How Jay-Z Changed Champagne Culture

How Jay-Z Changed Champagne Culture! According to a report by winemag.com, for 25 years, rapper Jay-Z has shaped Champagne culture and commerce in the United States. On his 1996 single, “22 Twos,” off Reasonable Doubt, his debut album,  host Maria Davis asks the young rapper to “put that Champagne down and kick a little freestyle.”

Jay-Z certainly was not drinking alone. According to historians, Harlem emcee Branson B. introduced Champagne to hip hop parties in the 1990s, and Dom Perignon and Moët & Chandon were early fixtures. A 1995 Raekwon lyric is said to be rap’s first mention of Cristal, a brand that holds its own complicated legacy in the world of hip hop.

However, Jay-Z literally and figuratively made Champagne his own. Back in 2006, a bottle of Armand de Brignac, also known as Ace of Spades and new to the U.S. market, made a cameo in a metal briefcase in Jay-Z’s “Show Me What You Got” video. He would later rap about the brand in subsequent tracks and brought bottles to events.

All of a sudden, a Champagne no one had heard of became the talk of town. Restaurateur Kyle O’Brien recounts how tourists would order “the briefcase Champagne” at Manhattan nightclub, Hotel Chantelle, in the late 2000’s. Industry sources have differed on whether Jay-Z had a financial stake in Ace of Spades from the onset, but in 2014, the rapper acquired the company outright.

 Jay-Z set a precedent for other artists such as Mary J. Blige, Raekwon and Post Malone to partner with wineries.

“Nowadays there are so many celebrities involved in brands. Jay-Z was a pioneer,” Steven Gonzalez, a bartender at Park Hyatt New York says. It too created an access point for drinkers.

“These were markets that big companies weren’t looking at,” food scholar Nia-

Raquelle Smith says of hip hop fans, with Black consumers in mind . “Jay-Z becoming one of the first higher-end Champagne owners opens so many doors for the consumer. It lets people know, ‘It is possible. We can do this.’ ”