Years ago, luxury brands recoiled when rappers mentioned their products in their songs. In particular Cristal had a distaste for it when Jay Z. Times are different now with brands like Tiffany & Co using the rapper and his wife Beyonce has key models for their campaigns. You could look into the past and assign multiple reasons to why the brands acted the way they did and why they have chosen to embrace artists now. I’m more curious about why the rappers chose, and still choose, to name drop these expensive brands.
The past few posts, I have been covering the drivers of luxury consumption. The final driver to cover this week is structural. By structural, I mean what your society looks like. Or, how is the economy set up? Income inequality can drive luxury consumption as a means of establishing financial status.
Think about it this way, in areas where income inequality is greater, there is a bigger difference between the haves and have-nots. Those who have want to stay in that position. The wealthy use purchases to let people know they are wealthy and further distinguish themselves from those who are not. And those have-nots, would much rather be in the group of the haves. Those are struggling financially are seeking status and use purchases as a means climbing socially. An expensive item can be seen by other people who will assume you are doing better than you are. Or it is a way of inspiring yourself to get after it to make more money to get to a higher income level.
In the Migos track, “Motor Sport,” with Nicki Minaj and Cardi B, here all the brands I recognized in the lyrics:
- Lamborghini
- Phillip Patek
- Lear Jet
- 488 (Ferrari)
- Richard Mille
- Porsche
- Givenchy
- Saks Fifth Avenue
- Bugatti
- Chanel
There could be more that they signaled that just went over my head. Tying those brands in, along with general suggestions of wealth, is a way of saying, “I have high financial status.” Cool, you get that. It’s obvious. But, if you consider how artists describe their upbringing, as coming from nothing (read: poverty), then you can understand the luxury labels are a powerful way to make a statement to other people in their community who are also are on the same wavelength, who also aspire to do better financially, and to the greater society.
This is just a very public example how income inequality is connected to luxury consumption, or at the very least talking about it. If it bothers you that rappers talk incessantly about money, cars, and clothes, then maybe you should devote yourself to fixing society to end the plight of poverty and economic social stratification. That’s what the real issue is. But also don’t worry too much about it, they’re not making their music for you.
Here is the article that sent me down this rabbit hole to begin with. Feel free to read it learn more firsthand about the drivers of consumption:
Dubois, D., Jung, S., & Ordabayeva, N. (2021). The psychology of luxury consumption. Current Opinion in Psychology, 39, 82-87. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X20301196
A Wren Says 