Internet Sensation and rap music artist Harvey J, also known in his viral videos as "Chef Henny," rose to internet fame during 2016. He posted a series of cooking videos that feature Hennessy Cognac as a central ingredient. The themes were popular all around the globe.
Extending Hennessy's Reach
Harvey J’s fanbase on Facebook alone currently consists of over 1 million people- predominantly millennials, and his reach across social media platforms is 3 million and rising.
Prior to gaining his whopping fanbase, he produced rap music videos which often featured his "Brown Goddess," including inspiration for his later cooking videos, such as the title track of his debut mixtape, "Pancakes & Hennessy."
Since May 2016, Harvey J has graced the internet with cooking clips called “#HennyChallenge” of him baking, frying, sizzling, and grilling concoctions like "Henny Pumpkin Pie", "Henny Tacos", "Henny Ribs", and even "Hennaroni & Cheese." The videos are typically about a minute long and play out sporadically, always featuring "Hennyisms" he's coined, and liberally splashing Hennessy onto the pan, pot, or grill.
Shortly after posting the first few #HennyChallenge videos, his videos began to go viral and his fanbase rapidly swelled.
8 Million
Contrary to widespread belief, Harvey J is not currently sponsored by the world's largest cognac producer. Disclosed in a recent interview with DJ Smallz, he brought up the 8 million figure when asked his estimate in how much money his work has profited Hennessy Cognac. He states that the figure was produced through analytics. In attempts to capture the company's attention, Harvey J launched a social media campaign, requesting sponsorship, given that his post received 100 thousand likes in 24 hours. He received over 360 thousand likes in that span of time. He has still not heard from the company, but he recently gained the attention of chart-topping MC Cardi B and is now slated to cater her wedding to Offset of the award-winning rap group Migos.
Passion
Throughout the past few years in creating content featuring Hennessy, Harvey J has spread popularity of the brand to millions of millennials. Hennessy Cognac has received likely hundreds of millions of clicks and views of free content marketing through Harvey J's music videos and viral cooking clips. Despite not yet being approached by a company representative, or receiving any attention or compensation, Harvey J makes it clear that he continues to do what he does out of passion for the product. In a 2017 wrap up on the CLNS Podcast, he comments on his passion for Hennessy:
"People got passion. That's really what Hennygangs all about, man. For the longest people been thinking I was sponsored by them before. They don't understand that passion is a strong thing and passion can take you far."