A meeting of the minds with Jermaine Stone, a New Yorker passionate about forging connections between wine and hip-hop!
A meeting of the minds with Jermaine Stone, a New Yorker passionate about forging connections between wine and hip-hop!
“I have always loved music. Everyone assumed that I was going to be a rapper. When I got to university, I got a job in fulfillment at the wine auction house Zachys to help pay for school.
I moved up the ladder at Zachys and then at Wally’s before starting my consulting business, Cru Luv, which is dedicated to bringing wine and hip-hop closer together.”
“100%! When I started Cru Luv and the Wine & Hip-Hop podcast, I saw where the wine industry was going. Hip-hop has been around for fifty years, and there are many people in wine who grew up listening to it.
With Wine & Hip-Hop, I am trying to humanize these industries, which are often misunderstood and sometimes between one another!”
“Bordeaux is the Mount Rushmore of wine.”
“First of all, there is a sense of pride in representing where you come from. Winemakers and rappers like to represent their hood, whether it’s a terroir or a neighborhood.
And wine and hip-hop also share a very entrepreneurial culture, a spirit of conquest. Finally, whether we are experts or not, we can share an emotion when tasting a wine or listening to a song. It is about finding a connection that goes beyond appearances or differences.”
“Rappers already appreciate the world of wine. I think it’s up to wine players to stand with them. This means connecting at events, through content and in places familiar to the hip-hop world, such as in music videos, which offer great visibility.
I look at the way the fashion industry has successfully embraced the language of hip-hop. I think the same opportunity exists for wine.”
“With its Grands Crus, Bordeaux is the Mount Rushmore of wine. To me hip-hop can also be very hierarchical: we like to rank the best rappers in history.
Like in wine, there are the big stars: Biggie, Jay-Z, Nas… This is the level of the Grands Crus of Bordeaux.”
“I would go with Cos d’Estournel Blanc, a wine that is outside the norm, and I’d play “Smoothies in 1991” by Larry June. Cos d’Estournel Blanc has that beachy vibe, that freshness and depth that would be super with Larry June, chill but also very luxurious!
Larry June is a rapper who is always well-dressed and takes care of himself. That to me is a perfect parallel for Cos d’Estournel, which tends to its terroir and environment so carefully.”
