Hip-Hop Island

Rappers are still backing liquors... Not just Diddy and his Ciroc. Sure everyone's got to have a backer when it comes to making straight pay these days, but the alcohol industry remained indebted to Hip-Hop for the constant flows of their brand. We poor and poor these bottles and major artists are still dropping names left and right to complete a verse. At some point when Jay-Z said he was done with Cristal, the movement started to lose it's impact. Apparently, that's not the case. Alcohol remains to be a pivotal part to the rap game -- defining status, providing swagger, and making everything simply "cool." Beyond the status factor, artists have always been products supporting and feeding off of other products. Clothes, shoes, jewelry and technology are not the only products that have mutually survived off the popularity of Hip-Hop artists -- the trend transcends these typical supporters and merges celebrity with commercial products that define lifestyles. It's not only about the products you drape yourself with; it means more to have a complete package of coolness emanating from a celebrity's persona. Rap artists are the epitomy of every great about being a male or female. From the liquor they sip to the kush they burn, alcohol and drugs are not only temptations but they define a bad-ass image that sells a rapper and pushes products to the forefront of their main audience. Hip-Hop is a delinquent's culture and that makes it easy for liquor companies to feed off its many personas. Being bad has never felt so good.