St. Ides, the mindlessness of hip-hop’s conspicous consumerism and the start of the end …
Posted by: goofy328 on: January 30, 2007
Before you blame Diddy for yelling Versace from the rooftops and Jay-Z for selling Cristal did you ever think about where much of the consumerism in rap came from? There was a time when hip-hop artists sold stuff that people could actually afford (if you can believe that), including cheap liquor. Over 15 years ago, Pabst Brewing Company had the bright idea of creating a liquor for the hood; before long rappers as diverse as Ice Cube and Biggie Smalls were extolling the virtues of this potent brand of malt liquor, and advertising history was made. Some of the commercials were a simple rehash of earlier songs put to video, with the lyrics changed, as was typically the case in the Ice Cube commercials. Other commercials were in development yet never saw the light of day, though occasionally a completely ridiculous commercial would come out, in fact, this may be where Red Bull gets their wings from.
And if you’ve conveniently forgotten that, there’s another one where they ride down the wrong side of the street in a convertible. Despite it’s popularity, St Ides eventually lost it’s popularity, as the infatuation with street life was pushed aside for more accessible, mainstream ideas of what rap music, and hip-hop culture were. Is consumerism still a part of hip-hop culture, or are we all burnt out from a series of messages encouraging us to purchase what we don’t need, yet we felt that we needed to have, to define us? St Ides only cost $1.99, but it wasn’t long before you were willing to pay hundreds of dollars on a bottle of, whatever, not to get drunk, but for the status of being able to do so. The clothing everyone thought they had to have was less than $100, but that was a lot then because few were doing it; these days the kid in the stroller is dressed better. If you want a cheap fix, there are thousands of energy drinks on the shelves, some with alcohol included, yet is getting one chic anymore, um, no …
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.
St. Ides, the mindlessness of hip-hop’s conspicous consumerism and the start of the end …
Posted by: goofy328 on: January 30, 2007
Before you blame Diddy for yelling Versace from the rooftops and Jay-Z for selling Cristal did you ever think about where much of the consumerism in rap came from? There was a time when hip-hop artists sold stuff that people could actually afford (if you can believe that), including cheap liquor. Over 15 years ago, Pabst Brewing Company had the bright idea of creating a liquor for the hood; before long rappers as diverse as Ice Cube and Biggie Smalls were extolling the virtues of this potent brand of malt liquor, and advertising history was made. Some of the commercials were a simple rehash of earlier songs put to video, with the lyrics changed, as was typically the case in the Ice Cube commercials. Other commercials were in development yet never saw the light of day, though occasionally a completely ridiculous commercial would come out, in fact, this may be where Red Bull gets their wings from.
And if you’ve conveniently forgotten that, there’s another one where they ride down the wrong side of the street in a convertible. Despite it’s popularity, St Ides eventually lost it’s popularity, as the infatuation with street life was pushed aside for more accessible, mainstream ideas of what rap music, and hip-hop culture were. Is consumerism still a part of hip-hop culture, or are we all burnt out from a series of messages encouraging us to purchase what we don’t need, yet we felt that we needed to have, to define us? St Ides only cost $1.99, but it wasn’t long before you were willing to pay hundreds of dollars on a bottle of, whatever, not to get drunk, but for the status of being able to do so. The clothing everyone thought they had to have was less than $100, but that was a lot then because few were doing it; these days the kid in the stroller is dressed better. If you want a cheap fix, there are thousands of energy drinks on the shelves, some with alcohol included, yet is getting one chic anymore, um, no …
Share this:
Like this: