So you're wondering all about hip-hop collectibles?
You’ve likely heard the phrase “rappers want to be athletes and athletes want to be rappers.” There’s good reason for that.
Sports and hip-hop have long been in sync in popular culture. From MC Hammer roaming the sidelines at 1990s Atlanta Falcons games due to his obsession with Deion Sanders (now “Coach Prime” for the Colorado Buffaloes), to Drake sitting court side and becoming an official “global ambassador” for the Toronto Raptors, it’s only natural that this would eventually become true from a collectibles standpoint as well.
Here, I'll introduce a list of the top hip-hop collectibles of all time, as well as the top hip-hop collectible categories.
Why is identifying categories more intriguing than simply listing cool collectibles? Because one can argue that collectibles only have intrinsic value to collectors. However, when broken down into categories where multiple true sales of the same item type have been recorded, there becomes a real market for it.
This is what has happened in the sports card market, and I see potential for this with hip-hop collectibles as well.
So while athletes like Shaq, Chris Webber and others have tried to rap, and artists like Master P (Percy Miller), have actually played pro basketball, the connection between the recent rise of the sports card market, and potentially emerging categories of hip-hop collectibles makes a ton of sense.
Without further ado, here is my list of the top hip-hop collectible categories as well as some eye opening sales:
