Month: November 2017

The environmental effects of gold mining are not pleasant. It relies heavily on the use of toxic chemicals and produces so much waste that it is hard to grasp it. See below how much waste the gold to make a single gold ring produces.

Source: Tons of waste produced from gold mining – globally, this year

I am interested in the correlation between gold accessories and rap and hip hop music. Almost every time I watch a rap music video, I see rappers wearing flashy and seemingly expensive gold. I have always wondered why this was the case. Rap culture, in general, is about flashiness. It’s not enough to “make it,” you have to show and tell everyone around you that you’ve made it. You have to show your fans that you are living the good life and can afford expensive jewelry. Because of this, many rappers today such as Trinidad James, Waka Flocka (he performed at Furman University last year), and Big Sean, have all been caught wearing fake gold. This may not seem like a big deal, but in the rap industry this is a major deal because it seems like the rapper can’t afford real gold. I am not surprised by this because we live in a materialistic and consumer society. Simply put, buying an expensive gold chain is a rite of passage in the rap industry.

Gold was first introduced to the Hip Hop Culture in the early 80’s by iconic group RUN DMC. After that, other Hip Hop artists such as Slick Rick, Rakim and Big Daddy Kane followed suit. Over the years it became the core of Hip Hop fashion and lyrics, which led to the stereotype that if you didn’t have any gold chains, it meant your rap career wasn’t doing well, which is not necessarily true. The origins of rap music primarily stem from the poor areas of the United States, where blacks began to rap verses and mix old music. Many of the black people in these areas tried to make money rapping instead of dealing drugs and stealing. To show how much wealth they possessed, rappers started wearing gold chains. Most people from these dilapidated areas were listeners of rap music and these rappers were role models to them, but they also had to see the rappers wear expensive gold accessories that they could not afford themselves. Rappers are selling a dream to their listeners, so it appears to be in their best interest to flaunt their wealth and success. For a rapper, it is really part of the costume, just as a country artist might wear boots or a cowboy hat.

Since its origin, rappers have used lyrics to promote their lavish lifestyle of buying bling bling and other expensive products. If I had a dollar for every time a rapper wrote lyrics about their gold jewelry, to be frank, I would be a billionaire. Let’s examine some of the times gold has been mentioned in the lyrics of rappers. In Trinidad James’ song titled “All Gold Everything” it talks about the rapper’s obsession with gold and how gold represents sheer flamboyance. His lyrics are vulgar, but if you want to read the full lyrics click here. The main chorus of his song goes, “Gold all in my chain, gold all in my ring. Gold all in my watch, Don’t believe me just watch.” When listeners hear music like this, they may want to emulate these rappers, as they are their idols. It may even lead some fans to buying gold chains. I can say that I wore a fake gold chain when I was kid, after listening to Soulja Boy. Besides lyrics, rappers are commonly seen gloating on social media that they just purchased expensive gold accessories.

If you look at the photo above, you can observe the diamond and gold piece purchased by my favorite rapper, Kodak Black, which costs an estimated $100,000. Posts like these are extremely common in the rap industry, and they let the world know just how much money these rappers and music producers have. Lastly, I want to conclude with this quote by rapper Big Sean that explains why he buys gold jewelry: “I really just appreciate good jewelry, clarity, gold. I think gold is made for kings and pharaohs—that’s what I am. That’s why I rock gold and, you know, stuff like that.”

To learn more about the end of life of commodities, I went on a field trip with my class to a recycling center. This was beneficial to my project because it encouraged me to think about the end of the life cycle of gold. Gold is not only used in jewelry, but also electronics. The recycling center we visited recycled electronic waste, or, e-waste for short. E-waste may be defined as electronics that are at the end of their life cycle. This recycling center sends their e-waste to Charlotte, North Carolina, and 30% of their e-waste goes to the landfill. It was interesting to learn that inmates from the local prison come and help this recycling center with their e-waste recycling. Also, the center makes money selling all the recyclables except e-waste. They are required by law to collect e-waste. They collect about 14 tons of e-waste a week.

The recycling of e-waste is relevant to my project because as mentioned above, gold is used in electronics. Gold is the main primary metal in electronics and is found in laptops, computers, cell phone boards, etc. E-waste contains 40-50 times the amount of gold in ore mined from the ground (Wiens 2012). Because of this, the recovery of gold from e-waste is a process that is practiced in the world today. Businesses use state of the art technologies to recovery gold and other precious metals, and this helps to create a closed loop cycle. The only caveat is that in order for the recovery of gold from e-waste to be profitable, there must be high quantities of gold, and thus, high quantities of e-waste. Despite this, electronic consumption is thriving. E-waste shows a higher growth rate than any other category of municipal waste. E-waste is growing at an alarming rate due to increased consumption of electronic devices and the shorter life span of mobile phones, computers, televisions and other electronic devices (Tay et al. 2013). Additionally, due to the rising population of the middle class in non-developed countries, electronic purchase consumption has increased leading an increased amount of e-waste.

Simply put, the current trend is that the more affluent the world’s population becomes, the more electronics are being purchased. This has done wonders for the gold industry! 12% of the annual mine production of gold comes from recycled gold (Hagelüken & Corti 2010). Furthermore, there has been increased research on more efficient and environmentally friendly methods to extract gold from electronics. With 7% of the world’s gold locked away in electronic devices, reclaiming precious metals from electronic waste with more environmentally friendly methods could directly reduce the impact on the environment and save money at the same time (Clark 2016). It would also help reduce the need for expensive and environmentally destructive mining and refining operations.