On On Monday, Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter sold a 50% stake in his champagne brand Armand de Brignac to luxury goods conglomerate LVMH for an undisclosed price. But Carter did not initially set out to create his own high-quality champagne business, not even his entertainment company, Roc Nation.
“That was not the plan to build this great media company,” he said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday, referring to Roc Nation, which in 2019 was worth about $ 75 million.
“I wanted a record deal and, when we didn’t get it, we built our own,” said Carter
Likewise, Carter joined the champagne game because he felt he had no other choice.
Carter helped to widely popularize the French champagne brand Cristal in the late 90s and early 2000s, using it in his music videos and quoting it in his songs. But in 2006, Frederic Rouzaud, then managing director (now CEO) of Champagne winery Louis Roederer, who is the maker of Cristal, made comments that Carter considered racist.
Asked by The Economist if an association with rap could harm Cristal, Rouzaud said: “Good question, but what can we do? We cannot prohibit people from buying it.”
Rouzaud subsequently issued a statement saying that the company had “the greatest respect and interest in all forms of art and culture”, according to The New York Times. But Carter boycotted the brand.
“[T]The comments forced us to build our own stuff, “Carter said in the” Squawk Box “Monday.
In the same year, Carter presented bottles of Armand de Brignac champagne – known as “Ace of Spades” due to its label – in his music video “Show me What You Got”. Carter also partnered with Armand de Brignac with a 50% stake in the brand (terms of the deal were not disclosed).
In 2014, Carter bought the remainder of Armand de Brignac’s stake for an undisclosed amount, making him the first rapper to own a champagne brand. The brand sold more than 500,000 bottles in 2019, according to CNBC reported.
And today, “yes, today is a happy day and I feel very justified,” Carter told Squawk Box about the LVMH business.
But America still has a “long way to go towards inclusion,” he says. I’m the “biggest African American owner of a luxury product, so there’s a lot [of] space to go from here. “
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LVMH buys 50% stake in Jay-Z’s champagne brand Armand de Brignac