STRAIGHT UP BRANDS INCORPORATES HIP-HOP COOL

In this age of consumerism, Straight Up Brands is banking on the fact that millennials will pay big bucks to “drink” their favorite hip-hop celebrity, and WSD thinks they may be on to something. The company announced earlier this week that it has acquired a majority interest in Straight Up Productions, a producer of wine and spirits branded by celebrities. Southern Wine & Sprits, Opici and Stoller are among the 10 distributors that will run the company’s products in 17 states.

Their brands include Bracco Wines (featuring Lorraine Bracco), Storm vodka (DJ Clue), Gravity Blue long island iced tea (Magic Juan), Black Rose sparkling wine (Foxy Brown and Jay-Z), and a MoMo mojito (Ja Rule).

Straight Up is projecting sales of $1,000,000 and gross profits of $400,000 for 2006.