made of gold, ruby, and diamond, and was forecast to fetch $200,000 at auction.
Drake has now been named as the buyer of the ring after posting a flashy Instagram story last week, showing off his new purchase.
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The auction house stated that the ring is the "most valuable hip hop artefact ever sold at auction", and the only hip hop artefact to ever surpass $1 million.
Under Sotheby’s description of the ring, a note reads: “Tupac’s gold crown ring is a creation purely from his imagination, tooled and re-tooled according to the icon’s specifications until perfect.”
“It bears an inscription atypically engraved on the outer, palm-facing side of the ring band, “Pac & Dada 1996,” referencing his recent fairy-tale engagement to sweetheart Kidada Jones,” it reads, adding that the engraving shows signs of wear where the rapper’s name has almost been “rubbed back down to the gold”.
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Sotheby’s listed the ring as part of a large hip hop auction earlier this month to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the genre. The sale went live on Tuesday, July 25, featuring 119 different lots.
Amongst the other artefacts sold including letters, paintings, jewellery, and flyers from notable rap legends, were three pages of handwritten liner notes on the album sleeve of ‘Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)’ by RZA.
Other items at auction included the artwork used on the cover of Rob Dougan’s ‘Clubbed to Death’ - which was later used in The Matrix soundtrack - and original Nike Dunk prototypes.
Gemma Ross is Mixmag's Assistant Editor, follow her on Twitter
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