Rap megastar Jay-Z has decided to boycott Cristal champagne. After years of touting the brand in songs and videos, Jay-Z has had a change of heart. Is it because Cristal marketing disproportionately targets African-Americans? Nope. Rather, Jay-Z is upset because a corporate executive apparently dissed Cristal's hip-hop clientele in a recent interview. [Writes Washington Post columnist Jabari Asim in response:]

So that does it. No more bottles of this high-priced bubbly for me. The next time I'm at Plumm, the swank Manhattan nightspot, I'll tell the waiter to fill my flute with Dom P. Rose, a variety Jay-Z is experimenting with these days.

Seriously, though, I'm not mad at Jay-Z for expressing his displeasure. Just as with women and others who have taken offense at his sexist, misogynist lyrics, he has a right to be peeved by what he sees as disrespectful treatment. But there are far bigger alcohol-related problems among the urban population that helps keep his tunes at the top of the charts, and he would probably be quick to agree.

Perhaps, but Jay-Z's actions would seem to suggest otherwise. The rapper once known as Shawn Carter is focusing his ire on those alcohol producers who eschew the black [fail to enthusiastically embrace the hip-hop] market, rather than those who target young black consumers. So much for boycotts as a tool of social change.

UPDATE: I agree that the above post was inartfully worded, so I've revised the post. My point is that Jay-Z seems more concerned about a minor slight than he is at broader social change. That's his right, but it hardly places him above criticism. If, as reported, it was simply the comments to The Economist reproduced below that got Jay-Z's "rhymes in a twist" (in Asim's words), I think it's fair to suggest that Jay-Z has some misplaced priorities.

Just who these ultra-fancy champagnes are aimed at is a slightly sensitive issue. Cristal was originally created exclusively for the Russian tsars. Jean-Claude Rouzaud, who managed the Louis Roederer winery until his retirement earlier this year, once said: “We make our champagne for that 3-5% of consumers who really know wine, and who take the time to taste it correctly.”

The reality is rather different, at least in the United States. Today, the most high-profile consumers of Cristal are rap artists, whose taste for swigging bubbly in clubs is less a sign of a refined palate than a passion for a “bling-bling” lifestyle that includes ten-carat diamond studs, chunky gold jewellery, pimped up Caddies and sensuous women. In his number one hit “Hard Knock Life”, Jay-Z raps, “Let’s sip the Cris and get pissy-pissy”. Cristal has been so visible at Mr Combs’s concerts that onlookers have wondered whether the venerable champagne house was sponsoring the event.

In fact, the attitude of the house of Roederer to the unexpected popularity of Cristal among rappers is considerably more circumspect. Frédéric Rouzaud, who took over from his father as managing-director of the winery in January, says that Roederer has observed its association with rap with “curiosity and serenity”. But he does not seem entirely serene. Asked if an association between Cristal and the bling lifestyle could actually hurt the brand, he replies: “That’s a good question, but what can we do? We can’t forbid people from buying it. I’m sure Dom Pérignon or Krug would be delighted to have their business.”

Rousaud's not embracing Cristal's high hip-hop profile, but it is not as if he said (as one commenter suggested) "we don't want black people consuming our products." Had Rousaud made such explicitly racist comments, it would be a different matter entirely.

Of course Jay-Z is free to boycott whomever he wishes, but my belief in the use of boycotts to alter marketplace behavior hardly precludes me from criticizing those boycotts that I doubt are warranted. My point, and that of the Jabari Asim column that prompted my post, is that Jay-Z seems to have his priorities out of whack (as do many groups on both left and right that have embraced boycotts in recent years). Asim cites data showing that alcohol advertising is disproportionately targeted at African-American youth and that there are more alcohol references in rap music than in other genres. Further, he reports that the "age-adjusted death rate from alcohol-induced causes for blacks is 10 percent higher than that for the general population." It is not paternalistic to believe that there might be some connection here, and to hope that those with the ability to influence others take note of unwelcome social trends. While I like Jay-Z's music, I would have more respect for his social consciousness were his calls for a boycott motivated by something more substantial than a perceived slight.