"The Illest Car Magazine Ever!"

Rides magazine could be called the hip-hop Road & Track. Or to put it another way, if Road & Track is the BMW of car mags ("ultimate driving machine" and all that), then Rides is the cream-and-gold Cadillac Escalade, complete with blinged-out rims, tinted windows and a stereo system with enough bass-amplification to set off every car alarm within a 30-mile radius. Rides is a reflection of a hip-hop subculture more than a culture of mere car-enthusiasts. In Rides the focus is more on the size of one's "dubs" (wheel rims) rather than, say, torque and fuel-injected engines. And gas mileage? Who cares when you're an aspiring rap star with the "paper" (the cash or credit) to buy all the gas you'll ever need. Rides is published by the same folks that publish King, so while the production values are slick and glossy, the content within often leaves something to be desired. That the crunky Houston "trill" star Mike Jones is on the cover of this month's Rides says a whole lot given the Houston hip-hop scene's above-average lyrical fixation on all things vehicular. The mag's tagline -- "The Illest Car Magazine Ever!" -- says it all really.

Posted by Supercore at March 4, 2006 01:32 AM