For his 28th-birthday soiree, Jason "Liva" Rodriguez wanted guests to leave with lasting memories of an upscale affair. So, of course, the champagne of choice had to be Cristal - 10 bottles of the bubbly at more than $300 each.
"It draws attention because everyone knows how much it costs," Rodriguez said. "If it's Cristal, then you're really doing it big."
But now, Rodriguez, owner of Dat's What's Up urban wear store in Bear, Del., is siding with rap impresario Jay-Z and swearing off Cristal, saying, "If they don't want us drinking it, why should we spend our money buying it?"
This month, Jay-Z, chief executive officer of Def Jam Records and owner of the 40/40 clubs in Atlantic City, N.J., and Manhattan, New York, announced that he would no longer serve Cristal in his nightclubs because he believed remarks made by an executive of the champagne company were "racist." Cristal sells for $400 to $600 a bottle at nightclubs.
The flap over Cristal - once made exclusively for Russian czars in the late 1800s but anointed a hip-hop trendsetter in lyrics and music videos - could cost Cristal millions of dollars."
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Source: Dwayne Campbell - Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)
