![]() To cast this affinity as mere bling-era excess misses far too much of the real story of how champagne found itself at the heart of hip-hop’s triumphs (and insecurities) for more than three decades. Please enable Javascript to watch this video The French are the O.G. influencers when it comes to champers (the centuries-old sparkling wine was originally designated for coronations in the Reims Cathedral), but many of us today learned about the drink through Illmatic cassettes and Yo! MTV Raps videos. Puff Daddy and Biggie taught us about Moët, Jay Z and Dame Dash showed us Cristal, and countless pop-culture tropes-including slang like popping bottles and sipping Cris’-were born out of the rap’s fascination with bubbly. ![]() ![]() It’s a fitting coda to hip-hop’s long, indelible relationship with champagne-one that has evolved from aspirational, to self-consciously showy, to business-savvy. Recently, Jay Z provided yet another when he purchased Armand de Brignac-better known as “Ace of Spades”-to become the first rapper to own a champagne label outright. ![]() The past decade has given us an endless stream of “you never thought that hip-hop would take it this far” moments-from winning Oscars to getting shout outs from the president, today’s emcees have a platform that pioneers like Melle Mel and Kurtis Blow never would have fathomed. ![]()
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