I personally do not always have a drink when I am at a Hip Hop event and I don't feel that it in nesseccary to drink to have a good time. However, when I am out at a club the majority of the people are drinking alcohol and I do know a few people that would rather have an energy drink than alcohol. I have also noticed that the ratio of people drinking and people not drinking do change when at an all ages Hip Hop event. Which I feel is really nice. But maybe the reason people do more drinking than not is that the option not to drink is not advertised as much as it should or maybe the options are limited.

Excert: "Study Says Hip-Hop Listeners More Prone To Drug Use, Aggression

04.18.2006 4:55 PM EDT

'We need to ask why alcohol companies use ... rappers in their commercials,' author says.
A new study questions alcohol companies' use of rappers like Diddy in commercials
Photo: Scott Gries/Getty Images

If you listen to rap music, you're more likely to use alcohol and drugs and to behave in an aggressive manner — at least according to a new study by the nonprofit Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation.

More than 1,200 California community-college students 15-25 took part in a study - titled "Music, Substance Use and Aggression" — and answered survey questions about their music-listening habits, use of alcohol and drugs and "aggressive behaviors," such as fighting or threatening people with violence.

The results found that almost 70 percent of the students who listened to music "daily or almost daily" listened to rap and hip-hop, and when that data was compared with the students' answers about alcohol, drugs and violence, the survey found that "substance use and aggressive behaviors among young people were significantly associated to certain genres of popular music," mainly rap, reggae, rock and techno."

Click here for the full article.

While a study of a bigger audience is definetly needed in this study, I would have to agree with the marketing. Since Hip Hop is a big part of a scene that enjoys clubbing and with that comes a bar in a club then the marketing sounds just about right. Forinstance if I was trying to sell a vodka to someone trying to make a decision at a bar I would most definetly go with the hip hop artist to sell my product. Now, how that idea is put out to the public is different. Maybe alcohol companies should spend more time in their commercials to send out a possitive message to their consumers. I don't feel that would be so hard. Maybe a commercial that features a young lady declining the offer of an alcoholic drink from a hip hop celebrity, would be a start. Or maybe a commercial showing a Hip Hop celebrity only having one cocktail for whatever reason. This would give the consumer some options and wouldn't make the alcohol companies such monsters.