Pass the Courvoisier... (no, really, I mean it...)

Ah, the end of a love affair. So bittersweet...

After years and years and YEARS of giving free advertising to the Louis Roederer Company and its Cristal champagne (available from $150 to over $600), hip-hop artists are now talking about boycotting the company. In a recent interview, the head of the company was asked what he thought of rap artists' long-term infatuation with their overpriced grape juice. This guy apparently sniffed dismissively, and called the love of urban artists for their beverage "unwanted attention." Wow. Cold-blooded!

Anywhoo, Shawn (Jay-Z) Carter, rap icon and President of Def Jam Records, went on the radio up in NYC last week, to pronounce Cristal was "over." He suggested that we, the urban community, respond to the Cristal people's haughty disdain by not buying any more bottles. Um, I think I can comply with that request.

It makes you wonder, though. If a request from Jay-Z is all it takes, why won't Jigga announce some other things as over? Like Black-on-Black crime? Like crack-selling? Like rapping exclusively about crack-selling? Like shirtless, fedora-wearing Usher knock-offs? I'm just asking.

The whole Cristal story may ultimately prove to be as lacking in substance as other urban legends about smack-talking beneficiaries of hip-hop fads. The stories about the boss of Timberland and Tommy Hilfiger (on Oprah, no less!) disrespecting the Black and Latin kids propping up their quarterly earnings proved to be false. But why are we never surprised to hear this stuff? The Hip-hop Generation tries to come up, tries, often foolishly to move beyond the things we're "supposed" to want to seek the trappings of the upscale American Dream. But deep down, we suspect that the people who make these things don't respect us, don't want our money. It's that paradox: Even when we're flexing our money and ego, we're insecure.