Intelligencer

Club Owners Fret Over Jay-Z Ban

Sippin’ on Cristal forever?

By Jada Yuan
Published Jun 19, 2006

Last Wednesday, Jay-Z called for the hip-hop community to boycott Cristal champagne over what he viewed as racist comments from Cristal honcho Frédéric Rouzaud to the Economist (he said, “What can we do? We can’t forbid people from buying it”). Jay-Z announced that he’d no longer support Cristal “through any of my various brands . . . nor in my personal life.” Where does that leave Cristal-pushing club owners? Cain spokesperson Stephen Kasuba says, “We’ll monitor our clientele. If they don’t want it, we don’t need to reorder it.” Noel Ashman, who says his club Plumm can go through 30 bottles a night, is also taking a wait-and-see attitude. But Michael Satsky, co-owner of Jay-Z hangout Stereo, says that even though “we go through two to three cases and six magnums any night—the statement that Jay made is going to be enforced. We can focus on pushing Perrier Jouët Rosé and Dom Pérignon, no problem.”