Armand de Brignac

[WATCH] Jay-Z Drinks Cognac Out Of His Grammy Award Following Beyonce Snub

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Screenshot 2024 02 05 at 9.49.40 AM

Hip Hop billionaire Jay-Z took the time during his acceptance of his Dr. Dre Global Impact Award last night at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards to slam the Recording Academy for not giving his wife Beyonce Knowles album of the year.

He spoke on Beyonce being snubbed for Album of the Year, saying, “I don’t want to embarrass this young lady, but she has more Grammys than anyone, but has never won Album of the Year. So even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work.”

Check out his commentary HERE

Following the heartfelt acceptance speech, Mr. Carter poured himself a shot of Armand de Brignac champagne into his phonograph and threw it back to the delight of the crowd.

Yes, Beyonce is Hov’s wife, but his insight into the winner selection process by the Academy wasn’t too far off the mark. Beyonce has 32 Grammy Awards, which is more than any other artist in the history of the award show. Additionally, Jay and Bey are tied for the most nominations for the coveted phonograph, with both of them boasting an incredible 88 nominations each. Jay himself has earned 24 Grammy awards, with six of those awards being Album of the Year.

The post [WATCH] Jay-Z Drinks Cognac Out Of His Grammy Award Following Beyonce Snub first appeared on The Source.

The post [WATCH] Jay-Z Drinks Cognac Out Of His Grammy Award Following Beyonce Snub appeared first on The Source.

Jay-Z’s Ace Of Spades Champagne Is So Popular, Even New York Police Tried Stealing $2900 Worth Of It From Electric Zoo

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Armand de Brignac Jay-Z Ace Of Spades
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Not every brand associated with a rapper is automatically as successful as either party might hope, but one brand that’s been exceeding expectations for a while now is Jay-Z‘s Armand de Brignac champagne — also known as “Ace Of Spades.” The brand has been growing ever since Jay bought it in 2014, and demand continues to be so high that some folks are apparently going to extreme lengths to get their hands on it.

According to Billboard, two NYPD officers have been accused of trying to steal $2900 worth of bottles of Ace from last year’s Electric Zoo festival. Jonathan Gonzalez, 33, and Wojciech Czech, 44, are each charged with grand larceny in the fourth degree and criminal possession of stolen property in the fourth degree for taking two unopened, unattended bottles of champagne from the VIP tent in a backpack, while a third officer, Warren Golden, 31, observed but did not stop them. Golden has been charged with official misconduct, as has Gonzalez.

However, festival attendees noticed the theft and reported the three officers to festival security. After being confronted, the officers returned the stolen goods and went back to work, but by then the security guard had already notified a supervisor, who informed their commander.

In a statement, the NYPD said, “As a result of the continuing joint investigation with the Internal Affairs Bureau and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, two NYPD officers were arrested and subsequently suspended from duty today. The NYPD will continue to pursue the facts in this investigation and initiate further discipline where appropriate.”

Jay Z Sells Half Of His ‘Ace Of Spades’ Champagne Company To LVMH

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Jay-Z has sold half his Armand de Brignac champagne brand — aka Ace Of Spades — to LVMH’s Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, according to The Wall Street Journal. LVMH bought a 50% stake in the emerging brand to help grow Armand de Brignac with the help of LVMH’s global distribution network but no specific figures were given in the report.

Jay told The Wall Street Journal that his end of the move was motivated by the growth of his brand past the expectations and expertise it already had. “We were working really hard to maintain a brand that was growing faster than the staff we had and bigger than some of the expertise we had,” he said. “We’d been in this 15 years, not a hundred.”

He also noted that while global champagne sales are experiencing a downturn due to the pandemic, the timing is better now that luxury brands have become more comfortable working with artists whose roots are in hip-hop. The story specifically cites Rihanna’s Fenty brands with LVMH, which has plans to expand her Savage X Fenty line despite closing their joint luxury fashion house, and Gucci Mane, who recently worked with his namesake brand. As Jay said, “People have come to accept that these two worlds are a natural fit. In the beginning, it wasn’t a natural fit.”

Jay invested in Armand de Brignac in 2006 after an executive at Cristal’s parent company wondered whether the brand was being harmed by constant name-checking in hip-hop. It didn’t take long for hip-hop to turn on Cristal, and Jay eventually bought out his partners in 2014. Now, LVMH hopes that the association with hip-hop will provide a cool factor that’ll bring new consumers to the market and grow the segment as the market recovers.

You can read the full story here.