Sometimes you just have to let good ideas go. If you hold onto them forever, they’ll eat at you. Back during the pandemic, I wanted to come out with a set of rap cards to ride the sports card hype beast wave. I was seeing a lot of oddball cards see an uptick in value (i.e. Garbage Pail Kids, wrestling cards, etc.) so I thought rap cards could get their shine. They never did come out but I feel somebody will do it soon and it’ll have a little bit of success. It was so cool seeing rappers collaborate with Topps though. Shout out to Topps and the Project 70 cards for bringing the opportunities to the table. Doggystyle and Mookie Betts card? Pretty dope.
While I was thinking night and day about how to make a rap cards set come to life, I started building up my PC aka my personal collection. I did the research and found out which cards were actually already out there for rappers. While there’s not a lot outside of Rap Packs and the Yo! MTV Raps cards of the early 90’s, there have been some other inserts and oddball cards that I had to get my hands on. A 2016 Topps Chrome Kendrick Lamar Refractor? I invested roughly $300 in swooping 5 Kendrick Lamar raw rookies. Got them graded and 2 came back as PSA 10’s and another at a 9. I’ll take it…
I needed a Snoop Dogg card but the pricing was crazy. Ended up buying a low graded ‘95 Snoop at a local card show because once I saw it in person, I had to have it. Think I dropped like $200 on this…. Mega overpay for sure but cool memory. And the pic of Snoop? Artwork at its finest.
Yup…. the rabbithole was real. I was buying everything I could get my hands on to have the biggest inventory of rap cards around. How could I not pick up the Paul Wall Topps card? Sittin sideways always in a daze? yup… I’m in.
Oh what??? Jay-Z has some cards too? Yup…. Count me in. Jigga lookin all dapper dan on a shiny Topps card. This is a collection flex right here without a doubt.
Everybody knows about the Yo! MTV Raps set but do you know the difference between series 1 and series 2? Series 2 had the Beastie Boys, A Tribe Called Quest, Gang Starr, KMD, Main Source, and the Busta Rhymes rookie. RIP to Zev Love X aka MF Doom… Had to cop several of his rookies. So crispy…
I’ve had my eye on a Kanye card for a minute but no way I’m pulling the trigger. The raw cards are going for $80ish and a PSA 10????
Something about ripping a fresh pack and pulling hip hop greats you know? Would anybody else buy a pack of rap cards if I made them? Could have inserts like concert tickets, pieces of actual written rap lyrics from the artists, and other cool ideas. It could be cheap promo for rappers to collaborate and try to build something. I’ll give them some ownership percentage too if they’re willing to push.
Here’s 2Chainz getting hip to the sports card hobby… Now, if there was a 2 Chainz rookie?!??!?!? You see where I’m going with this….