Jay-Z Leads Cristal Boycott

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jun 15th 2006 at 12:03PM

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]

Tags: boycott, champagne, cristal, jay-z

Filed under: Wine, Celebrity Shopping

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(the flat out stupid) big steve Jun 19th 2006 2:05PM

1. I got a 760 on my SAT vocab / reading comprehension. I'm not sure what big or intimidating words I used that make you think I'm concerned with impressing anyone, but I'll make sure to only use words from D4L songs from now on as to not offend you.

Everything you've said can be summed up in A to B does not equal B to A. You're a big fan of reading comprehension, see if you can figure this out: The fact that all bears are mammals DOES NOT mean that all mammals are bears. Even if hip-hop was solely a Black thing, that does not mean any statement made about it applies to an entire race!

A statement made about the Hip-Hop Community IS NOT a blanket statement about the BLACK race, which is why Rouzaud's comments about the section of the hip-hop that features his product have ARE NOT about hip-hop in general, nor about Black people. You can try to imply that he used coded terms to imply something greater, but that's your opnion... and since I cannot speak about hip-hop because I don't know what it's like to be a Black woman, you cannot try to interpret the words of a French business director. "You're not black, so you don't know what it's like to be treated poorly because you're black." I guess that's true, but I am mexican and I've spent my life dealing with racism, so please don't make any assumptions about what I do or do not understand.

I spent three semesters in class with Todd Boyd, on of the country's foremost authorities on hip-hop (do an Amazon search if you're not familiar)... I've kicked it with Del, Cube, and Snoop... I saw Biggie on stage before you were watching his videos on THE BOX or MTV, so again, please don't make assumptions about what I do or do not know.

I'm gonna say this one last time and hopefully you'll get it this time. A statement about hip-hop IS NOT a statement about the black community.

Hip-Hop is not black. From MC Solaar in France to QBert in the Philippines and every Slug (atmosphere), Bobbito, Babu, Z-Trip, Rectangle, et al in the middle... and to the millions of kids from Tennessee to Tokyo that listen to and live hip-hop, it's not a BLACK thing. Like KRS said, "take that pillow from your head and put a book in it stupid."

Big Steve, the man with no mind of his own Jun 19th 2006 10:51PM

Clearly I can understand what you are saying, but I still KNOW that you have trouble with reading comprehension. Telling me your score does nothing for me as I am seeing your performance here and I believe you guessed, cheated, lied to me or (what I really think) you are educated, yet lack intelligence & creativity. I am quite intelligent, my dear Watson, as well as educated. You seem to be only the later. I'm gonna say once again...YOU STILL HAVE NOT STATED YOUR OPINION ON THE TOPIC AT HAND. We still do not know your viewpoint on anything except you FEELING hip-hop is not black. And I am still unconvinced that you even believe that for two reasons: A) You do not appear to be insulted about the comments made by Frederic Rouzaud (if you were why did you not use this perfect space to let everyone know?). If you were hip-hop (i.e. black) you would and would have mentioned that by now. B) You only identified black artists when speaking of hip-hop.

News flash – this message board is titled “Jay-Z Leads Cristal Boycott” not “Hip-hop Culture and Black Culture: One and the Same?”. And this is not freshman English, let alone high school freshman English, which is quite clearly as far as you got. You write here as if I am grading it… Even your comments here use quotes, citations to books, interviews and websites – where the hell is my reference page in MLA format? You have done nothing but taken quotes from others and pieced them together to try to prove an invalid and ridiculous point. Add something from your own thoughts or it is called plagiarism. Do you have a love, passion for music or did you just read about someone else’s?

Do I agree with the A:B relationship, yes I do. Yes every hip-hop person is not black. But it originated from blacks and is BEYOND widely identified with the black culture. My point really is this: even blacks that do not listen to hip-hop music are still considered hip-hop by the general population. Well-to-do racist people make comments that do not use the n word or African American or black because they think us ignorant black people will never figure out that when they say “urban”, “hip-hop”, “rap thug”, etc. they are talking about blacks – in a bad way. If you want proof to my point – check out “Urban” Sony – with the exception of J.Lo (who is actually wrapped up in the black culture) every person is black (“urban”). http://www.so-urban.com/urb/urban.php?content=links&right=r1&left=l1

Think about it, even you yourself identified hip-hop with blacks – every example you gave above was a black artist. Yes there has been a hip-hop explosion lately, with other races being more involved, but it is still part of the black culture. When people say hip-hop, particularly in a derogatory way, they are referring to black people. The .02% whites, 2% Latinos and 1% Other are important and we accept them openly into the culture. The majority of hip-hop is not bought by blacks, but the VAST majority of it is made by blacks…and it was created for and by blacks, though it is now widely accepted by others. (Think FUBU!)

I hope that you have never had to go through racist experiences, but if you had, than maybe you would understand that people that are racist don’t always wear an identifier (and do not always make it verbally known). They make sly comments (that they think/hope you won’t figure out), dirty looks, won’t wait on you and may even deny that they are racist. They may even truly believe that they aren’t. I have had it happen to me enough times sweetie to know what is what. And even if the man did not mean it to be that way, he still said it and it is widely regarded as offensive by the black community. Because you love quotes, here is one for you – “Racism is still alive, they just be concealing it”, so truly stated by Kanye West.

Your point about racism is sadly true though (other races get treated poorly as well). Even still, you still have not been treated poorly simply because you are black - simply because you are not black. Maybe that is why you are not offended by the comments of Frederic Rouzaud – because you are not black you may not find it offensive to talk about blacks in a derogatory way. I personally despise all racism. Or maybe the reason you have not spoken on the comments is because you have not read any book or website with an intelligent enough response to use as your own, since you clearly have no thoughts of your own. Well I guess no intelligent response besides mine, which you simply can not use because you want to pretend to have some intellectual debate going on with me.

You will not impress me or change my mind about your ignorance on hip-hop by saying that you spent time with such and such, read a book, etc. – you clearly have never lived the culture. Being in the room with someone does not mean you are them.

I will leave you with some words of wisdom as I have been subject to many like you. Plenty of educated people, who spend too much time trying to wow everyone with their supposed superior intellect. Plenty of people who can not communication effectively with others or teach others because they are so busy keeping up a charade that they are intelligent. People who are book smart, but lack emotion, human understanding, creativity and their own opinions. People who can spit out an answer to you if it fits in the equation they know. People who spend their day trying to make others feel stupid by talking over them. Honey, believe that I can understand you fine, could beat you on any IQ test, or any other for that matter – but I also can teach anyone anything and talk to anyone, without trying to belittle them. I do not feel the need to impress anyone, even though I could if wanted to. If you truly were all that (intelligent or any other fill in the blank word), people would come and tell you, you would not have to tell them or sell them.

Gwen Jun 20th 2006 4:15PM

As a black woman, I do not find the remark racist. It is only a observation.

Joie Jun 21st 2006 6:29PM

Excuse me...but positive rap gets no airplay! And there is a lot of it out there. 75% of all rap sales are to WHITE youth, so perhaps you can tell them to stop creating the demand for degrading rap! Conspicuous consumption is NOT a black thing...it's an AMERICAN thing!!! I went to a white school and my sister attends Georgetown, the amount of conspicuous consumption and excess is disgusting!

Joie Jun 21st 2006 6:32PM

Big Steve just got his green card, but wants to comment on race relations in America! Please!

Bash Jun 22nd 2006 1:02AM

Personally I believe that this hole fiasco is an great marketing campaign being promoted as political/racial/cultural/class conflict. The House Of Roederer and Jay-z problem discussed this over Kobe Beef and Petrus. Probley the way most Luxury companys let China produce their European good and sell thems as bootlegs on the corner of 5th. Personally Vuve Cliquoet is better then Cristal anyway, thats how you tell if your a true wine connisuer. Yea I spelt it wrong. HSOS

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