Motor Mouths

Be it Caddy or Navi, Benzo or Lexus, a car is the rapper’s eternal muse, his constant companion on the road through life and in the search for stuff that rhymes with Texas. By dropping just the right make, a rapper can assert status, shout out a region—or tell a whole rags-to-riches saga in a mere Chevy-to-Bentley couplet. Few references so efficiently render an entire lifestyle as, say, a broke-ass ’86 Honda or hater-stunning Escalade with 30-spoke rims. Naturally, car execs noticed this phenomenon and began extending product-placement deals to artists—creating a behind-the-scenes synergy that reached its surreal climax in a series of 2005 ads costarring Snoop Dogg and Lee Iacocca. But whether it’s marketing or metaphor, shout-outs to key brands continue to loom large. Here, Blender takes a spin through the historic marriage of rap and ride—from the breakbeat-powered American sedan that dominated the old-school to the Southern-bouncing Japanese import of new-school chart-topper Lil Wayne—“an urban legend like a black Acura.”