Image is in the Eye of the Beholder

This week we discussed the power and mutability of images. A photograph possesses both a studium and punctum. Images “are produced within dynamics of social power and ideology.” (Practices of Looking; Strurken & Cartwright; p. 22) The American culture is saturated with image ideologies. The sight of a gecko immediately invokes associations with inexpensive car insurance. A pink mechanical rabbit banging on a snare drum is the icon of a battery company. Each brand has its own image and promotes itself to resonate with a specific demographic. For example, Abercrombie and Fitch is worn by preppy, affluent college kids; G-Unit by African Americans; and Brooks Brothers by the Wall Street executive. On the other hand, what happens when a high end product is embraced by a consumer group outside of its objective? Such was the case with Cristal Champagne.

It’s the summer of 1996, and the rapper Jay-Z has just released his debut album, Reasonable Doubt. The third track on the album entitled “Brooklyn’s Finest” features the lyric: “Cristal forever, play the crib when it's mink weather.” Though the lyric was actually performed by Notorious B. I.G., Jay-Z capitalized on the brand to the point that ten years and multi-million dollar entertainment empire later, he prominently featured top shelf label along with other in vogue liquors at his 5^th Avenue sports bar, The 40/40 Club.

Jay-Z’s blatant product placement of Cristal Champagne did more than just result in a large increase in sales for French producer Louis Roederer, it set off an image revolution within the hip hop community. Operating primarily on the Roland Barthes’ model of semiotics, Jay-Z took the brand Cristal (or signifier) that has long been connoted by an aura of luxury and exclusivity (signified) about it—the bottle’s labels are even a warm golden color—and promoted a lifestyle the celebrated opulence and attitude. In the late 1990s, to be counted among the elite in the hip hop community one had to “live large” and to drink Cristal.

The scarcity of the brand also elevated it as a status symbol among the hip hop community. However, it was not enough just to drink Cristal, but one had to be seen drinking it. According to Natalie Maclean’s article for the San Francisco Chronicle, “Bring on the bling—rappers give Cristal and Hennessey Street Cred,” Sean “P. Diddy” Combs spent approximately $500,000 to have six free flowing Cristal bars at his 29^th birthday party. Jay-Z was even known to bring Cristal on stage during performances.

However, the absorption of Cristal into a culture characterized by violence, crime, and living to grotesque excess caused unease among its producers. Despite a rise in sales and public recognition thanks to the ever increasing fan-bases of Jay-Z, P. Diddy, and other hip hop artists; Roederer and his management advisors continually questioned the pros and cons regarding these unasked endorsements. They did not remotely consider hip hop artists to be product’s intended audience, and felt what they seemingly perceived as a black-lash. Instead of being seen as an emblem of wealth and refinement, America viewed Cristal as the flashy drink of the nouveau riche. In 2006, Roederer’s new managing director Frédéric Rouzaud implied to the Economist that the brand was not overly supportive of its association with the hip hop community, and offered Dom Pérignon or Krug as possible substitutes. (Both brands had been already trying to drum up interest in the hip hop community for some time.)

Upon learning of these comments, Jay-Z immediately made a public withdrawal of support for the champagne, citing Rouzand’s comments as prejudiced. He pulled from the liquor cabinets of his club, and replaced it with Dom Pérignon and Krug.

In the years since Jay-Z’s blackballing of Cristal, Hennessy and Cognac have taken its place as status drink de jour. They have been featured in the songs of Eminem, Lil’ John, and even Destiny’s Child. Yet, they do not seem to have the sensational aura about them that Cristal embodied. It is still more easily associated with the rap culture more than with upper class society. Furthermore, pictures of Cristal being sprayed at parties and flowing down from P. Diddy’s Champagne bars endure as examples of the sheer lavishness and even wastefulness condoned by not only the hip hop community but also by the American public during the late 1990s and early 2000s.