Ever wondered what gives yellow diamonds their color? And do they really look like pee-pee in person? That’s the question that Pusha T invokes with his “Ace Trumpets” lyric: “Yellow diamonds look like pee-pee.” The line has sparked a wave of curiosity—do yellow diamonds actually resemble urine, and if so, why?
Ever since Pusha rapped the lyric on “Ace Trumpets,” fans have wondered why yellow diamonds look the way they do. In true Complex form, we did an investigation into why this is so.
Complex’s Jamal Desroches spoke to a 13-year jewelry industry vet named Elan, of Gabby Elan Jewelry, who explained why yellow diamonds are yellow in the first place. “The yellow of diamonds depends on the level of nitrogen in the diamond,” he explained. “The more nitrogen, the more yellow. The less nitrogen, the color looks white.”
After explaining how most yellow diamonds come from South Africa, Elan revealed why they’re so sought after. “Yellow diamonds are more valuable because just keeping the color is rare,” he explained.
Elan then namedropped two celebrities who love their yellow diamonds — Pharrell Williams, who had a $40,000 grill made, and J. Balvin, who had a custom piece that, truly does, look like pee-pee.
The Clipse’s return album, Let God Sort Em Out, dropped on July 11. On it, Pusha and Malice rap about more than pissy diamonds, but also what they’re known for…cocaine. They’ve been criticized over the years for not rapping about more than one subject, so Pusha responded to the group’s critics who’ve ridiculed them for that.
“Rap has always come from a very real place,” said Pusha on the Joe & Jada podcast. “What that being said, being in it 23 years, I feel like at this point, I liken it to somebody who loves mob movies.”
“I don’t watch horror, I watch A&E,” Pusha continued. “It’s scarier because I believe it. I liken my music to that as well. You can’t please everybody, but 23 years in this, I’m not trying to please nobody but myself.”
