The bizarre story of hip-hop’s fascination with Grey Poupon
Rappers (as street poets) use a lot of brand names in their rhymes, and, in contemporary hip-hop, they’re usually confined to luxury alcohol brands and designer clothes. However, there is an outlier which seems to appear again and again in hip-hop without fail.
The brand name that seems to have found a home in rap lyrics is Grey Poupon, the mustard brand. It’s not because MCs have a particular affinity for mustard or even because it is particularly high-end, but its persistence is strange.
From Ghostface Killah and Kanye to Raekwon and Lil Wayne, across eras from the 1980s to the present, lyricists have referenced the condiment brand, and not for no reason. It comes as no surprise that brand names such as Rolex, Gucci, and Ferrari make regular appearances. Still, Grey Poupon? Does it have any particular allure?
Well, fans can trace the story back to the 1980s when the mustard brand launched an expensive and unrelenting commercial campaign that led to Americans knowing the phrase “Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?” by heart. The Dijon mustard brand began by advertising in newspapers read by older middle-class generations. Still, after presenting the condiment as a luxury but affordable in a series of television advertisements, Grey Poupon saw a 100% jump in sales.
The first commercial from 1981 spiked sales, and the second round saw a similar rise. The television advertisements presented the mustard brand in a range of settings, including on yachts, at fancy parties, and in luxury cars, which gave the brand a reputation for being fancy. The television advertising campaign crafted by Lee Garfinkel ran in various forms until 1991 when the first Grey Poupon reference appeared in hip-hop.
In 1991, Das EFX began recording their debut studio album, Dead Serious, which went platinum after its release. However, on the track ‘East Coast’ we see the first mention of the condiment when he rhymes “He’s the don, have you seen my Grey Poupon? Bust this, we roll more spliffs than Cheech and Chong.”
Still, since then, the use of the brand name has risen and risen even though it is no longer seen as culturally relevant. During an interview, Open Mike Eagle explained why he believes it appears so often, stating, “I think for this particular phrase, there are a couple of reasons for it. First of all, it is just how convenient of a rhyme it is. It rhymes with coupon, neutron, futon and all of these things that are around.”
However, one of the main reasons it has stuck around is its original advert and its association with being of a high class. The mustard was only ever seen being used by upper-class individuals and was always presented as a must-have for wealthy people looking for “gourmet” mustard. As such, it has become a strange status symbol akin to Cristal and Hennessy.
Although rappers were still mentioning it in the early 2000s, the sheer number of number-one hit tracks that mentioned the brand name in 2007 led to a massive jump in people using the mustard for their rhymes. From Kendrick Lamar to Lil Wayne and Kanye West, it saw such a rise that West was still using it in 22016 on Life Of Pablo, rapping, “Yeezy, Yeezy, Yeezy, this is pure luxury / I give ’em Grey Poupon on a DJ Mustard, ah!”
Hip-hop’s obsession with Grey Poupon most definitely shows that, with clever marketing and an emphasis on luxury, you can most definitely make a brand the next rap music brand buzzword.