Hip hop liquor brand mentions shifted from affordable malt to luxury spirits

Evidence

A few brands have maintained their status over the years, such as Hennessy and Bacardi, but for the most part, liquor brands rise and fall in symbolic stature. When segmented, consumer patterns emerge. For instance, in figure 5.2, the malt liquor brands Olde English and St. Ides are seen as popular icons of the “gangsta rap” era, when hip hop authenticity was represented by rugged descriptions of the lived experience of young men in Black neighborhoods, for whom potent, affordable malt liquor was prominent. By the mid-1990s, as the “corporate rap” era began, and the notion of hip hop authenticity shifted to signifiers of luxury, Alizé and Courvoisier rose in popularity. — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, 341

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s art-vs-finance lens: the shift from Olde English to Courvoisier in lyrics tracks the commercialization of hip hop’s authenticity markers.
• SEED: Angle: tracing a single brand’s rise and fall in hip hop lyrics — like Courvoisier’s ‘Pass the Courvoisier’ moment — as a formal indicator of the industry’s ownership changes.