NYC NOW - June 20, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: June 20, 2024

A new Siena College poll of registered voters finds that President Joe Biden’s lead in New York state is shrinking. Plus, New York City pools are set to open next week, but a lifeguard shortage could limit swimming access. And finally, WNYC’s Janae Pierre visits Pristine Jewelers, the go-to spot for hip hop stars like Fat Joe, Cardi B and DJ Khaled. Some of their works are on display at the American Museum of Natural History’s new exhibit, “Ice Cold: An Exhibition of Hip Hop Jewelry.”

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City. From WMYC, I'm Jenae Pierre. President Joe Biden's lead in deep blue New York State continues to shrink. That's according to a new Sienna College poll of registered voters. It found the Democratic president with just an eight-point lead over Republican Donald Trump. Steve Greenberg is a spokesperson for the Sienna poll. What you see now is independents are more. much closer to Republicans than they are to Democrats.

No Republican presidential candidate has won New York since Ronald Reagan's nationwide landslide in 1984. A weak performance by Biden on the top of the ticket could harm Democrats in key congressional districts throughout the state. But Greenberg warned that it's still early. The November election is more than four months away. New York City pools are set to open next week, but a persistent lifeguard shortage. could limit New Yorkers swimming access. WMYC's Liam Quigley has more. Summer's here, but the city still needs hundreds more lifeguards

to fully staff its beaches and pools. It's been a problem for years, and it's even caused some facilities to keep swimming areas partially closed due to the lack of personnel. But that could be changing. That's because last month an arbitrator ruled the lifeguards union had to hand over

more control of the hiring process to the city's parks department. That means requirements for lifeguards who work at smaller pools won't be as strenuous. allowing the city to bring more staff on board. The city's 50 outdoor public pools open on June 27th, a bit too late for New Yorkers to cool off during this week's heat wave. After the break, we visit a jeweler from New York City's Diamond District,

who has iced out some of hip-hop's biggest names. Stick around. On West 47th Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues, you'll find what's called the Diamond District in New York City. If you're a New Yorker and you need to get some diamonds or an engagement ring, you probably know the neighborhood. Some jewelers there flood the sidewalk to entice people into their shops.

They're going to come in. You're welcome to come in. You want to shop around and you're welcome to do that. Whatever you feel like doing. I'm not here for. Just ask me. But one shop, pristine jewelers, is the go-to spot for hip-hop stars

like Fat Joe, Cardi B, and DJ Khalid. The two partners behind it have become celebrities in their own right. Today, some of their works are on display at the American Museum of Natural History's new exhibit. ice cold, an exhibition of hip-hop jewelry. I recently visited their store to find out about their unlikely journey to becoming a part of hip-hop history.

And I quickly realized that if you have enough money and enough status to visit pristine jewelers in the Diamond District, be sure to dress to impress because the jewelers there are fresh. I'm Avi Davidov, one of the owners of pristine jewelers, Louis Vuitton, head to toe. Avi owns Pristine with his close friend O'Fair bin Shimon. They dress in luxury brands, and they describe pristine as a lifestyle. But it wasn't always this way. Avi grew up in Queens.

His parents migrated to the U.S. from Uzbekistan, and they worked in the jewelry industry for more than 30 years. When his parents opened their shop on Fordham Road in the Bronx, he'd worked there most days after school. As we were growing older, my sister and I, we saw their hardships, so we decided to help them out. And while we were helping them out, we learned more of the trade, more of the business, and I liked it. By the age of 18, Avi had become a sponge to the business and community he was surrounded by. From computer-aided designs to sorting and picking up diamonds, he absorbed it all. He recalls sneaking into parties where he didn't belong just to float design ideas to potential clients. For his clients, he was even willing to do drop-offs of completed pieces and pick-ups of diamonds,

which can sometimes be dangerous. I pull myself out there. I took life risks. You know, I was shot at, I was kidnapped. Reminiscing on the early years of his career, Avi says he's seen his life flash before his eyes at least five times. 18, 19, 20, every year was something.

But you know what? When you were trying to go and get it and when you're young, you don't even think it. We could have all been here and not even become a jeweler today and lost our lives. Avi says he and his partner Ophir both grew up, from nothing. The two became friends while attending Cardoza High School. Avi's success isn't just

in the merchandise, but in the relationships they continue to build to this day. So how did a guy with no connections in the hip-hop world become one of its star jewelers? Avi says the secret is humility. His big break happened in the early 2000s at a party where he was introduced to Puerto Rican rapper Don Omar. We started doing custom-made pieces for him. and Diamond watches. And once the Latin error of Puerto Rico saw that, they all started finding me and started hitting me up and, hey, we want you to create our custom pieces. And just like that, Avi was in. He says he was never the average jeweler, standing and waiting for clients behind a display case. He'd always go out of his way for his clients, even if out of the

way is out of town. There is a video shoot. Can you be there for them or not? Or if there's a birthday and they want you to fly into Russia, for instance, or anywhere in the world, are you available? After his first gig with Don Omar, Avi began receiving celebrity requests for various pieces, from custom necklaces to bust down watches. That's when you take a high-end watch, like a Rolex or a Cartier,

and the jeweler disassembles it, sprinkles diamonds all over it, and customizes the watch to fulfill the client's desired look. It's another trend-born in hip-hop, but during the early aughts, Most fashion houses weren't accepting of the look or the genre in general. However, the bust-down watches with baguette-cut diamonds would become the claim to fame for pristine jewelers. They associated hip-hop with different kind of taste.

It wasn't, you know, high class. It wasn't of a certain caliber. That's Vicki Choback, author of Ice Cold, a hip-hop jewelry history. When hip-hop artists started going to jewelers and asking them to, like, highly, highly customize or, like, remix things, only certain jewelers would do that for them. And so the trust level between the artist and the jeweler had to be really high. Tobak says Avi's hustle and maneuvering of work relationships mirrors that of many early jewelers in hip-hop, most of whom are immigrants or children of immigrants. You're kind of ingrained with this like hustle mentality in a good way, right?

Like, you will figure it out. You will find a way. And that's very much hip-hop, and that's very much the mentality of these jewelers. Aside from pristine jewelers, Avi Davidoff and Ophir Ben-Shimon, names of immigrant jewelers ring loudly in hip-hop, like Ben Baller and Alex Moss, or Jacob the jeweler and Tito Kaisito,

who some say was the first hip-hop jeweler. Tito was so important that Biggie rapped about him. And you can hear him a lot and a lot of lyrics, too. He made the first Rockefeller pendants. He made Biggie's Jesus piece. He made Naz's early QB pendant, which we also... All those pieces are now on display at the American Museum of Natural History, as part of its new exhibit, Ice Cold, an exhibition of hip-hop jewelry.

Tobek is the guest curator. She recently gave me a tour of the exhibit, which is on display until the end of the year in the Hall of Gems and Minerals. It features pieces belonging to Slick Rick. Ghostface Killa, Nikki Minaj, and Asap Rocky, just to name a few. A couple of the pieces in the exhibit were designed by pristine jewelers, like Naz's Queens Bridge pendant. And as you can see, it's on a Cuban link, but it has a couple Gucci pieces in it as well. A Cuban link is a thick chain, and the Gucci pieces are puffy interlocking links with diamonds all around.

On the back, it's inscribed Queens Bridge, which of course is a love letter to where he's from very, very, you know, high craftsmanship, a lot of diamonds. Avi remembers first meeting Nas at a video shoot for his Elmatic album. He says, for Nas, that QB pendant is like a trophy. A lot of the artists, they grew up from nothing from poverty like we did. So their trophies is their pieces that they make. They're flashy watches or their flashy pieces. That's to show them that they made it.

Every time an album comes out, they want a piece to celebrate or maybe for even the whole scheme. Vicky Chilbeck showed me another piece in the exhibit designed by pristine jewelers, Fat Joe's Terror Squad necklace. The pendant is a large T.S. for Terror Squad. The chain itself is designed with black, green, and white diamonds, giving it a sparkly camouflage effect. And this piece, I mean, definitely has to be worn by somebody of a certain size and, you know, a wingspan to really look, look right, because this will give you a neckache in a second. After seeing this chain in person, I believed her. That necklace has some serious ice.

Back on West 47th, in the Diamond District, Avi and his partner Ophir launched their watch line, pristine timepieces, four years ago. When I visited Avi, he was wearing one with black and white diamonds. There are only 18 of these watches in the world, priced at over a million dollars. Now it's all about preserving what you've, earned and just building a legacy for your family and your kids, you know, we just keep pushing ourselves and that's the most beautiful part about it. The ice cold exhibit is on now through January 5th, 2025 at the American Museum of Natural History. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC.

Catch us every weekday three times a day. I'm Jenae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.