Gangsta rock | South China Morning Post

At the heart of the business is Ben Baller - born Ben Yang - who parlayed his experience in the music industry into a line that taps into the thriving 'gangsta rap' and hip-hop subculture, having produced pieces for prominent American rap stars such as Fat Joe, The Game and Nas.

Baller himself fits the bill. Before a photo shoot, he slips in his diamond grills - braces with diamonds instead of orthodontic wires - and eases around his neck a pendant the size of a baby's arm and in the shape of California: 300 carats of princess-cut yellow diamonds with glacier blue gems representing the Pacific Ocean. A vaguely distracted laid-back cool is in keeping with his choice of wardrobe for the day: a T-shirt and trousers from California-based underground brand LRG and shiny high-top burgundy trainers from ultra-hip footwear label Supra. Both companies have flung endorsements his way.

Despite the meteoric success of Icee Fresh, Baller, 36, and his partners have opted to stay true to their roots. While their goodies might look more at home behind the glossy facade of a Rodeo Drive storefront, the heart of the business pumps in the seedy environs of South Central LA. A pre-existing family jewellery business, Tiffany (not that Tiffany), has been in the Slauson Super Mall for 15 years. Not that Hilton or Tom Cruise - both friends of Baller - will be stepping out of their limousines and into the mall anytime soon.

'I'm a diamond concierge,' says Baller, his gemstone teeth now removed. 'Our base is here. I won't bring Tom Cruise into the store but I'll go to him. We're doing well here. With the way the economy is going, it would have been stupid for us to migrate west. The diamond district is a ghost town now, people are killing one another over business ... it's bulls**t that the luxury market is not affected. Even the rich are more conscious about how they spend their money.'

Well, yes and no. Icee Fresh is, after all, best known for its outlandish custom offerings; Baller concedes that, compared with Tiffany, 'the crazy stuff is here'. While Icee Fresh does offer delicate ruby earrings and slender bracelets, it is more often sought out for its ability to walk on the wild side; clients have asked Baller to 'ice up' iPhones and to cover car emblems with diamonds. One client even had his glass eye replaced with a diamond one.

'He brought us a mould, we did it,' shrugs Baller. 'Some of the things we're asked to do get a bit tricky. We have to find out if it's mechanically possible.'

Baller set up Icee Fresh with cousins Steve Her and Jeff Hong. Only half the family are in the jewellery business (Baller's father, who emigrated to the US almost 40 years ago, is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles). Although Tiffany was a viable business, Baller decided the time was right to set up a 'branded line', with a focus on custom pieces starting at about US$8,000 and stretching to US$1 million or more. His outgoing personality, music-industry connections and willingness to suffer for his art - when he hits red-carpet events wearing his two-kilogram, US$800,000 state of California necklace, he needs three bodyguards and a towel around his neck and has to load up on painkillers beforehand - have elevated him to the status of brand ambassador; a Lamborghini Gallardo-driving business wunderkind who is soon to marry a stunning former Playboy and Hustler model (of course), to whom he proposed with a five-and-a-half-carat ring.

'I'm a combination of everything,' he says. 'I'm the brand marketing person. I call myself a nouveau entrepreneur.'

'Ben is a flawless marketing genius,' says New York hip-hop artist and radio personality Lil Shawn, whose signature look is a pair of seven-carat Icee Fresh black diamond stud earrings. 'He understands how to get himself out there and makes sure that people know what he has. He doesn't just talk a good game, he makes jewellery that people haven't ever seen or thought of before. He did [the California piece] as a joke but it's become a staple of the urban market.'

Emil Sardaryan, president of advertising agency Emsar Design, which has worked on numerous campaigns in the music, jewellery and fashion worlds, says: 'Ben Baller is the [mainstream US jeweller] Harry Winston to his demographic. He is the best his industry has to offer [and] people want to associate themselves with him.'

The business took off quickly partly because of Baller's friendship with American rapper Nick Cannon, who is now married to singer Mariah Carey. In the summer of 2006, Cannon was hosting a show called Wild 'N Out on MTV, on which rap group Clipse were featured guests. Baller was asked to create some custom bling for Clipse and that was followed by requests from Carey - by then the rap world was onto him.

'They all started coming our way,' says Baller. 'It helped that I had been in the music business but it was easier to deal with them now, as artists, and not have to deal with the record companies.'

It also helped that Baller, having grown up in Beverly Hills, happened to have been around famous folk from early on.

'I had free period with Monica Lewinsky [at Beverly Hills High School],' he says, referring to the White House intern former US president Bill Clinton lusted after. He's been friendly with Michael Jackson's father for 20 years and made two diamond brooches and a belt buckle for the superstar before he died. Baller's sister, Jeanne Yang, is one of LA's most famous celebrity stylists, palling around with - and dressing - the likes of actors George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

Despite his newly minted high profile, Baller has thought it wise to develop a bread-and-butter item or two that will, hopefully, always sell. One counter of the Slauson Super Mall store is filled with Casio G-Shock watches that have been blinged out, turning an everyday US$100 watch into something with a price tag of between US$8,000 and US$30,000.

'We own that market,' says Baller, waving his arm around and the 13-carat G-Shock on a bright-yellow strap adorning it. 'It's the hottest new thing now.'

Other consistent sellers include bamboo-influenced earrings, which were first popular 50 years ago and which are sold every day at the store.

The more unconventional pieces include pendants depicting Popeye biting down on his corn-cob pipe; and the Pillsbury doughboy, created from 53 carats of white and blue diamonds; and a series of intricately carved giant skulls.

Baller is not resting on his laurels; he's about to start an online business and is working on product placement deals in movies and on television shows. He's planning to launch in Japan and is soon to undertake a reconnaissance trip to South Korea.

For all intents and purposes, Baller lives the life of the people he makes jewellery for. His popular website contains a daily blog covering his exploits. He nips around in his Lamborghini or BMW M5; Baller says he's had a passion for exotic cars since he was five, when he saw Smokey and the Bandit and his brother started taking him to car shows. He bought his first 'nice car', a BMW M3, 13 years ago and years later invested in a Ferrari 360 and a Bentley GT.

'I lost control with the cars,' he says. 'I've slowed down a little bit. I can't ever leave them ... either. I always have to dress them up and add all the extras on top of extras.'

Baller uses his blog to describe parties and concerts and talk about 'chillin'' with his 'babe' at home. Indeed, it's when he discusses his fiancee, Sasha Singleton (in truth, they are legally married but they are having a wedding ceremony in February), that the bravado cools a little. He says they're having a 'modest ceremony', which does not mean much coming from someone who has had 3,000 people at his birthday party.

An image of Singleton, whose mother is Thai-Chinese, is tattooed on his arm.

Baller had his first tattoo at 18 and since then has spent more than US$100,000 on covering his skin. 'My back isn't finished, I have two more sessions,' he says. 'They illustrate what I was doing at that point in my life.'

Scrawled liberally across his forearms are 'Royal Flush', 'K-Town' and, perhaps most telling of all, 'The World Is Mine'.

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