Cristal Responds to Boycott, Comments on Hip-Hop Patronage

 •  XXL Magazine  •  by XXL Staff  •  57 Comments

cristal.jpgOn the heels of a call from Def Jam President Jay-Z to boycott their product, Louis Roederer Cristal, manufacturers of the high-end champagne, have issued a statement in their defense. The rebuttal reads: “A house like Louis Roederer would not have existed since 1776 without being totally open and tolerant to all forms of culture and art, including the most recent musical and fashion styles, which, like hip-hop, keep us in touch with modernity.” The boycott arose from an article in The Economist where Frédéric Rouzaud, the company’s managing director, stated: “We can’t forbid people from buying it. I’m sure Dom Perignon or Krug would be delighted to have their business.” Contrary to previous reports, Rouzaud did not actually use the phrase “unwelcomed attention” as stated in the press release from Jay-Z’s public relations firm. That particular characterization was actually made by Gideon Rachman, the author of the Economist piece.

  • http://myspace.com/ranrice RanRice(pronounced rees)

    FUCK THEM RACIST MUTHAFUCKAS!!!!!!

  • Cellus

    Interesting! Jigga has now shown tha heaviness of his weight and pull by making them issue a statment and not all out ignoring him. Hip Hop has spoken.

  • Tha muhfuckin Rapture

    Gotta love the back-pedalin technique…Cristal is fuckin’ rancid, anyways…fuck em.

  • Tru Wanksta

    Who the fuck wants to buy Cristal when you could buy a shit load of crack and support rappers lyrics?

  • Lee

    there rebuttal is still conferming there racisit remarks and it’s just stupid who realy cares about that shit any way remember when there was a rumer about tommy hillfiger made some adledge racist remarks on oprah’s show hip hop people still bought his shit so people should take this for what it is. And what is it bullshit it’s a waste of time but it’s a step in the right derection towards battling racism people should not continue to accept this shit in any form. it’s the 21 century but people or i should say some white people are still living in the past where we as black people or in may case native aboriginal we had no rights so fight the power.

  • Yung World

    So know they’re back tracking Jigga the CEO of Hip Hop he spoke Cristal answered thats why he doesn’t have to answer to any diss tracks cocksuckers

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  • jojochicago

    Quit biting muthafuk’a! just like them white fuks to suck up when the black dollar is gone! we have so much buying power in this world that it can affect yacht payments and new mansions from being built. fuk all this shit! lets build the black brand.

  • rec

    # Yung World Says:
    June 16th, 2006 at 2:46 pm

    So know they’re back tracking Jigga the CEO of Hip Hop he spoke Cristal answered thats why he doesn’t have to answer to any diss tracks cocksuckers
    ^^^
    Bump that.

  • ceo

    fuck’em we drink PATRONE n GIN anyway, in WIDE AWAKE WILSON,NC

  • dog

    fuck cris

  • screw music nigga

    drink more FIJI

  • JTeezy

    FUCK Cristal shit i aint neva had none(and i want to) BUT FUCK ‘em they tryna say they could have survived without us and are acting like they don’t need our money they should welcome all customers……racist ass bitches

  • Shortylightskin

    This things blowin up now, i see it all over the place. I don’t drink the shit noway, even if i could afford it. To all the white kids that think its cool to be black or hiphop, this is an EVERYDAY thing its just been magnified cause JayZ large.

  • Shortylightskin

    shit aint never gon change

  • .EL PRESIDENTE ©

    I never did drink that watered down shit… and hope no other black person ever does so as well.

  • OScar

    never bought no crystal and shit, but one thing i gotta say, jay z does people does, is like your 2k6 michael jordan and that is sad… not only wit crystal , it is wit everything ! FUCK THIS !

    commercialize your lifes wit jiggi the jay z !

    does he put food on your tables ? im sure he does not , im in spain and we laugh ourselves how you follow the wackest niggaz on earth…. 50, jay, eminem, monkey see monkey do , monkey see monkey do…. thats SAD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    no real niggaz ”meaning” up in here….

  • ReDiCuLouS

    Yo Oscar…what fuckin’ rappers you got in spain that we listen to over here….? You seem to know a lot about our mainstream….does that tell you anything? Hov is like Jesus in this Hip-Hop shit…he been in it for a minute…stepped up, & now people flockin’ for his attention or direction…but thats what you get when the G.O.A.T.~

  • http://xxl Bill

    cristal is the coolest now. Maybe if rappers started getting educations and stopped talking all their stupid shit they would get respect from the working world.

  • Ali

    YOU MOTHER FUCKERS DICKRIDE TOO MUCH.. w/e a artist says u guys belive them shit.. the 1st couply comment i was reading was just dickriding… FUCKING HOMO’S.. fuck wat JA say’s, CRISTAL big man everone drinks that shit

  • ripsta

    jigga put cristal in a choke hold and they tapped out

  • Lady Love

    Well it Ain’t My Fuckin problem Step Ya Game Up BoTay Bwoy

  • broadstreetbully

    Oscar is just hatin, i guess he is 2 busy bein a poser to realize that the rest of the world follows in our footsteps. How u reppin spain when u are probably rockin a grill? haha these damn internet thugs

  • Makavelli

    FUCK THEM!!!!! THEY KNOW THEY SAID THAT SHIT. THEY JUST REALIZE HOW MUCH MONEY THEY WOULD BE LOSING, PROBABLY WILL GO BROKE IN THE PROCESS!!!! AGIN, FUCK THEM CRACKERS CONTINUE THE BOYCOTT!!!!!!!!

  • H-Man

    Budweiser. Throw dat Crystal in da bay. Well call it da Great Tea baggin Party

  • http://xxlmag.com E-man (South c)

    Fuck all this shit,niggaz know my role model is in de brown bottle,Nigga whats ya fuckin model! Hennesy.

  • Whiteboy

    Man you fuckers really have issues. Big conspiracy going on to keep the black man down, ey?! How fuckin stupid is that…
    anyway, the guy didn’t mean to offend black people, or anyone really. He just happens to be in charge of a company selling luxury goods and has a ‘brand identity’ to maintain for the long run. Most customers are rich bastards, and they want to feel exclusive.
    besides, since when is hip hop the same thing as being black? if that is your opinion, you’re a fucking racist, not that french dude

  • G. Dorman

    Is that the extent of the response???!! Wow. How ridiculously non-apologetic.

  • Che

    gotta say it shows jay has some influence, i doubt someone like lupe fiasco or Kurupt objecting to such a comment would have been taken much notice of..

  • Che

    by the way its funny how probably none of you can afford cristal yet u say ‘fuck them’ like u can boycott it haha

  • Fred D

    I dont like that shit anywayz, taste like trash, expensive trash =)..

  • Will T. Bagyou

    Drink Patron and Ghost Ride ya whip BITCHES! (cristal is for fags)

  • Cornpuff

    Hip hop people are dumbed down to a degree that is almost staggering. There is nothing “racist” about anything the Cristal company guy said. Jay Z decides to use the same old fingerpointing nonsense and all you puppets just follow along like stink behind a skunk.

    Please learn to think for yourselves. It’s really not too late.

  • http://www.ananzi.co.za PHONY YAYO

    FUCK DEM

    GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG-UNOT

  • Sam Muller

    To hell with Cristal and Weed and Crack. Buy a fuckin book with your money. Read somethin Nukkas!!

  • http://www.soundclick.com/kingdeezy Lee Dub

    Maaaaan, I don’t know what all the fuss is all about. If the white muhfuckaz say they don’t want us to patronize their company, and feel that we are “unwelcomed attention” then we should just listen to them, and do our own thing…. No that don’t mean er’ nigga go out and try to create the next “Sizzurp” or “Armadale” but y’know what I mean… Just fuck wit somethin else… He did suggest to drink Dom Perignon or Krug, so hey… Do what floats your boat… I’ma hood nigga I like that Paul Masson.. YA DIGGG???

  • angie

    How are they racist??

    They haven’t said black people should not drink Cristal

    They have said that they don’t want their brand associated wit hip-hop and I feel them on that

    I mean hip-hop ain’t what it used to be

  • http://myspace.com/gunitsoldier50xl Ether

    i drink 40′s anywayz, i ain’t fuckin wit the champagne, i’m too broke lol.

  • white power

    first of all im a whit man second of all fuck u niggERs you niggers are lucky to be able to purchase alcohol, why would the owner of cristal want attention from this rap crap, rap is just a way for niggers to make money because they cant do anything else. Rap should be a crime most of these niggers are drop-outs that probably couldnt even spell their names correctly and they’re making millions of dollars, damn niggers make me sick

    WHITE POWER!!!

    I love the KKK

  • reasonable

    I just wish that people would use real words and try to speak english. people on this website spend more time trying to figuer out how to misspell words than they do speaking correctly. now im not saying that i dont use slang, i just usually try to sound like an educated person. now for the issue at hand. they did not say anything about black people, they said hip hop. and hip hop is bad attention. rappers now a days are krass, rude, unproffesional, and uneducated. the worst part is that most rappers live nothing like what theyre image is and just sell it to a ready and willing audience whom for some reason want to emulate an idiot. this includes jayz whom since the beginning has played his own people like a fiddle. it started when he sold crack to mothers and fathers and still goes on by protraying himself as a “gangsta” still. hes not a “gangsta” and is not “heavy” in “da streets”. you only think he is because when he says so you get goosebumps. this is all to get people behind jay z and def jam. if you feed into it then you deserve to be labeled as bad attention

  • reasonable

    now i must say that white power is the other side of the spectrum and deserves nothing more than a nail in the eye. he gives all white people a bad name and it is unfortunate that the ammendments of the constitution protects people with such convictions

  • Face Phoenix

    This isn’t the first time someone made comments like this, so why are we so disgusted. Many other brands of stated similar comments yet chiefly advertise in the Urban Market. If they really didn’t want our money, they would avoid selling to our market completely. It’s funny if they lost this market and they had a warehouse full of product, how long would you think it would take to send a retration to the press over the comments they made. I’m sure there are many more companies that share this view but they at least know when to shut up. What fool sits around and says I want there money but not yours, A dollar is a dollar. Maybe when they see a decrease in sells they’ll catch up to the 21st Century or when they see their competitors thrive in the wake of their platant Stupity. I guess it’s true there is no darkness like ignorance and Jackass Rouzand is pitch black.

  • James Lewis

    It seems that the main companies that alot of the black community supports are the same companies that come out and say negative comments. If we go back, Gloria Vanderbilt and her jeans, Tommy Hilfiger and his clothes. It makes no sense. Why don’t they come out and say there comments first before we, the black community support it. Before they got our money it was all good. Once they get it, then its I didn’t make my clothes for black people or I didn’t intend for them to give me business. I say we support the boycott fully and then let’s see how it hurts. I want the general public to realize how powerful the “Black Dollar” is.

  • jIgga who

    WE SHOULD ALL STOP WASTING OUR HARD EARNED DOLLARS ON ALL FORMS OF ALCOHOL, DRUGS, AND MAJOR CORPORATIONS ANYWAY – THEY ALL EXPLOIT US AS HUMANS AND EVEN MORE SO AS A RACE. WAKE UP FROM YOU NUMBNESS!

  • WISEGUY

    THATS RIGHT! JIGGA HELPED MAKE EM RICH

  • Zaiah

    Okay, I don’t get why “we” spend our money on it anyways. It’s gross. I’ve had 20 dollar bottles that tasted a lot better. What “we” need to do is stop living above “our” means and start spending money with “our” own people. On something worth while. Buy some real estate or something that will appreciate over time. Rims, gold teeth and Cristal only depreciate. And everytime we spend money flossing, there’s a hater waiting to take it all from you, plus your life. Rise up people! Wake up!

  • mistacapone

    FUCK CRISTAL..DRINK MALT LIQUOR..ITS BETTER FOR YOU

  • http://www.interraciallife.com socrates

    “We can’t forbid people from buying it” This statement is exactly the same as the phrase being denied which is “unwelcomed attention” You would never hear Lexus, BMW or Bacardi saying something like that. It infers disassociation with a certain group (hip hop or whoever) like “their definitely not our target audience but if they want to buy it too oh well”

    To make their elite clientele happy and protect their brand identity, Cristal has punked a sizable segment of their customers. Issue has nothing to do with Jay-z or people being followers. It’s about self respect-get some and spend your money where its appreciated.

  • TerranB

    As an African-American male, I’m confused about why the black community always jumps to the defense of hip-hop. Rather than worrying about Mr. Cristal’s opinion of black folks, we need to take a look in the mirror and rid ourselves of this culture of corruption, thugery, and womanizing. Our black sisters need men to take care of their kids, and we’re stuck in prison, “cuz we wanna be real thugz like Pac and Snoop.” Until we have some positive role-models, noone will respect us, or hope we drink their champagne.

  • GUnit South Mami

    JoJoChicago, you said a mouth full. I agree with you! Our dollas can affect every aspect of their lives. This is bigger than m’fn racist comments by Cristal makers. When it’s all said and done them bastards know the deal, that’s why they made a statement when Jigga spoke.

  • http://xxlmag.com 703 haterkiller

    I can agree with TERRANB up there, but any way FUK CRISTAL….BE YOURSELF……

  • Cracker

    You fuckin retards. If you want to turn this into a white black war saying that black people have buying power, you are fucking retarded. How many Jay-Z’s would it take to make one Bill Gates? More licks than it takes to get to a center of a tootsie pop! Now lets see about Paul Allen, yep… same thing there. Now lets go to Google’s founders wait a minute… I’m starting to see a pattern. Just because Jay-Z runs his mouth of doesn’t mean shit. The makers of Cristal were trying to be politically correct (this makes sense since they have a PR team). Jay-Z publicity is the big deal, not his net worth. Pull your heads out of your asses and really look around before you post “Hey, I’m a dumbass who likes to run my mouth as long as other people are doing it”. The comment was taken out of context anyways and twisted in front of the public.

  • http://none killa black

    its too late too cop pleas now, what done is done, and so is cristal, REAL HIPHOP IS HERE (myspace.com/blublack)

  • http://none killa black

    its too late too cop pleas now, what done is done, and so is cristal, REAL HIPHOP IS HERE (myspace.com/blublack)

  • http://none killa black

    its too late too cop pleas now, what done is done, and so is cristal, REAL HIPHOP IS HERE (myspace.com/blublack)

  • http://none killa black

    its too late too cop pleas now, what done is done, and so is cristal, REAL HIPHOP IS HERE (myspace.com/blublack)

  • Jason

    Good god, just reading the the first twenty responses was hilarious, nothing but nigger stereotypes.
    Just about every post, incoherent and littered with “fuck” and complete bullshit.

    If I ran a company representing hundreds of years of fine tradition, only to have that image shit on by the pretentious, sheep like rap community. I’d be pissed too.