"jay-z" news and stories

Jay-Z's in a "Hot Wing State of Mind," according to our sister site TMZ. No, it has nothing to do with wife Beyoncé. The hip-hop mogul has partnered with his mom, Gloria, and sister Andrea to invest in a downtown Brooklyn chicken joint, Buffalo Boss, co-owned by his cousin Jamar White.

On the menu, wings are divided into sections for "Heaven" (mild flavors like Teriaki and Honey BBQ) and "Hell," which includes the OMG (Oh My God), F.I.T.H. (Fire in the Hole), and N'Sinerator, which actually could be the new title of a Jay-Z song. Just a thought. I mean, he did "Brooklyn's Finest" already.

According to an MTV story, investing in a chicken restaurant may be a strange choice for Jay-Z, who grew up poor and once told Oprah Winfrey when he was a guest on her show, "We ate a lot of chicken, you know, because chicken's cheap," he said. "We had so much chicken - chicken backs, chicken everything ... to this day, I can only eat small pieces or else I feel funny."

But when it's family, Jay, you do the right thing. Check out this TMZ video feature on Jay-Z's Buffalo Boss for more on the deal and menu.

Jay-Z is about to give business travelers across the country a reason to stop cursing those two-hour layovers and start padding those expense accounts.

The hip-hop mogul has announced plans to open outposts of his tricked-out sports bar, the 40/40 Club, at "select airports" across the U.S. The original 40/40 Club, which opened in 2003 in Manhattan, is essentially a multi-level souped-up man cave, with five VIP rooms, more than 30 LCD TVs, and four dual-sided 12-foot projector screens. It features things like burgers, nachos supreme and steaks-essentially, your standard man-cave fare.

No doubt the airport incarnations, opened in partnership with Delaware North Companies, will be scaled back a bit, though the press release for the project promises travelers the opportunity "to watch the game of their choice in an opulent lounge setting, all without leaving the airport."

The danger, of course, is asking tipsy travelers to make the choice between missing the second half of the Lakers' game or catching that three-hour flight to a trade show in Chicago.

Cherry Coke is getting a new look, thanks to rap star and business entrepreneur Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter. He was involved with not only the design of the new can, but also the television commercials and marketing campaigns for the brand. The soda was relaunched last week at New York's Fashion Week, alongside the latest addition to the Coca-Cola family, Cherry Coke Zero.

The advertising campaigns for both products went public on Valentine's Day, with outdoor, radio and point of sale ads, as well as a 30-second commercial (featuring a Jay-Z soundtrack) that debuted during that evening's episode of American Idol.

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Rapper and Def Jam Records CEO Jay-Z has announced a boycott of Cristal Champagne in response to an Economist article that used the phrase "unwelcome attention" when it referred to the bubbly's popularity in the rap community.  Although Jay-Z cited comments made by Louis Roederer Cristal's managing director Frederic Rouzaud as his reason for pulling Cristal from his 40/40 sports lounges, the "unwelcome attention" phrase was actually not a quote, but rather text from the article's author Gideon Rachman (or possibly an Economist editor). The AP quoted Jay-Z: "I view [Rouzaud's] comments as racist and will no longer support any of his products through any of my various brands including the 40/40 Club nor in my personal life."  XXL's blog features some commentary, pointing back to the Economist article, and not Cristal's Rouzaud, who said that Cristal views the rap industry's embrace with "curiosity and serenity." An article on Pitchfork features a link to a short mix of various Jay-Z rhymes about Cristal. Amuse Bouche also chimes in, wondering when grower champagne will hit it big with the rap world.