She Liked my NECKLACE and started relaxin’, that’s what the fuck I call a…
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hile interviewing Gorilla Zoe for next month’s Drug Issue, Moe from Ice Box Jewelry stopped by McCoy Street Studios to drop off Zoe’s new piece. It impressed us so much we had to rearrange Chain Reaction to feature Zoe’s new ridiculously large piece. Gorilla Zoe: Don’t Feed the Animals, that’s what the chain says. After this, I want OZONE to shut the Chain Reaction section down. OZONE is not allowed to do any more Chain Reactions after this, because my chain is shutting it down. Seriously, after this segment, whoever is in charge of Chain Reaction needs to just quit. This is it. Moe the Jeweler: This chain is what Zoe is all about: breaking out of the cage—that was concept for this piece. The gorilla that’s inside the cage is its own separate piece, we don’t take any shortcuts or anything. The gorilla has hair on its back and everything, and it even comes out of the cage, too. When all the album promo is done, we can take the gorilla out to be worn separately. The gorilla’s hands even open so it can break out of the cage. It took me about three months to make this piece, but that’s because Zoe told me to take my time, as long as it was done before the album dropped. This chain was made strictly for the album. Gorilla Zoe: That’s my brother, jeweler of the year. Everything I’ve ever had on he’s made.
22 // OZONE MAG
GORILLA ZOE
MIGHTY ZOE YOUNG
Moe the Jeweler: Yeah, I’ve done all of Zoe’s past pieces, everything he ever wore before. We generally make all the pieces by machine, but the gorilla was harder. It has so much detail we had to do it by hand. It’s white gold, and as far as the diamond carat weight goes, the cage, the sign, and the gorilla are all separate carat weights. The gorilla has the red diamonds on the tongue, the diamonds in the eyes, the white diamonds on the chest, and the rest of the body is black diamonds. Even the cage has diamonds on the side too. It definitely has over a hundred carats all together, but the only number I really remember is what Zoe paid. I get a wire transfer from Zoe every month, so it doesn’t matter how much it costs, the money keeps coming anyway. And I’ve done pieces for everybody: Bobby Valentino, T-Pain, Bow Wow, all of [Yung] Joc’s pieces, Young Dro’s stuff, Travis McCoy from Gym Class Heroes, Chingy, and a bunch of the [Atlanta] Falcons’ pieces, but out of all the pieces I’ve ever designed, this chain has to be my favorite, because there was so much invested in it; time and money. Zoe told me he didn’t have a budget, just keep on working and then let him know what the price was. Gorilla Zoe: Show money, man. Show money. I do a lot of shows. // Words and Photo by Eric Perrin