Are they forgetting the Ladies Man? According to the NY Times:
- "Pass the Courvoisier.
Everybody sing it now.
Pass the Courvoisier."
So goes a refrain of the popular song, "Pass the Courvoisier Part Two" by Busta Rhymes, featuring Sean Combs, who is known these days as P. Diddy. It became a party anthem du jour.
But after the song improved the sales of the Cognac, it became something more — a symbol of the economic power of hip-hop.
"Pass the Courvoisier Part Two" helped increase the sales of the liquor by 4.5 percent in the first quarter of this year and into the double digits in recent months, said Jack Shea, a spokesman for Allied Domecq Wine and Spirits, an American arm of the British drinks company that owns Courvoisier.
The influence of the song has kicked off a move by hip-hop artists to cash in more on the free advertising in their music by rhyming about their own products and not just products like Prada, Gucci, Burberry, Belvedere Vodka, Alizé Liqueur, Hennessy Cognac, and Cristal Champagne.
Leading the pack is Roc-A-Fella Records, the major hip-hop label that owns the clothing line Roc-A-Wear and the film company Roc-A-Films. Roc-A-Fella, whose parent company is Island Def Jam Records, recently bought Armadale Vodka from a Scottish company.
Rappers on the Roc-A-Fella label, including Jay-Z and Cam'ron, are now busily writing rhymes to the phonetically challenged vodka, said Kareem Biggs Burke, the chief executive officer of the company along with Jay-Z and Damon Dash, the hip-hop impresario. Jay-Z has already mentioned Armadale in his song, "All I Need."
"We've made a lot of money for a lot of companies over the years," Mr. Burke said. "Since we have so much influence, we can make money for ourselves by expanding our businesses. No more Belvedere Vodka or Cristal Champagne in our music or videos."
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