Share ideas that inspire. FALLON PLANNERS (and co-conspirators) are freely invited to post trends, commentary, obscure ephemera and insightful rants regarding the experience of branding.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Trend: User-Created: Hip-Hop's "Unwelcome Attention": Bubbly Wars Redux

Jay-Z boycotted premium champagne Cristal at his clubs after the brand's owner made some remarks he didn't like....now he moves the fight towards something more meaningful: water.

Jay-Z, president of Def Jam Records, teamed up with the United Nations and MTV on Wednesday to get children involved in the fight against the worldwide water crisis. He cited statistics that 1.1 billion people live without clean drinking water and 2.6 billion lack proper sanitation.

"I figure that once I stumbled upon that, if the information was out and young people knew that these problems exist while we're having Poland Springs at Cipriani and things like that, that we'll get involved," said the 36-year-old rapper, referring to the high-class restaurant chain.

AKI COMMENT: Nice closure and deflection of attention from something frivolous (how rich punks waste their grape juice) to something important (much of the planet doesn't even have drinkable water). My faith is restored in the higher power of hip hop.

via Associated Press and Agenda

2 comments:

avin said...

Totally get your skepticism here.

BUT, I will say that hip hop is a schitzophrenic (sp?) thing sometimes. Take 2Pac for instance- on one song- fuckin bitches and killin snitches, the next- singing praises to his moms.

Point being, one day Jay could be talkin about things that affect his rich and famous brethern and the next day flippin the script and talking to something else. Seems to me thats a steady pattern both in music and in life for these cats. Just as they spit rhymes reflecting the mindstate they're in at the time I feel like they speak on shit in public in the same manner.

I guess what im saying is that regardless of his contradictions (and the often contradictory messages rappers send out in general), I think the fact that they say anything at all about important issues is a good thing. Theyre celebrity has a big impact on a lot of young kids who hold them up as gods, and whats important to Jay is important to them. So, maybe im being naive, but shit if even a few of them act on the important shit, it makes a difference i think.

My two cents..

Seth said...

Imagine he'd taken on water WITH gas.
Yeah, that's a double entendre. Can't knock the hustle!