How Usher Made History With His Rémy Martin Collab
Celeb collabs are hardly unique in the food world. There's the Saweetie meal at McDonald's and Megan Thee Stallion's "hottie sauce" at Popeyes (via The New York Times). Tim Hortons even launched a new cold brew coffee with Justin Bieber called Biebs Brew. Mickey D's even launched the McJordan with Michael Jordan way back in 1992 (via Celebrity Page). The team ups know no bounds!
And the partnerships and endorsements cross into liquor industry as well. Snoop Dogg has Cali Blend with wine producer 19 Crimes (via Delish). Nicki Minaj hyped up Myx Moscato in the early 2010s, and was involved from creation to commercial — basically a collaboration before celeb collabs were denominated with an "X" (via Forbes). Diddy has long hocked Cîroc vodka in a more traditional endorsement. But a celebrity sensory NFT, or non-fungible token, collaboration? Now that might finally be something new under the sun.
A unique sensory experience from Usher x Rémy Martin
What's new about the Usher x Rémy Martin 1738 is how it was made. The collaboration features a limited edition bottle of Rémy Martin 1738 Accord Royal titled "Usher x 1738 A.I. Powered," and an NFT. The collab also features an immersive multi-sensory experience called "Usher x Rémy Martin 1738: A Taste of Passion" that's part of Usher's My Way Las Vegas Residency (via Rémy Martin). Both the bottle and the Vegas sensory spectacular celebrate the 25th anniversary of Usher's "My Way" album.
What's so special about the bottle isn't just the unusual way it'll be sold. Twenty-five bottles will be initially sold as an NFT, through the NFT trading site BlockBar. The NFT can then be redeemed in October for a real bottle, kept, or resold on BlockBar (per FoodBeast). The initial NFTs will retail for $500 a piece. What's truly unique about these bottles is that the NFT was designed using A.I. neural technology to translate Usher's description of the taste of Rémy Martin 1738 Accord Royal into artwork. So when those 25 lucky buyers take a look at their NFT, they'll literally see what Rémy Martin tastes like to Usher. Is that futuristic or what?