Tupac Shakur Crown Ring

A crown he gave himself

In 1995 Tupac Shakur was serving time at Clinton Correctional Facility in New York. There he read widely in philosophy and strategy, including Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince and Sun Tzu's The Art of War. In October 1995 he walked out after Suge Knight, founder of Death Row Records, posted a $1.4 million bond, and he signed with the label.

The next year he designed a ring with his godmother and longtime adviser, Yaasmyn Fula, working on it over several months. It was modeled on the crowns of medieval European kings, with a ruby at its center, a stone chosen for its old associations with royalty and wealth. Fula later described the ring as 'an act of self-coronation.'

On the palm side of the band he had it engraved 'Pac & Dada 1996,' a reference to his engagement to the actress Kidada Jones. He wore it on the ring finger of his left hand, as a sign of that commitment.

Tupac in 1996

He was born Parish Lesane Crooks on June 16, 1971, in East Harlem, to the Black Panther activists Afeni Shakur and Billy Garland, and renamed Tupac Amaru Shakur after an 18th-century Incan revolutionary.

1996 was the peak of his career. All Eyez on Me, released in February, was rap's first double album; it debuted at No. 1 with 566,000 copies sold in its first week. That summer he recorded The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory under a new name taken from the same reading that shaped the ring: Makaveli.

Kidada Jones, the woman named in the engraving, was with him in Las Vegas that September and was at his hotel when he was shot.

The last appearance

On September 4, 1996, the MTV Video Music Awards aired live from Radio City Music Hall in New York, hosted by Dennis Miller. Tupac and Snoop Dogg presented the award for Best Hard Rock Video. He wore the crown ring. It was his final public appearance.

Three days later, on September 7, he was shot in a drive-by in Paradise, Nevada, near Las Vegas. He died of his wounds on September 13, 1996, at 25.

The ring, made to mark a new reign and a planned marriage, became instead a relic of his last week in public.

From his godmother to Drake

The ring stayed with Yaasmyn Fula for more than a quarter century. In July 2023 she consigned it to a dedicated hip-hop auction in New York held to mark the genre's 50th anniversary, with a high estimate of $300,000.

On July 25, 2023, it sold for $1,016,000 including buyer's premium, more than three times the high estimate. It became the most valuable hip-hop artifact ever sold at auction and the only one to pass $1 million. The whole sale of nearly 120 lots made $1,823,339, so the ring alone accounted for more than half. Some reports give the sale date as July 26 or 27.

The buyer was anonymous for three days. On July 28, Drake posted a photograph of the ring on his Instagram story, confirming he had bought it.

What to look for

The ring is built as a small crown: a gold circlet rising above the band, with a smooth, domed cabochon ruby in the center and a pave-set diamond on each side. The band itself is set with diamonds.

The defining mark is the inscription 'Pac & Dada 1996' on the inside, palm-facing part of the band. Combined with photographs of Tupac wearing it at the 1996 Video Music Awards and its unbroken ownership by his godmother, who helped design it, it is about as well documented as a piece of personal jewelry can be.

The numbers

Event

1996 MTV Video Music Awards, September 4, 1996

Venue

Radio City Music Hall, New York; host Dennis Miller

Tupac's role

Presented Best Hard Rock Video with Snoop Dogg

Night's big winner

The Smashing Pumpkins, 7 awards; 'Tonight, Tonight' won Video of the Year

All Eyez on Me

Released February 1996; 566,000 first-week copies

Timeline

1. Jun 16, 1971

   Tupac Shakur is born in East Harlem, New York.

2. 1995

   In prison, Tupac reads Machiavelli's The Prince.

3. Oct 1995

   He is released after Suge Knight posts a $1.4 million bond and signs with Death Row Records.

4. Feb 1996

   All Eyez on Me, rap's first double album, debuts at No. 1.

5. 1996

   Tupac designs the crown ring with Yaasmyn Fula and has it engraved 'Pac & Dada 1996.'

6. Sep 4, 1996

   He wears the ring at the MTV Video Music Awards in New York, his last public appearance.

7. Sep 7, 1996

   Tupac is shot in Paradise, Nevada.

8. Sep 13, 1996

   He dies at 25.

9. 2017

   Tupac is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

10. Jul 25, 2023

    The ring sells at auction in New York for $1,016,000, a record for a hip-hop artifact.

11. Jul 28, 2023

    Drake reveals that he is the buyer.

12. 2023

    Tupac receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The world in 1996

• Apr 3, 1996

  Suspected Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski is arrested in Montana.

• Jul 17, 1996

  TWA Flight 800 explodes off Long Island, killing all 230 aboard.

• Jul 19, 1996

  The Summer Olympics open in Atlanta.

• Jul 27, 1996

  A bomb explodes in Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta.

• Aug 29, 1996

  Tiger Woods makes his professional PGA Tour debut.

• Nov 5, 1996

  Bill Clinton defeats Bob Dole to win a second term.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Tupac Shakur Crown Ring is number 66 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (65 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Tupac's later stage name, Makaveli, came from the same Machiavelli reading that shaped the ring.
• 'Dada' in the engraving is Kidada Jones, his fiancee.
• The ring alone brought in more than half the total of the 120-lot auction it was sold in.
• Drake was anonymous for three days before posting the ring on Instagram.
• The ring was worn at the 1996 VMAs, nine days before Tupac died.
• It sold for more than three times its high estimate.