Welcome to the '90s.
Hip hop is a genre on the rise and a marketing goldmine just waiting to be tapped.
From sneaker brands to soda manufacturers, everyone wants a piece.
Including malt liquor, a high-powered booze with a checkered past, looking for the hook up.
From Wu Tang to Snoop Dogg, the most iconic emcees of the day
are cashing in on high-ABV beers' quest for cachet.
Or was it the other way around?
Almost 30 years later, it's hard to say.
The verses were outrageous; the outrage, enormous.
But for better or worse, malt liquor and hip hop had a moment.
Here's how it all went down.
Before rap, malt liquor was boring.
In the Forties, it wasn't even sold in forties.
In the Fifties, it still came in normal-sized cans and bottles
for suburban white people named Biff and Mumsy.
In the Sixties & Seventies, malt liquor marketers noticed that African-Americans "overindexed."
Meaning they drank more of it than other demographics.
So malt liquor hopped on the Soul Train. Rufus Thomas, The Commodores,
even Richard Roundtree from Shaft, all selling the high-powered hooch.
In the Eighties, Colt 45 found Billy Dee Williams, and he said:
- It works every time.
- And it basically did. Sales went through the damn roof.
In '89, NWA released "8 Ball" about Olde English 800.
Holy s**t. Malt liquor's becoming sorta cool?
Close. It needed more of that attitude.
Hip hop had plenty, plus the attention of young black drinkers across the country.
Best of all, the swagger was for sale.
Other rappers had already done commercials with brands like Sprite, KFC, and Tommy Hilfiger.
The come up was cool. Selling out was in. And St. Ides was buying.
A little-known brand compared to Schlitz, Colt 45, and King Cobra, St. Ides became a beast
in the early '90s thanks to endorsement deals with pretty much every damn name in the game.
Here's Biggie. Tupac. Snoop Dogg.
These weren't just basic commercials, either.
Check out Wu Tang Clan's classic 1995 spot.
The lyrics may look forced, but when the commercial rolls, it's undeniably Shaolin.
St. Ides sales skyrocketed, and other malt liquor brands follwoed suit. With mixed results.
Amongst all of malt liquor's legendary spokes-rappers, Ice Cube is responsible for its most infamous verse.
With ads so shocking on national TV,
it's no surprise that malt liquor's hip-hop affair drew some serious heat.
Some of the most vocal critics were rappers themselves.
Public Enemy even recorded a full-length protest song, called "One Million Bottle Bags."
The public was just as pissed. Fair enough.
Paying popular rappers to sell high-powered beer to young drinkers at risk of a habit
and to black communities already plagued by alcoholism and unemployment?
Not the best idea.
By the turn of the century, hip-hop and malt liquor had called quits on the romance.
Political pressure forced the commercials off the air.
By then, rappers like Puff Daddy, Nas, and Jay-Z were popping bottles, not swigging forties.
Sales fell. Malt liquor marketing disappeared from TV,
and hip-hop disappeared from malt liquor marketing.
Almost. Look close, and there are still flickers of that Nineties moment.
In 2011, Snoop Dogg stumped for Colt 45.
In 2016, E-40 released his own brand of malt liquor, called… yep.
Mostly though, the moment is over. But what a moment it was. Almost too ridiculous to be real.
- That's right.