TIA: If there’s one thing rappers love, it’s jewelry.
And of all the different jeweler's names we’ve heard so far in rap lyrics, there’s one that stands out: Elliot.
TIA: So we took a trip to Eliantte Jewelers to meet the man behind the ice.
ELLIOT: This is a Cuban, fully iced out, micro Pave.
TIA: How much does this go for?
ELLIOT: Um, $150,000 TIA: Mm, okay.
ELLIOT: I got the name Eliantte from Young Scooter.
He was trying to say my name in a song, but it wasn't really rhyming.
So, he said Eliantte.
I actually stopped him.
I was like, Yo that's not my name. Say "Elliot."
He's like, bro, it's not working.
We're gonna go with Eliantte.
ELLIOT: And then from there, you know, everyone was calling me Eliantte.
I'm sure being mentioned in lyrics helped me out in my career.
But also my craftsmanship, my detail, the designs I do, I set a lot of trends, so all
that comes into play.
When I was dealing with Birdman he had me in Miami almost every week with him, every
weekend he was telling me to come to Miami.
That’s how I got to a lot of these other artists.
A lot of my clients, my big clients right now, weren't into jewelry when I first met them.
The first artist I made custom jewelry for was Nicki.
I made her a Roman piece.
Everybody that I deal with, I met them like I said I met them at the beginning of their careers,
and they used to tell me like bro you’re the brand like we gotta shout you out,
you know?
The first time I iced out a Patek, I showed it to Future first.
I told him it's going to be the new wave right here.
He always wanted a Patek too, but he wanted a plain one.
But when he seen it iced out?
He was like, Alright, I want it.
A lot of the times people call me like, Yo, I need my shit to hit like Future’s.
And after that, it just went you know worldwide,
everybody wanted an iced out Patek.
Before people used to give me an idea, like they'll give me a logo or something and they'll tell me
just tweak it a little bit, put your touch into it. But now most of the time they just want me to come up with
the whole concept and idea.
First we’ll just brainstorm on the piece itself, what shape, is it a namepiece.
They really leave it into my hands and I just give them a few options.
As I’m creating it we’re just adding stuff to it.
Definitely one of my favorite ones is Takeoff’s Solar System chain.
Cuz he kinda put it all into my hands.
He needed a big piece cuz Quavo and Offset were going crazy, calling me every week
with a new piece, ideas and stuff.
He was kinda chillin, and then he was like, Yo my turn, we gotta go crazy.
I automatically thought outer space, you know.
His name is Takeoff, so he was like just do what you do.
Takeoff’s solar system chain that’s a green light piece meaning there’s no budget.
He just gives me the green light and I just do what I gotta do.
ELLIOT: I met Gunna around 2014.
He was always with Young Thug, last one leaving the studio.
He got like a bunch of tennis chains, Cuban link chains, just everything he ever wanted he got.
And then I made him his Gunna piece with the snake Cuban.
Started off smaller, I just caught an idea and I called him and I told him just give
me the green light.
Young Thug.
85% of his jewelry?
He bought it off of me like wearing it.
He’ll be talking to me and he’ll look at my wrist, and he’ll just like literally
pick off my wrist.
The big custom pieces I do and stuff?
They can be from like 250 and up.
$250,000 and up.
I do things the right way, I don't cut corners.
That's where the phrase, "Should've went to Elliot" came from, because when you see my work,
it stands out compared to everybody else's work.