What music do you like to dance to when you’re drinking? Salsa? Reggaeton? Rock? Or perhaps you like something a little more drum and lyric-heavy such as hip-hop. For many people, their choice of music depends on what they are drinking, something we can certainly get behind. Rum with Caribbean-based music, cocktails for ambient dance, or vodka with trance or tequila shots with rap music. The link between music and alcoholic beverages is strong, and this is certainly the case with hip-hop and the taste of tequila.
There is more than just the taste to consider of course, and that is something that we are going to take a deeper look into here. Just how did tequila and hip-hop form such a strong bond? Let’s dig into hip-hop and tequila culture to discover why they combine so well at a party.
Hip-Hop’s History With The Alcohol Industry
Before we start looking into how hip-hop and tequila fuse so well in a party setting, we have to go back a touch further and understand the strong ties between hip-hop and alcoholic beverages. In the early beginnings of this culture, alcohol was rarely mentioned. Upon the birth of street hip-hop and gangsta rap, however, MCs would often talk about their drink of choice.
In many ways, mentioning what the rapper was drinking would help form part of their identity. This is especially true when it comes to the different regions where hip-hop was created, and who belonged where. Many hip-hop artists would drink a product or cocktail that very much represented the fashion of where they were from.
As different drink fashions came and went, many rappers realized that they would be able to capitalize on the opportunity of representing drink brands. In most cases, this was a natural next step from shouting out their favorite products, to getting paid for doing so. Nas famously did deals with Hennesy, P Diddy with Courvoisier and later Pitbull would do the same for vodka. It would only be a matter of time before hip-hop music artists would bring tequila into the fold. In fact, these days seeing rappers drink shots with tequila in music videos is very much the norm.
Parties, Energy, and Partnerships
You only need to look at brands such as Olmeca Tequila to realize why people love tequila so much, and that is because it is such a great product to elevate a party with. Unsurprisingly, hip-hop also has a great influence on a party setting. So much so in fact, that many songwriting ideas begin with beats and hooks that can be sung and danced to in clubs across the country.
So what is it about tequila that makes it such a great party drink? In the main, this is down to tequila slammer, the most popular shooter in the US. There is something about the togetherness of doing tequila shots with your friends that brings everyone together. This, coupled with a strong alcoholic drink, is exactly why people love drinking tequila at the party.
Not all hip-hop is for the club of course, and since its creation, there has been a clear division between hip-hop music for the club, and lyrically-powered songs created for listening. In recent years, however, we have seen a larger percentage of new rap music, made for the club setting. This perfectly lends itself to a relationship with tequila, the drink of choice for those who love to party.
Artists Connecting With Brands
The strong ties between hip-hop and tequila made investing in brands a smart business move for so many artists. We’ve already seen this in the celebrity world, with many famous people like Kevin Hart, Mark Wahlberg, and George Clooney launching tequila brands. Rappers too have invested in tequila, with varying levels of success.
El rapero P Diddy no es ajeno a las inversiones inteligentes y ha encontrado un gran éxito con su marca de tequila. Otro ejemplo sería Jeezy, quien fue inversor en tequila Avion de alta calidad durante varios años. Ambos artistas solían mencionar el nombre de sus marcas en las canciones para aumentar aún más la popularidad de estos productos.
Existe un círculo perfecto de popularidad e influencia entre el hip-hop y los productos de tequila. Es gracias a la popularidad de marcas como el tequila Olmeca , que hizo que tantos en el hip-hop tuvieran una oportunidad. A su vez, el apego de un artista de hip-hop a una marca aumentó aún más su tendencia y los ingresos por ventas. Otro ejemplo más de este matrimonio perfecto en el trabajo.
Canciones con tequila
La relación del tequila con la música ha ido cambiando durante décadas, y tiene una extraña manera de mantenerse al día. El tequila es una bebida que ha figurado en las letras de la música revolucionaria y los corridos en México, muy asociada también a la época dorada del cine mexicano. A medida que transcurrieran las décadas, la bebida sería mencionada por rockeros como los Eagles, Jimmy Buffett y Sammy Hagar.
Desde el cambio de siglo, este espíritu popular mexicano ha aparecido en las letras y títulos de himnos de baile, clásicos del indie y, por supuesto, éxitos de hip-hop. Lo que esto indica es que el tequila está, y siempre ha estado, de moda. No solo esto, sino que gran parte de la música que conocemos y amamos se ha escrito sobre el tequila o ha sido alimentada por él.
Estos son solo algunos ejemplos de canciones de hip-hop que se han escrito a causa del tequila o sobre él.
- Kid Cudi – tragos de tequila
- Wiz Khalifa – Tequila en la mañana
- Cypress Hill – Tequila Amanecer
- Drake – Las chicas quieren chicas
- Nicki Minaj – ¿Tenemos algún problema?
- Joven matón – pecado
Estas son solo algunas de las canciones que podrías incluir en tu lista de reproducción de hip-hop para la fiesta de tequila perfecta.
Legado duradero
Lo más interesante de esta relación entre el tequila y la cultura hip-hop es que no parece que vaya a disminuir en el corto plazo. En los últimos 30 años, desde el éxito generalizado de la música rap, las marcas han ido y venido. Las bebidas que alguna vez fueron dominantes en este espacio ya no se consideran geniales o modernas. Sin embargo, el tequila, como hemos visto, siempre se ha mantenido cerca de la música más popular y no vemos señales de que eso cambie.