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Jay-Z-champagne

By Anslem Samuel | Published January 26, 2011 | Full size is 500 × 320 pixels

CRISTAL: According to Jay-Z’s recent book Decoded, the first time he mentioned the high-end champagne in rhyme was on 1996’s “Dead Presidents II,” when he rhymed, “Jay-Z the icon, baby, you like Dom’?/Maybe this Cristal will change your life…” The Brooklyn, NY native name-checked Cristal again on “Can’t Knock the Hustle,” also off his debut album, Reasonable Doubt (“My motto, stack rocks like Colorado/Auto off the champagne, Cristals by the bottle”). In 1997, champagne sales reached a five-year high of 14.5 million bottles sold, resulting in over $200 million in revenue. Coincidence? But alas, in 2006, Jay-Z announced he was boycotting Cristal after what he felt were racist remarks by Frédéric Rouzaud, Champagne Louis Roederer’s President and CEO, about hip-hop’s affection for the drink. Cristal’s sales dipped by 15% in 2009 compared with the previous year but experts attributed the drop-off to the economic recession rather than Jay-Z’s boycott. However, sales of the pricey bubbly are back on the up and up.

CRISTAL: According to Jay-Z’s recent book Decoded, the first time he mentioned the high-end…