Snoop Dogg iced out by Grand Rapids jeweler with $10K custom chain after concert

Snoop Dogg receives a custom gift from Designers Diamonds Customs, a Black-owned jewelry business in Wyoming. Pictured from left to right: Owner Demarcus Baty, Snoop Dogg and General Manager Riley Sanford. (Photo provided to MLive by Riley Sanford)

GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Snoop Dogg is rocking some new ice following his performance with Wiz Khalifa in downtown Grand Rapids earlier this week.

The renowned rappers spent time in the greater Grand Rapids area following Wiz Khalifa’s “High School Reunion” Tour stop at the Van Andel Arena on Tuesday, July 25.

During their stay, Snoop Dogg was gifted a $10,000 custom Chuck Taylors chain from Designers Diamonds Customs, 1030 28th St. in Wyoming, while Wiz Khalifa shopped at Street Chef Shaw for some Sawihili and Mexican cuisine after the show.

Demarcus Baty, the owner of Designers Diamonds Customs and Designers Dug Out Barbershop, said he knew Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa were touring through Michigan and was prepared to gift Snoop a custom piece.

The custom jewelry business specializes in unique grills, earrings, glasses, chains, and much more.

“We know that you must give to receive,” Baty told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. “Nobody’s just going to jump out there and help you, you have to throw things out there.”

Baty said this isn’t the first time he has gifted custom jewelry to celebrities. He started out by approaching Detroit rapper and producer Trick Trick a few years ago with some diamond earrings.

And the rest was history.

From there, Baty kept in contact with the Motown artist, and pretty soon he was connecting with more artists touring through the Grand Rapids area.

Last year, Baty said he hooked Wiz Khalifa up with a $15,000-$20,000 17-carat “KK” chain as an homage to the rapper’s Khalifa Kush marijuana brand.

“It’s one thing to try to sell something to somebody, but it’s another thing when you’re knocking on their door with a $10,000 item for free,” he said. “Sometimes when you are the millionaire and the money maker, people tend to forget about you because they say, ‘What can we get him when he has everything?’”

This time around, Baty said he knew he wanted to put something together that really spoke to Snoop Dogg. He said he asked around Snoop’s team of people that know him well and quickly got to work.

Baty said that he decided to gift a $10,000 custom necklace that depicts Snoop Dogg’s favorite blue Chuck Taylors encrusted with natural blue diamonds and a solid 10-carat gold chain.

“Just because of me being a fan of his, I know that he always wore his blue Chuck Taylors,” he told MLive. “When he’s relaxing around the house or in laid-back mode, he’s going to be in those Chucks. So we took an image off of Google and we turned it into gold and diamonds.”

He said that for a custom piece, it usually takes about a month. His team finished it in 12 days, and Snoop Dogg couldn’t have been more excited, he said.

Baty purchased tickets to the show and met up with the artist and producer backstage to surprise him with the custom piece, describing it as an “awesome experience to watch come to life.”

“He was ecstatic when I gave it to him,” he said. “I’m just excited and still shaken up. People were paying for meet and greets with Snoop just last week, so it’s a blessing just to be able to walk in there.”

Designers Diamonds Customs in Wyoming gifted Snoop Dogg a $10,000 custom chain as an homage to his favorite blue Chuck Taylors he's worn for decades. (Photo provided to MLive by Riley Sanford)

After the concert, Wiz Khalifa and Snoop Dogg had their sound engineer Bruce Andrews pick up some grub from a local food truck offering Swahili and Mexican cuisine, aiming to support more Black-owned businesses in the area.

Kirel Shaw, owner of Street Chef Shaw, said he was out and about with his friends at Garage Bar on Ottawa Avenue chatting about their business when Bruce Andrews approached them Monday night after overhearing Shaw talk about the food.

“He said he would call some people and say when they wanted the food,” Shaw told MLive. “And then they called us Tuesday at 7:47 p.m. with four orders. So we hopped up, went to our commissary kitchen and did the orders for them.”

Wiz Khalifa, Snoop Dogg and their team ordered East African chapattis, shredded chicken tikka, a side order of golden coconut curry rice and chicken quesadillas.

The East African chapattis, a common type of flatbread found across East Africa, are stuffed with your choice of protein, topped with Kachumbari and finished with house-made pomegranate garlic aioli. Shredded chicken tikka consists of chicken bursting with Indian spices, made with an overnight marinade and Habanero peppers.

After finishing the food, Shaw said he heard back from Andrews about how delicious the four dishes were.

“It’s surreal,” he said. “It’s not something you’d expect would ever happen to come into this. It’s humbling and makes you take a step back and think about making the right decisions when you get to certain spots like this in your life.”

For more information about the businesses, visit Designers Diamonds Customs’ Facebook page or Street Chef Shaw’s website.

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