Jay-Z Leads Cristal Boycott
If you ever plan to hang out with Jay-Z don't order Cristal. The popular rapper has announced that he will no longer serve Cristal Champagne at his 40/40 club and will lead a boycott against the popular bubbly. The boycott is in response to comments made by Frederic Rouzaud, the managing director of Louis Roderer Cristal in The Economist. Rouzand made it clear that he is no fan of the brand's association with hip-hop, describing the namechecking of the brand in songs as "unwelcome attention." Jay-Z has issued a statement saying that Rouzand's comments are racist and that he will no longer support the brand. [via ONTD]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Kim Jun 15th 2006 1:29PM
Good! I don't see the logic in paying obscene amounts of money for that junk anyway just because you can.
K Jun 15th 2006 2:24PM
Jay Z is a douchebag for playing the race card.
resource Jun 15th 2006 2:58PM
"I don't see the point on paying obscene amounts of money for that junk just because you can."
Are you serious?
Did you really say that on Luxist?
The luxury goods site?
Do you even understand the point of luxury goods?
Adam Jun 15th 2006 3:36PM
I would have to agree with Frederic Rouzaud on this one. To me the association with Hip-Hop brings down the company name. Understand that there is a difference in Wealth and getting $100,000 for making a degrading record.
VI Jun 15th 2006 4:25PM
I agree with Jay! Who said anything about race? That's ignorant on Cristal's part, because they should welcome the sells of people trying to stunt. Now Tommy Hilfiger, that was racist. I still to this day refuse to purchase anything he endorse. I like the cologne, but I'll just buy the oil for the lady at the flea market and say its something I made.
"Understand that there is a difference in Wealth and getting $100,000 for making a degrading record." So you think this is what all hip hop is about?, since you are obviously generalizing material... I don't condone "degrading records" instead I listen to Talib Kweli, Common, The Roots, Little Brother, Murs and Mos Def, artist that are really speaking on something. Point being, there are other "conscious emcees" out there in Hip Hop. It just so happens that there are a few retards that get the media eye on them and spoil it for everyone. Better yet, hip hop isn't just music, but B-Boying (dancing), Graphical Design and culture. Don't ever generalize anything, because you will often be wrong...
Lisa Jun 15th 2006 4:49PM
Frederic Rouzaud made a morally conscious comment; we need more people like him. Most Hip-Hop artists glorify criminals, drug dealers, fowl mouth vocabulary, and sex. So I can understand why Frederic Rouzaud wouldn't want to be associated with Hip Hop.
tiffany Jun 15th 2006 5:01PM
Hmmm, Rousaud is mad about being associated with a self-proclaimed hustler/drug-dealer who plead guilty to stabbing someone, a faux-thug who cracked a champagne bottle over someone's head and was tangentially involved in a club shoot-out, and a no-talent midget who frequents Atlanta strip clubs.
Sounds justified to me. Anti-trash. Anti-hip-hop. But not anti black. I doubt Cristal would have a problem with Oprah, Kenneth Chenault, Bob Johnson or Wynton Marsalis drinking their bub.
I love Jay-Z, but he's being an effin knucklehead on this. Shoot, I wouldn't want them uncouth bastids drinking my sh*t either.
big steve Jun 15th 2006 11:11PM
This is simply a terrible case of logical fallacy.
Disaccociating with hip-hop makes NO claims, implied or explicit, about race, a race, or a racial community. There's no reason for an argument about this.
Infinite analogies can be made, but the only racial implications made were done so by S.Carter. He, and he alone, has equated hip-hop to Black, which I find offensive as a [hispanic] member of the hip-hop community. It's a matter of brand image and personal preference and nothing else! Goddamnit, the petty attempt to use fabricated racial impropriety to castigate this man / company annoys me!
If I had a couture apparel line and I said I wasn't thrilled about Toby Keith wearing my clothes during a concert, it would not be because I hate white people... (it would be because I hate republicans). Cheers
Perrey Z. Jun 16th 2006 3:47AM
I don't know what Jay-Z is trying to pull with his race card. Because he's pretty good by himself at been a racist., always making comments how White people are stupid and shit. Cristal will do just fine without him. The world keeps moving and cristal will keep selling so move-on Jay-Z MOVER-ON! we know you made it already.
Renald Jun 16th 2006 10:43AM
I fully understand jay-z's point of view. It is interesting that at one point in time one had to get permission to use the Cristal Champagne in videos or commercials. Know all of a sudden they would rather not have that type of advertisement. Well I guess they have made enough money off of the entertainers / rappers. I enjoy Cristal because of the taste, but my taste buds can survive without it. Jay-z more power to you.
Finished.Law.School Jun 16th 2006 11:22AM
Jay-Z is definitely one of the ugliest rappers ever...
Dave Jun 16th 2006 12:21PM
"unwelcome attention."
From what I've read in other articles, The Cristal guy didn't even say that. It was the author of the article. Check around and you'll see what I mean.
Lwroy Jenkins Jun 16th 2006 5:09PM
They are most likely very happy now. The wealthy elite don't want to buy the same product as a bunch of no class street thugs shown in the videos. They have no appreciation of the product and couldn't tell it apart from three dollar Andre. To see it being stored in the fridge to be guzzled and poured over flabby street Ho's doesn't do much for its image.
Whitney Teal Jun 16th 2006 10:29PM
K, you are a douchebag for using the word douchebag!
F Cristal, Frederic Rouzaud and anyone who agrees with him!!! Jun 17th 2006 1:56AM
Jay-Z is not pulling a race card, Frederic Rouzaud statements WERE racist and HIGHLY offensive. The hip-hop community is BY FAR dominated and a direct extension of the black community. They are basically synonymous. Other cultures may have roles in it now, but it originated from and is dominated by the black community. Anyone that would think that this is a race card must be racist themselves. Or is an ignorant white person who can not put themselves into other people's shoes. Racist white people make comments, like those of Frederic Rouzaud and some of the comments above, because of stereotyping, ignorance, arrogance and lack of understanding.
Do you really think that every black person calls women b**ches? Do you really think every rapper does? All blacks are all not drug dealers, even though realistically a drug dealer is nothing more than a business man who didn't have the same opportunities as some people. People make generalized statements and judgments about people when having no idea about their past. You have no idea why someone choose the path they did. Do you think a prostitute's dream when a little girl was to sell her body for money? Highly unlikely; something happened that pushed her back to the wall and made her feel that it was the ONLY means to survive. Leave a hard life of poverty and see what you may get into. Please, I beg of you, rent the moving Trading Places with Eddie Murphy and you may have your eyes opened slightly!!
Morally conscious statement? Please! Do you understand when, why and how hip-hip started? No, because you like to speak on things you don't know. Nowadays some hip-hop does degrade women, but so does ROCK, HEAVY METAL, other music genres, the entertainment industry & media, society and mainly (GASP!) - guess what - WOMEN themselves (I am a woman, by the way who does not disrespect herself). A woman controls the nature of the relationship; by and far even the most disrespectful man will shut up if a woman stands up for herself.
Is hip-hop money not good enough for Cristal? They get free advertising and have probably gotten boat loads of money because of the references in hip-hop songs.
I am a very open minded person and I respect other people’s opinions, but no one here (including myself) has a right to tell Jay-Z how he felt when he heard/read the comments. I 100% agree with him, am part of the boycott and I felt EXACLTY the same as he did when I read the comments. And by the way I am black, part of the hip-hop community and I am not a “drug dealer, faux thug, stabber, rapper, etc.” or any of the other derogatory and judgmental things made about Jay-Z and his character. You forgot to mention that he pulled himself from a life of crime, has donates MILLIONS to help others that come from rough environments so they don’t have to turn to a life of crime, is an extraordinary & talented artist, humble, he never gave up, pursued his dreams, remarkably intelligent and stands up for what he believes in. People are not defined by what they did on their worst day or their best day – you have to look at someone’s complete story to understand their actions and to make an accurate judgment. That is why only God can judge.
big steve Jun 17th 2006 6:10AM
Nice thesis, but this isn't cultural studies, this is about a comment that was made, which you didn't address. Rather you made assumptions the intent of what was said and offered your own over-generalized opinion about a number of things that also have nothing to do with the issue being discussed.
Hip-hop and the "black community" are not synonymous. They're not the same thing, not similar, and in no instance does one equate the other. They are two overlapping populations - statements made about "hip-hop" do not apply to the "black community" as a whole, and vice versa. I've read tomes of romanticized history of hip-hop, some more informative than others, and I've taken numerous courses on Hip Hop at a top-tier university... No generalizations can be applied to the varied history of the genre or the culture, as it has spread across many decades and many continents - *BUT* Arrested Development was not spilling Cristal in the club in their videos. KRS One does not walk around with a bottle of Cris glued to his hand. Chuck D has never appeared on CRIBS with a fridge full of Cristal bottles.
Big Tymers, No Limit, Clipse, Nelly, et al on the other hand - they have. THEY are the segment of "hip-hop" that is associated with drinking Cristal AND those specific individuals that do name check Cristal DO refer to women as bitches (over and over and over) and DO identify themselves in the drug game (in many cases in a braggadocios way, in many in a precautionary 'dont do this' way) and DO boastfully describe themselves as thugs.
When you say, "so does ROCK and HEAVY METAL [degrade women]," what's you're point? Where do they enter the conversation? Rouzaud was not asked about the relationship between ROCK music and Cristal (possibly because Cristal has virtually ZERO visibility in ROCK videos, or in ROCK music) - he was offering a direct answer to a directed question. Other music genres are not part of the conversation, though your argument - "but HEAVY METAL does it too!" is a very mature one... As long as everyone degrades women it's alright?! (that's a rhetorical question).
This is not about the plight of a fictional impoverished prostitute and Jay-Zs charitable donations have nothing to do with this comment in the least bit. "Looking at his complete story" does not contribute at all to this situation, unless you're insinuating that there's something in his past, some sort of brain damage or mental retardation that prevents him from objectively looking at a statement without colouring it with his own [self-serving] assumptions... But I kinda doubt that's what you're implying.
"Racist white people...make comments..." "People who think Jay-Z pulling a race card are racist." No one here has identified themselves as being white (i'm mexican for the record), and you're using ignorant ad-hominem attacks, petty name calling. But more directly you did not address the Rouzaud comment at all, rather used this space to call people who disagree with you as racist white people. Very intelligent.
Ms. Biology Jun 17th 2006 6:06PM
****NEWS FLASH*** New Statement-"A house like Louis Roederer would not have existed since 1776 without being totally open and tolerant to all forms of culture and art, including the most recent musical and fashion styles which -- like hiphop -- keep us in touch with modernity,"(Roederer 2006)
Very well stated point “VI”. I support Jay-Z and his boycott. If you do not want me being associated with your product, then I will not purchase your product. It is just as simple as that. IF you do not want my business, I will keep it. Smart move to me. Jay-Z is rich enough to manufacture his own champagne, anyways. ***Light Bulb***
And please stop with the generalization of hip hop. It is getting sooo old. Hip hop does not glorify anything. This is what really goes on in their community. But you people would not understand this, for Pete’s sake. This is a luxury goods website, the only thing you understand is shopping, yachting and going to the Hamptons .
Pick up an actual album by one of the artist stated by "VI". Then you can be judgmental. Until then please stop listening to the overly opinionated Bill O' Reilly, as if he was the Messiah.
In response to the FLAT OUT STUPID Big Steve and TRULY IGNORANT "Lwroy Jenkins" Jun 18th 2006 2:50AM
Big Steve - did you actually read my “thesis” or did you breeze through it? Or are you just that stupid? Do you actually use your brain when you prepared your response “thesis”? I guess the real question is did you read everyone's comments or just mine? I not only addressed the comment by Frederic Rouzaud clearly, I addressed other comments listed above. (So no one directly spelled their race, except you and I, huh? I beg to differ.) The comments above stated “playing the race card” repeatedly - which is typically a statement that whites say after a black person responds to them making some grossly offensive statements against blacks. So I responded (and assumed they were white). By the way, you can only play a card you are dealt! Also, one person said they were not anti-black, which leads me to believe they are not black. Another person angrily stated Jay-Z was racist & made comments about white people, which leads me to believe they are white. Comments above generalized all hip-hop as degrading to women (which also leads me to believe they are white, or at least non-black, as no hip-hop/black person would make such a grossly inaccurate statement), which is incorrect. So I mentioned that it is incorrect and pointed out other genres that do degrade women. Is it right to degrade women? Obviously I don’t think that because I am a woman and I clearly stated that I don’t agree above. My point was that Frederic Rouzaud did not call out other avenues that women are disrespected in, so obviously it is something else about the hip-hop/black culture that bothers him (like our skin color). It was stated above that Jay-Z deserves for people not to want to be associated with him because of negative things he may (/may not) have done in the past, so I commented that everything is not negative about him.
Of all the courses you mentioned you’ve taken, I did not see reading comprehension listed, which you must have missed. You lack understanding of why I made the comments and also the black culture. You may have took some courses, read a book, but you have never been black. And I quote you - “Hip-hop and the black community are not synonymous.” I never said they were, but I said they basically are, which they are. And so did you…wasn’t every artist you mentioned black? Real good way to prove your argument, by in fact proving mine. You can not tell Jay-Z or me how to feel when someone makes a derogatory comment about our culture.
I’m petty name calling? I was name clearly up for my culture and Jay-Z. No, I didn’t call people that disagree with me racist white people. I pointed out that racist white people make derogatory comments, like that of Frederic Rouzaud, about blacks for several reasons (listed in my last comment). You have no idea what it feels like as a black person to be down-talked, disrespected and stereotyped with no repercussions…uh probably because you are NOT black and you have never been treated poorly simply because you are black. I have and so has Jay-Z. If you read everything I wrote I said clearly that you, I, nor anyone has the right to tell Jay-Z how he felt when he read/heard the comments. You still don’t have that right. Jay-Z took hip-hip culture as black culture because it IS basically synonymous and I feel/know most every black (and most non-blacks!) would agree with that. If I said heavy metal culture, most would think I meant white culture or was at least referring to white people.
The only thing I have ever read that was romanticized about hip-hop culture, was what you said…because when you are romancing someone you usually are blind to whatever you choose to blind to about them. You choose to ignore that hip-hop culture is by and far regarded and related to black culture (because it is basically the same thing)…because you relate yourself with the hip-hop culture (you said yourself you did and were offended by Jay-Z stating that hip-hop only pertains to blacks). I have no right to tell you not to be offended by Jay-Z’s comments about what you feel is your culture, just like you have no right to tell me and Jay-Z not to be offended by what was said about our culture.
Could your real issue be that you are not widely regarding with hip-hop culture? If you truly are part of hip-hop culture, shouldn’t you yourself be offended that Frederic Rouzaud made such degrading comments about YOUR culture? Do you truly feel like part of the culture or are you feeling left out? YOU IGNORED the real issue, not I. Instead of saying if you felt it was justified of Jay-Z to boycott Cristal, you used this space to rant on how blacks and hip-hop are not same, but you and hip-hop are. YOU BROUGHT up race, as did most of the comments on this page. It is hard NOT to mention race, but you are calling me out…how hypocritical and ironic. The statements made by Frederic Rouzaud brought up race and his comments/Jay-Z’s reaction are what we’re discussing. Or what we are supposed to be discussing, but after reading two of your blogs, I still have no idea what your opinion is on the boycott/comments made by Frederic Rouzaud. All I know about you is: how you feel about hip-hop not being the same as black, how you feel about Jay-Z’s comments and that you are a person that likes to use “big, smart” words to cover up the fact you are completing ignoring the subject at hand and have no reading comprehension skills. Ironically, you try to imply I am ignorant, immature and/or unintelligent for making comments addressing the subject at hand and truly you yourself are ignorant, immature, and unintelligent.
One thing is for certain – I can not call you racist against blacks for disagreeing with me (you said I called everyone racist who didn’t agree with me) on the subject at hand, BECAUSE I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOUR OPINION IS EXCEPT WHEN IT COMES TO RACE MATTERS!! Get a clue, a brain and a dictionary for 6th graders. If you at least had the dictionary, you could have used fewer words TRYING to sound intelligent and addressed the real issue at hand, instead of going on and on about how YOU feel blacks shouldn’t claim what is theirs (hip-hop culture). And I wouldn’t have to show everyone reading this that you where trying to impress them by pretending to be smart. Your vocabulary says you have read a book or two in your day (probably not about the origin of hip-hop though!), but your logic, argument, comprehension level, ability to follow a topic and all of your comments let me know you are flat out stupid.
To “Lwroy Jenkins”…Where the hell do you get off calling rap MILLIONARES, which in fact makes them the wealthy elite, no class street thugs? How do you know what they appreciate? You’ve probably never tasted Cristal yourself, probably can’t pronounce it, and obviously are ignorant. Maybe you were trying to be funny, but you didn’t succeed. Take your bitter (why be bent out of shape that rappers are millionaires?) ho ass and eat a d*ck. I would be very happy if I wasn’t on the same message board with your stupid ho ass. You have no useful comments to make.
Not pimpin Jun 18th 2006 5:38AM
Quote:
"Pick up an actual album by one of the artist stated by "VI". Then you can be judgmental. Until then please stop listening to the overly opinionated Bill O' Reilly, as if he was the Messiah."
Do any of those artists pour Crystal all over the place in their videos while they rap about Hos, Mercedes and Bling? No then they do not pertain to this argument do they?
Also, I'm more of an O'Franken fan thab O'Reilly.
tweeds and brogues Jun 19th 2006 12:29PM
I know diddly about Rap, hip hop, or black american culture, but i have read the offending article, and it seems to me that any racism, implied or otherwise, cannot be attributed to Frederic Rouzaud. The economist was clearly looking for a controversial comment, and well done to them, they got one. This man makes wine in a tiny corner of France, that costs him a fortune to produce - of course he gets pissed off at seeing it poured all over the floor in music videos! And, like me, he wouldn't have a scooby about the culture, the music - any of that. he just sees the efforts of generations of his family being poured on girls behinds. No doubt this will cause howls of derision, but it does seem a case of making a mountain out of a molehill...