Hip Hop’s Fav Jeweler: A$AP Eva

A$AP Eva wasn’t always a stone-cold OG.

The Macau native (government name Eva Sam) used to work on the factory floor, manufacturing clothing before she moved to New York City. Now, she’s better known as the mastermind jeweler behind hip hop’s A-list, decking out rappers from Ski Mask the Slump God and Macklemore, to Kris Wu and Higher Brothers.

Popular Jewelry on Canal Street operated for years as a regular jewelry store, with a glimmering stock of chains, rings, and pendants that drew a few famous figures (Cappadonna of Wu-Tang Clan was Popular’s first celebrity customer). But it wasn’t until A$AP Rocky visited that the store rocketed into the public consciousness — and A$AP Eva was born.

We met up with Eva in her store to talk business, bling, and unlikely fame.

When did you open Popular Jewelry?

We opened in 1988, October 3rd. It’s the same day A$AP Rocky was born — same date, same month, same year.

No way!

Yeah! And my store had a fire. When we re-opened, it was the same day Kris Wu was born — November 6th, 1990.

When did Popular Jewelry get its big break?

A few years after we opened, Cappadonna from Wu-Tang Clan had already come. But at that time, we didn’t have any computers. We weren’t famous, not popular. We had no iPhones back then.

Even though we had NBA players and famous people coming, nobody knew. But in 2014, we had Instagram and Facebook. We could get the message out to tell everybody, “hey, we have famous customers here.”

Like Madonna, for example, she sent her assistant here four times to buy her jewelry. And Jay-Z — Puma hired me to make a Puma logo chain for Jay-Z.

That’s amazing. How does that feel?

I was very happy, because when you’re buying for Jay-Z, you have to pay a million dollars!

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