How a racist remark led to Jay Z’s newest investment—champagne

The champagne, made in the town of Chigny-les-Roses, comes in a gold bottle

 embossed with a logo from a deck of cards (hence its nickname of Ace of Spades) and sells for about $300 each.

But for much of the recent history of rap Armand de Brignac was not a champagne that anyone cared to boast they were drinking—if anyone had heard of it. It was all about brands like Moët et Chandon and, especially, Cristal.What happened? In 2006, The Economist interviewed Frederic Rouzaud, the managing director of the company that makes Cristal, on how its owners felt about seeing rappers drink the champagne in their videos. “That’s a good question, but what can we do?” he replied. “We can’t forbid people from buying it. I’m sure Dom Pérignon or Krug would be delighted to have their business.”1Jay Z recounted how he felt to hear that. “That was like a slap in the face… I released a statement saying that I would never drink Cristal or promote it in any way or serve it at my clubs ever again,” he said. “I felt like this was the bullshit I’d been dealing with forever, this kind of offhanded, patronizing disrespect for the culture of hip-hop.” The rapper put it more succintly in another track, “On To The Next One”:I used to drink Cristal, them motherfuckers racistSo I switched gold bottles on to that Spade shit

He debuted “that Spade shit,” meaning Armand de Brignac, in a music video for his single “Show Me What You Got,” in 2006, soon after Rouzaud’s comments offended rappers and their fans everywhere. Jay Z has been promoting this brand of champagne ever since. 
source:quartz.com

That ought to show him.