Get y’r juices flowing

Pimpjuice, Liquid Ice and Def Con 3: just three examples of rap stars entering the food & beverage market.

Pimpjuice, Liquid Ice and Def Con 3: just three examples of rap stars entering the food & beverage market. We thought Rap Snacks, ‘the snacks with the rappers on them’ — in flavors like “Lil Romeo BAR-B-Quin With Honey” — were kind of frilly yet potentially profitable when we covered them in back in March of this year. Well, not only have they delivered on the promise (their projected sales for this year are USD 4-5 million), they seem to have inspired a host of rap stars getting into food ‘n drinks as well! Nelly is pimping his new energy drink (inspired by Red Bull’s success), aptly named pimpjuice, while fellow-rapper Ice-T has introduced Liquid Ice. They join rap tycoon Russell Simmons, who recently unveiled his Def Con 3 energy soda. So forget music celeb clothing lines (we dread the day semi-finalists on American Idols will start peddling their own branded skirts and pants), and focus instead on wicked beverages. The marketing and media channels to ‘pimp’ all of this are already in place: with hip-hop and R&B occupying most of the airplay Top 10 in the US and beyond, Springwise is sure we haven’t seen anything yet! P.S. Want one more? Cognac sales have been on the up ever since celebrity rappers declared the French stuff their preferred party drink. In 40/40, rapper Jay-Z’s Manhattan club, you’ll find a ‘Remy’ room (source WSJ), while Busta Rhymes scored big with his hit song ‘Pass the Courvoisier’. And Obie Trice’s debut, ‘Cheers’, prominently features a glass of cognac on the album’s cover. In fact, Hennessy, the biggest cognac brand in the US, with 53% of the market, says young Afro Americans account for 60% to 85% of its US sales, in what is now a USD 1 billion market. Cheers indeed.