You can’t hear hip-hop jewelry, technically speaking, but that doesn’t mean you don’t know what it sounds like. The word bling, which entered common parlance at the turn of the century, conjures specific sights: small flotillas of twinkling diamonds, gold layered literally to the teeth, watches so gem-encrusted they barely tick. But it also suggests an expansive range of sounds, from the chimes in B.G.’s 1999 anthem “Bling Bling” to the reverberant pomp of Slick Rick, the otherworldly bounce of Missy Elliott, the diced-pineapple opulence of Rick Ross. One beguiling trick of hip-hop production, whether it’s expensive or ersatz, elegant or gaudy, is to convey musically what jewelry signifies visually. Rappers wear jewelry to floss and flex, to make a flamboyant spectacle of their disposable income, but also to commemorate and honor, to endorse and advertise.

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Persons: Slick Rick, Missy Elliott, Rick Ross, Gucci Mane’s Bart Simpson, Stewie Griffin, Remy, “