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‘Kool Mixx’ remix: How Al Capone cigarillos infiltrated Hip-Hop to promote cigarillos use among African-Americans
  1. William Garner1,
  2. Betsy Brock2,
  3. Esha Seth3
  1. 1Life and Health Sciences, University of North Texas at Dallas, Dallas, Texas, USA
  2. 2Research, Association for Nonsmokers-Minnesota, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA
  3. 3Research, Association for Nonsmokers-Minnesota, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr William Garner, Life and Health Sciences, University of North Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX 75241, USA; william.garner{at}untdallas.edu

https://doi.org/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2018-054816

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    Al Capone is a brand of cigar products—little cigars, cigarillos and large cigars—manufactured and distributed in the USA by the Inter-Continental Cigar.1 2 Burger Sohne, which owns the Al Capone brand, has the stated goal of cultivating ‘smiling consumers, loyal to (its) brands, in every continent.’3 To that end, Inter-Continental Cigar relies heavily on online marketing through social media platforms to advertise, market and promote the Al Capone brand of cigar products to consumers.4–6 A specific example of the Al Capone brand’s use of social media marketing is its paid sponsorship and promotional collaboration with cult-favourite battle rap league, Ultimate Rap League (URL).

    Battle rap is a subgenre of Hip-Hop music that originated in the African-American and Hispanic community of the South Bronx, New York in the late ’70s and early ’80s. A type of lyrical boxing match, battle rap is typified by its poetic ‘braggadocio with the quest for lyrical superiority.’7 As with other forms of transgressive play practices, battle rap is an inherently subversive lyrical exchange where players are offensive for …

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors WG conceived and developed the article, led the writing, retrieved the images, conducted the preliminary research, and is responsible for the overall content. BB and ES critically reviewed the article.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.