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Apr 19

Moscato and Black Folks – A Hip Hop Union

rappers drinking wine

Seriously Black people, we’re all over Moscato now? I don’t want you to call the Drop Squad on me but I need to ask, is wine new to us? I mean, it’s really bad when I see black bloggers touting the dessert wine Moscato as if it’s some top shelf miracle drink that goes well with any meal. One would think that with the wonderful search that Google and Yahoo provides one could simply look up a drink before touting it but day after day after day since that soft rapper Drake mentioned it more black folks are embracing this wine.

Look I know that it’s nothing new, we have gone down this road a million times before and just like before it smacks of ignorance and the willingness to take a rapper’s word on anything. I respect Jay-Z but I have never been inclined to try one of those fruity champagnes that he rhymes about, nor was I on the Cristal, Moet, Petron bandwagon of yester-year. Do you know why?

Because I am a grown ass man that’s why!

I quit being dumb and impressionable when momma pushed me out of the nest. What’s with you college educated people on blogs going on with this foolishness? How the hell are you in the Club sipping this sweet garbage through a straw and acting as if it validates you as a sophisticate? Here, you know what since you’re reading this and being pissed at me, I’ll do you a favor and drop a definition for you:

Sutter Home Moscato: Something about the sweet, creamy, peach flavor makes you feel like maybe it shouldn’t pair with dessert so much as replace it.

Okay that took all of 5 seconds for me to Google “Moscato wine” and copy and paste the definition from the Sutter Home website. Guess which black man won’t be writing about pairing some damn Moscato with his shrimp? Yup you guessed it, this one right here – the same one who does a little research before he takes a rapper’s advice on wines. And we have a resident wine expert if you really want to get into tastings, pairings and erm, well not sounding like a fool to people in the know. Check out this post and ask questions if you need to.

Do you know I damn near cheered when Cristal showed their ass and dissed black people for drinking their piss? I love it when people unceremoniously adopt some drink or label (Tommy Hilfiger remember him?) only to have the owner turn around and straight diss them for giving him so much of their money. This is why I did not mention Ciroc vodka in my diatribe because P.Diddy owns that drink so hell yes rappers should big it up! At least you know Diddy won’t come out and say he doesn’t want n***as drink his sh-t!

Can we please call an end to the Moscato references? Or at least use it in a sentence that makes sense instead of “I was with my boo sharing a Moscato on the rocks with some chicken” (shoots self in head). It really undermines your intelligence whenever you go there and I would hope that Drake isn’t your god for you to blindly take his advice like that. Go to a wine tasting, learn some stuff and buy your own if you really want to be that guy/gal. Just don’t follow rappers blindly if you are older than 13 years old, it just looks extremely bad on us all.

How hood is this:

Ya… do better people.

References: The “Moscato-ization” of Black America

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Written by Greg Dragon · Editor-In-Chief on Tuesday, April 19, 2011 
Editor-In-Chief

Filed under A Touch of Class, Black America, Food and Wine
Tagged with , , , ,
About Greg Dragon
Greg Dragon is the founder, publisher and editor-in-chief here at the Hall of The Black Dragon Magazine. You can follow Greg on Twitter @HobDragon or on his Google+ account. Greg Dragon is an independent author that writes a variety of novels. You can view his author page on GregDragon.com.

  • Greg that was so funny. It needed to be said. Sometimes people be jumping on the band wagon a little too much. Cristal, Moet, etc. Well as for Ciroc, I am not a fan. I’ve tasted much better Vodka. That joint is too sweet.

  • JustMyThoughts

    Amen. I remember the exact moment when i heard Waka Flaka’s no hands song and he was talking about sipping Moscato . .. jaw drop, i had already put off ‘really’ listening to the song for as long as could, but when i heard this i asked my little sister if he was gay? I was serious, what grown ass man brags about drinking moscato in a club? And then the thuggish man that he wants to portray at that? I was very perplexed!!! I am not a wine connoisseur, but do appreciate a good wine with the right meal. I also know, that moscato in the club is not a manly drink, i wish my brother, cousin, or manfriend would order a moscato in the club! No sir, man up, get some Courvoisier, Hennessey, whatever but moscato . . NOOOOO . . Im just sayin . . .

  • Lol! I agree very much with this post, although I’m a fan of Drake. Many Black people and bloggers do think that it’s cute just to name some label that a popular artist calls out and then they think when they call the name of that label out or take a picture of that label and put it on Facebook that they have reached some level of fame. It’s like they become a member of the elite when they are in possession of these labels. Yes, as a people and as community, we’ve got to do better.

  • Shaun Alexander

    Who cares about all of the rules. If I like something, I’m going to drink it. I don’t care if it’s a dessert wine, I will drink it whenever I feel. As an African-American, It sickens me when I see black people overreact about things like this. Can you take the chains off already! If you heard it in a song, you try it, and you like it, what’s the big deal? Btw, Kudos to you for knowing the rules of drinking wine and following them.
    Sounds very high schoolish to me. People think for yourself and let other people do them. #thatisall

  • Brian Henley

    One of the best things I’ve read in a while. Great Write up!!!

  • Larry

    Black people are trendsetters but for whatever reason liquor has always been a source of embarrasment. I can’t count how many times Ive seen grown ass black men with the frutiest drinks at a bar. They don’t know what the hell they are ordering. Ohh and lets not talk about how hip hop had ruined the proper Consumption of so many fine beverages. Patron, hennesey, tanqueray, etc etc etc

    • Dom

      Can’t black people enjoy anything without being made fun of for it? Every ethnicity on the planet has food and drink they enjoy and don’t have to take as much crap for it as we do. I mean, how can someone be made fun of for eating watermelon? It’s a piece of fruit? Only black people can. Anything we do will be analyzed, criticized, and skewered. It’s not Moscoto, it’s not watermelon, it’s not fried chicken, or any other inanimate object associated with is that’s the problem. The problem is the hatred/love the world has for us. And yes hate and love are close bed fellows.

      • Alinka

        No…. There’s no way anyone who makes poor, mindless choices based on luxury latch-ons; ignorance of subject matter and the desperation to look upscale when they’re clearly not; CANNOT be made fun of. It is like stating that tap water should be drank on Baccarat crystal goblets and it is comparable with naturally sulfured highly alkalized water sources of Tahiti. It is like taking a person who has been generationally lacking decorum, class, charm, access to quality education and upbringing and giving them millions of dollars while leaving them to their own devices with absolutely no guidance: it is a Vortex of Disaster. That is what the rap/hip-hop generation does to its fan base: they blindly follow not because they like it but because they know no better and lack critical thinking. Like the blind following the blind. It is impossible not to be made fun of.

      • “they blindly follow not because they like it but because they know no better and lack critical thinking.”

        http://media1.giphy.com/media/GQnsaAWZ8ty00/giphy.gif

  • Larry

    Ciroc vodka is terrible IMO. But then again I don’t quite get vodka period. To me its what everyone who doesnt like trying something new or just wants to get drunk drinks. Gin is better IMO. Has way more character.

  • Grown and Sexy

    I been tasting for over 30 years and when I tasted that sweet, cheap Moscato, I thought about the days, Mom would request, Golden Champale, only Foremost Liquors sells it now. It’s nothing, how about some Remy Martin, VSOP, some MUMs, Don Perrione, I have the MUMS, waiting for my daughter’s 21st BDay to be opened. Her dad bought it for her “1” year old celebration, she’ll be 12, in February.
    The class of people have changed, this new per se”lower class” needs to get some inheritance in education and check out the “Real Fine Things In Life.
    ” Peace Out, Fine Stock”

  • Sim mobster

    I really get surprised by some people. It’s liquor ( nothing more ) and some liquors are made for certain occasions /purposes. Drinking it anywhere, anytime doesn’t make it wrong or right, I agree.
    But to my opinion you just look dumb, specially bragging and acting cool about it makes it worse.

    Getting pissed and opposing a fact takes it another level. This post has a point, if you are a grown ass man and still don’t see the point then stay blind. Sip and act cool on everything Drake, Jigga and Wayne says or see dope. Guess you can’t make your own decisions but you call yourself a grown up who makes their own choices.

  • JustChris

    You probably should have opened the Mumm by now G&S. Champagne doesn’t really keep…

  • spassky

    I accidentally bought a magnum bottle of moscato nearly two months ago,and it has just sat there in my fridge, because the stuff is absolutely disgusting. I google searched “what to do with moscato” thinking, I don’t know, I could make a pie or something with it. Instead I found this post and laughed my butt off. I had no idea it had become some sort of class signifier in the rap vocabulary. Well done. Thank you.

  • Jay

    I do enjoy moscato bt definately NOT because of drake! For your own info,there are plenty varieties of moscato though most,as u correctly state,are for dessert. There are sparklings ones,sweet ones(moscato d’Asti) and dry ones(alsace) which ARE infact mainly paired with fish lobster and shrimp! So wocka aint too far off! If black folk wants to rave about moscato LET THEM! Drake dsnt represent the whole black community so why shld you b bothered?? Mmm *sips moscato*

  • I’m hispanic but I have to expound further and include us in this and hope you won’t mind. I thought I was alone on an island on this matter. I started noticing people at parties that normally would be drinking some fruity ass drinks with hidden vodka and a ton of tripple sec… And one day I had the radio on hot 97… F=cking drake mentions it on one of his raps. I started rolling, It blew my mind… People if you drink moscato and can’t drink any other type of wine because it’s “too dry” or “too bitter”, your pallet is just not developed. And I sympathize with you because I too had a pallet the was far from developed once. For your own sake don’t say you drink wine or have a convo with people that drink wine about wine. Buy a bottle once or twice a month and soon you too will develop your pallet. I don’t fault you for drinking moscato. But understand that in the wolrd of wine, it’s low. Its like E&J next to Courvassier, Gordon’s next to Greygoose, Johnny’s Red label to Johnny’s Blue label… Enjoy!

    • John Sotomayor

      As someone who’s (white and) Hispanic: How about some people just like sweet things over bitter things? How about instead of developed vs. undeveloped, it’s more like adapting to what you’re eating/drinking?

      I will never pretend that moscato is some high-end wine. It’s a cheap table wine. I get that. I love that. I can’t drink dry wines or most red wines because, well, they’re not sweet. And I dislike them. So what’s wrong with that, exactly? And why does that mean my pallet is “undeveloped”? I mean, are you aware of how elitist that sounds?

      Why does liking sweet things mean someone is “undeveloped”?

  • Don’t Care what you drink

    Everyone is entitled to an opinion. That what’s make this country great. You shouldn’t stereo type people but what they drink or like. Just because someone likes a muscato doesn’t mean their pallet is undeveloped. That’s where the ignorance becomes to take affect.

  • Pingback: Moscato: The Gateway Wine For People Of Color? | My Wine Logo()

  • TheWineSnob

    Personally, I hate moscato with a passion…I like white Zinfandel with my desserts. When I hear women bragging about sipping moscato, I wish I could give a free wine education course.

    • John Sotomayor

      Because people who like inexpensive, sweet wine are somehow ignorant/uneducated? No one is pretending that moscato is some high-end luxury wine. It’s just people celebrating something that they like.

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