Champagne has a rich history in hip-hop

12 things we learned about Champagne

Champagne isn’t just sparkling wine—it’s a protected name tied to France’s Champagne region and made using the strict champenoise method. This explainer looks at its surprising history, from early fermentation mishaps to how it became a global symbol of celebration.

Champagne’s fizz used to be considered a flaw

The bubbliness that we love now was once considered a winemaking failure. In fact, Dom Pérignon probably would have referred to it by its common nickname at the time, "vin du diable," or devil’s wine. The wine’s volatility often caused bottles to explode, which was both dangerous and costly. It wasn’t until the development of sturdier bottles and more consistent winemaking techniques that popularity truly soared.

In 2025, Moët & Chandon was the leading Champagne brand

Valued at nearly $1.5B, Moët & Chandon leads the charge in brand value. Following closely are Chandon and Veuve Clicquot.

The tradition of drinking Champagne on New Year's is believed to come from ancient Rome

Julius Caesar might not have had sparkling wine, but when the Romans created the now-standard calendar that begins on Jan. 1, they celebrated with a toast. The tradition spread throughout Europe and then the colonies, and so when Champagne became the drink of choice for special occasions, it was only natural that it became the standard New Year’s Eve sip.

The word ‘hip-hop’ is often credited to DJ Lovebug Starski

The name was coined by Bronx DJ Lovebug Starski, who ad-libbed the term to match the rhythm of a beat while he was rapping. While it began as nonsense, the term went on to describe the music and multifaceted culture that surrounded it.

Deconstructing the most popular hip-hop samples over the last 50 years

Hip-hop celebrated its 50th birthday in 2023, a genre with humble origins that now dominates playlists and charts worldwide. A major, lesser-known feature of hip-hop is its artful use of samples from older records, a technically complex method that forms the unique soundscape of each hip-hop song. To honor the anniversary, sampling company TrackLib created a half-hour video showcasing both visually and auditorily the process used in hits over the last 50 years.

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

Hip-hop gained significant popularity in the 21st century

Although hip-hop and rap music were popular in the ‘80s and ‘90s, it was ubiquitous in the early 2000s, with 20 songs in the Billboard top 10 in 2003 alone. The surge was due in no small part to Jay-Z and Eminem, who were the biggest names in the genre.

Sparkling wine was a political tool in the Soviet Union

To show the world that the Soviet Union had recovered after the devastating famine of the early 1930s, leader Josef Stalin turned to a surprising source: sparkling wine. Stalin believed that if everyday citizens could access luxury goods like caviar and Champagne, it would show socialism had succeeded. The result was Sovetskoye Shampanskoye, a Soviet-made sparkler that achieved his goal of availability and affordability if not quality.

Grandmaster Flash’s ‘The Message’ set the template for hip-hop composition

This 1982 single is one of the most recognizable beats in hip-hop history, thanks to some inspiration from popular disco and new wave records. The song’s bigger contribution, though, is that it pushed lyrics front and center, turning the rapper from a party-rocking master of ceremonies into a truth-telling MC.

Rapping has roots in numerous aspects of the Black oral tradition

Although “rapping” began in New York with hip-hop in the early 1970s, it can be traced back to griots, who were storytellers in West Africa, and “toasting,” which was a similar talk-sing style practiced by dancehall DJs in Jamaica.

Sylvia Robinson is considered ‘the Godmother of Hip-Hop’

While hip-hop was soundtracking countless parties in the early ‘70s, Robinson saw the music’s potential. She began writing, producing, and releasing some of the music’s earliest singles through her Sugar Hill Records label and helped build a place in the music industry for the young music. Robinson’s groundbreaking work led to a 2022 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The Judgment of Paris put Napa on the world stage

Napa wines burst onto the world stage in 1976 when a British wine merchant invited nine French wine experts for a blind tasting of French and Californian wines, meaning that the tasters would not know the origin of the wines as they sampled. Unexpectedly, Napa’s wines dominated the tasting. That tasting, called the Judgment of Paris, was the catalyst for California being taken seriously by the global wine community.

The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother' has the most famous break in music

"Amen, Brother," a once-forgotten track from gospel group the Winstons, became one of music's most sampled songs after a six-second snippet was featured on "Ultimate Break Beats."

A small portion of The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother,' an obscure '60s gospel record, is the basis for thousands of hip-hop tracks, making it one of the most sampled records ever that's informally known as 'the Amen break.'

Andy Warhol's presence continues to persist in pop culture

Warhol produced iconic album art for The Rolling Stones and The Velvet Underground. He also inspired rappers Jay-Z and Tyler, the Creator. Warhol’s immense influence on art and pop culture elevated him to celebrity status, and his identity and style continue to be referenced in sometimes unexpected corners of cultural consciousness.

How Jimmy Carter helped kick-start the craft beer trend

When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, the government did not specify that homebrewing of beer was permitted. That changed when President Jimmy Carter passed a bill in 1978 that explicitly legalized home brewing, allowing hobbyists to pursue an interest that eventually became a lucrative industry.

View photos of classic New York graffiti

Henry Chalfant was one of the foremost documentarians of early graffiti and hip-hop culture, photographing some of the era's most iconic pieces and playing a part in the genre-defining "Style Wars" film. This interview with him is accompanied by some of his photos from an exhibit at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, showcasing the art form as it came into its own.

How Guinness became a social media trend

In early 2024, an unexpected meme emerged on Instagram and TikTok: "splitting the G," where Guinness drinkers would attempt to take a first sip big enough to leave the remaining beer perfectly aligned with the middle of the "G" on a Guinness pint glass. This Vinepair article explores where the trend came from and how it took off.

Kendrick Lamar won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music, a milestone for hip-hop

The acclaimed rapper won for his 2017 album “DAMN.,” which includes sonic nods to the culture’s long history and lyrics that grapple with its complications. Critics noted that the award suggested hip-hop had been welcomed into the upper echelons of the art establishment.

Jimmy Carter signed a 1978 bill that legalized home brewing, a move credited with kick-starting the craft beer industry.

Influencers have changed what music festivals look like

One major criticism of Coachella is that it's a playground for ultrarich people, with celebrities and influencers posing for selfies at a polo club. This article dissects the legitimacy of that stereotype and argues that the backlash to it has altered the festival's cultural standing.

The drink that became Coca-Cola was originally called 'Pemberton's French Wine Coca'

When Civil War veteran John Pemberton concocted the drink, he was suffering from both a saber wound and a morphine addiction. He formulated Pemberton's French Wine Coca by copying the popular cocaine-infused Vin Mariani wine that Popes and Presidents drank at the time. This podcast episode details Coca-Cola's origin story, as well as the financial and business strategies it used to get to where it is today.

'Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else even cared.'

- Rapper Tupac Shakur (1971-1996)

Toasting goes back to at least ancient Greece

The Greeks regularly held symposia featuring wine, food, music, entertainment, and intellectual conversation, hosted by a symposiarch, who acted as emcee. The wine was often drunk in honor of Dionysus, the god of wine and ritual madness, which often led to excess.

Jazz legend Louis Armstrong was once the honorary king of the Zulu krewe

The historically Black krewe invited Armstrong to lead their parade in 1949. The invitation fulfilled a lifelong dream for the musician, who grew up in New Orleans. "After that," he told Time magazine in advance of the parade, "I'll be ready to die."

Jay-Z and Marina Abramovic briefly feuded after collaborating

After appearing in Jay-Z’s music video for the song “Picasso Baby,” Abramović publicly accused the rapper of not donating to her institute, as he had previously promised. Jay-Z defended himself and shared his receipt, prompting Abramović to apologize about the misunderstanding soon after.

Beads are social currency during Mardi Gras

Historians believe krewes started tossing small items, colloquially called "throws," to onlookers sometime in the 1870s or 1880s. Eventually, shiny beads became the norm and were usually given to those offering something in return. (At times, that meant free booze or the flashing of breasts.) The early strings of beads were glass, though by the 1960s most were plastic.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

Watch a 1934 short film starring jazz legend Cab Calloway, a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene

When a Paris department store hesitated to sell Estée Lauder's perfume, she 'accidentally' broke a bottle, causing the smell to spread throughout the store and shoppers to start asking to buy the scent.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

'Silent' fireworks have gained more interest in recent years as a quieter celebratory option.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.