Model Minority - Jay Z's Champagne Endorsement is Illegal.
RapUp - Armand de Brignac: The New Negro Drink?
I'm dedicating this one to my man J-Rock who suggested I speak on this. I know I told you I was going to wait homie, but...I lied.
In the past few days there's been a lot of hoopla about Jay-Z and this new champiggity he puts on display in his latest video, "Show Me What You Got". Armand de Brokeback (Armand De Brignac or whatever-the-f*ck it is), is now being positioned by both the company that bottles the champagne and indirectly (or perhaps directly) by Jay-Z as the mogul's brand of choice. That is, when he's not sippin' Armie or Belvie or Heineken or Budweiser Select. Now whether or not you believe that Jay-Z's "endorsement" makes 'de Brokeback hip-hop's champiggity brand of choice is up to you, but it's already been exposed that orders have reached preposterous (never-before-seen) levels for the company since the video debuted. Not to mention that Jay-Z has a pretty solid track record of being a jig-influencer (shot out to DP). The increase in orders for 'de Brokeback is by no means a surprise. We hip-hop fans can be oh-so gullible and impressionable, especially when it comes to the self-proclaimed God MC, "Jay-Hovah". This guy should be rapping with a turban, shouldn't he?
In the past few days however, there has been lots of speculation that this product didn't "just-so-happen" to appear in a scene of Jay's latest video where he shuns Cri$$y and decides to partake in the "Ace of Spades" (By the way, how convenient that the bottle with the Ace of Spades on it was presented during a card game? Jay-Z you slickster you!). There's some speculation that he was paid to put the product in this video. As if he needs the money.
What's being lost in all of this is the irony that this is the same guy trying to assist with the water crisis in Africa by uhhhh, touring the country putting on benefit concerts (I assume they're benefit concerts). I wonder how many bobbles (shot out to my CH fellas on that one) of 'de Brokeback he's giving away to those famine-stricken, no-water-having, Jay-Z lovin' Africans? Not to mention my wondering about how many of said Africans give a shillznit about what type of champiggity he drinks when they're water is dirtier than Ricky Williams' pi$$. You try drinking water that looks like Flava Flav bathed in it! Bet you won't like that shyt...Unless you're Dee-lishcious (howeveryouspellthatGHETTOA$$shyt).It's well known that Jay-Z recently found quite the loathing for his previous favorite brand of bubbly, Cristal, and subsequently pulled all 10,000 bottles of it from his home along with the 23.5 thousand that were sitting at the bars of his 40/40 clubs in NY and NJ. The media's making more a deal about this switch of bubbly brands than Jay-Z appears to be though. Jay-Z, in his typically Jiggaman style, really isn't doing anything he hasn't done before with the products he allegedly loves. Remember Belvedere vodka? Remember Armadele vodka? Got your Audemar Piguet watch yet? Maybe you forgot about your Continental T? How about your Scooby Doos (I'm still tryna figure out what those shyts are)? Or your Purple label shirt or the littany of other ridiculously expensive items Jay-Z loves. The man drops brand names like Game drops rapper's names! Jay was giving loads of people free promotion, right. At least he started dropping Roc-A-Wear and Armadele to promote some of his own shyt.
Now though, it appears he's going the route of the endoresment hoe (not to be confused with the route of the camera hoe)...Heineken last year, Budweiser this year. Cristal at the retirement party, 'de Brokeback at the un-retirement party. What's next? Oh, the ESPN deal! And just for a little positive PR, throw the African Water Crisis in there too! Next up he might as well go to North Korea and pop bottles to solve the nuclear testing crisis. I'm sure China and South Korea would endorse JAY-Z if he could pull that shyt off.
On one hand you gotta respect his saavy and his ability to leverage the brand that HE IS into lots of successful ventures. On the other hand you have to think that he will promote uber-expensive champagne, clothing, liquor, cars, etc. (all liabilities by the way). But somehow he also manages to think about the little (African) person and give back (sort of). He once said:"I get rich and give back/To me that's the win-win"Nikka wasn't lying. THAT'S for DAYUM sure!
Aside from saving the water for Africans, he is busy making subpar songs; pushing his album release date up while pushing his employees' release dates back; Bey-ing the block (W-T-F???); being the DEVIL; part-owning an NBA franchise; owning a clothing line; partnering with Budweiser & ESPN; and God only knows what else after this album is released. The man truly is the Michael Jordan of rap isn't he? Or is he just what Puffy has always been? An over-exposed fixture of pop culture with so much money that all you want is 1) ways to spend it, 2) ways to make more, and 3) ways to keep yourself relevant...When they say you gotta take the good with the bad...Jay-Z's a prime example of taking all the (arguably/questionably) bad with the good. But even he admits he's "a bad influence, got the world drinking gold bottles"... That shyt is so de' BROKEBACK!
11 comments:
So you are against rappers having endorsements now or just Jay-z having endorsments?
You never really know if these guys are getting paid for all these product spots in their videos. Normally I don't pay attention to it, but with the advertising onslaught for Kingdom Come beginning and the formal announcements of Jay's partnerships, it just makes ME wonder.
No Dane, I am not against rappers having endorsements at all or Jay-Z. But if a rapper gets paid to drop a name in a song, that is WACK! Takes away from the integrity of his work in my opinion. What's next, politicians pay you to say "I support Bush" in your lyrics. The lyrics are supposed to be yours, so if Jay is just dropping ACE of SPADES b/c he's getting a check to do it, that's WACK!
McDonalds tried to get Kanye to do it and he wouldn't. This was a couple years back. I respect him for that shyt b/c it's like if you'll let em pay you to say something simple and small, that starts the snowball rolling downhill. Next they'll be paying you to do your entire verse about their shyt. If you're gonna do that, you might as well just do a commercial spot. This is the EXACT reason why MTV will only play that VANS joint on MTV Jams or some other MTV spin-off channel. Because they think it's a friggin endorsement and you know how MTV (with their logo-blurrin' azzez) don't like to endorse products via the videos they show.
Now if an artist gets paid to show it in a video, I am still on the fence about that one. Not sure how I feel. But my initial feeling is that I don't really like that either but I've gotta give it more thought.
I agree with you Mike. When that happens (when rappers start getting paid to endorse a product), they become an employee of that product. They essentially get put on the employee payroll, and I'm sure these rappers aren't intending for that to happen.
Yeah, you're right. That's why I think I'd rather see a commercial like Jay-Z's for HP (with him doing a regular testimonial style endorsement) rather than this new Budweiser joint. Because they're meshing the music with a promotion. It's kind of ambiguously misleading. Is it really a Jay-z song he made for the album or is it a song he tilted so that Bud could use it as a commercial?
I feel what you are saying about being paid to say certain things in your lyrics (although that's now what I got from this article). I don't think that showing labels in a video is bad though. Everyone gets endorsements from stuff like that whether they are on the payroll or not. Big said that the clothing lines he spoke about used to send him free clothes because he shouted them out...SO WHAT!!!! These dudes are hustlas...that's what they are doing. But as far as using songs for the endorsments you do....that's been happening forever. Every product that has used artists from any genre has used there songs ESPECIALLY rap and it started long before Jay. I mean Sprite used everyones songs when we were younger. Shoot, Slum Village has a song for their GM car commercials. That's nothing new.
(just getting my devil's advocate on!)
I agree with you Mike. Because I have nothing really constructive to say on the matter I'll tell you when that ish gets annoying... and you don't even have to think back that far... Black Eyed Peas.
If they weren't on every flippin' Best Buy, iPOD, Verizon commerical I don't know who was.
LOL. That actually doesn't bother me. That's no different than Michael Jordan being on every BallPark Frank, Gatorade, Nike, Hanes commercial. But if Verizon made the Black Eyed Peas mention the company (or their products/services) in a song, then I'd be pissed. But honestly, that could already be the case with many artists (especially hip-hop) and it's just kept under wraps.
I know I am hella late...but they are already doing it to a certain extent...when you think about how many watches Jacob has sold or think about how many hoodies BAPS has sold because rappers wear their stuff in videos...they don't pay for that stuff, companies send them stuff to wear for FREE because its FREE advertisement for them...we just had a rap session last night with the Kiamsha youth about all of this stuff...I don't know I am disappointed in Jay and his product placement...one of the other blogs stated that its a said affair of things when our influence goes to such negative things...Jay could be using his influence on other stuff...how about really doing more to bring attention to the water crsis...that's just my point of view
Yeah, we echo some of the same sentiments on how Jay is carrying it.
You made a good point about them being given free stuff though. I didn't even think about that.
"The flow is bananas, the coupe is grape/Evisu Jeans with the Bathing APES [that's riggggghhhh]" - Young Jeezy
Well, what I want to ask is if anyone would listen if he talked about that stuff? There are rappers that have always rapped about more important things like Talib but until Jay (known for jewelry, cars, liquor, and having Beyonce) says his name most people don't even know who he is. I know the circumstances are a little different because he is so famous already but I know all them people out there that love dipset and g-unit and Jeezy would flip on Jay in a second if he got on some brand new stuff. Personally I would rather him do good things and not talk about it then to do nothing at all BUT I can't argue with your logic as far as your points about him speaking up.
Dane, there needs to be a balance. Just like there needs to be a balance between beats and lyrics, there needs to be a balance between conscious content and whatever else a rapper wants to talk about. Kanye is the PERFECT example of this.
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