These are the Most Name Dropped Cars in Hip Hop

Although the data only goes back to 1995, Medium.com’s Cuepoint was able to formulate some interesting statistics about the automotive obsessions held by the most influential rap artists of all time after analyzing Rap Genius’s lyric database.

The most interesting finding answers the question, “What is the most referenced car in hip-hop music?” The answer may be surprising to some, but to those who listen to hip-hop music religiously, it’s probably an easy guess.

According to the study, Mercedes Benz stood out as the No. 1 most referenced car in hip-hop music. It has remained steadily popular over the years, and recently in 2010, it even spiked. Whether rappers actually love their Benzes or if they just like the fact that Benz can be easily rhymed and refers to attainable wealth, it is by far the most mentioned car in hip-hop music.

The second most mentioned car is Cadillac with around 3,000 mentions — 1,500 mentions less than Mercedes.

Cuepoint’s analysis revealed more than just the most mentioned car references in hip hop. It also generated incredible details about which cars specific rappers shouted out most, like:

Compton rapper The Game came out as the biggest endorser of cars in general. He made 279 songs about cars, which is 64.6% of all of his songs combined. Although Mercedes is the No. 1 most referenced car, it fell second to The Game’s most pitched car, the Chevy Impala which is mentioned in 93 of The Game’s songs. Of those mentions, 82 specifically cite the classic dirty south Chevrolet Impala ‘64.

In total, the study singled out 14 mainstream hip-hop artists who are most influenced by car culture, according to their lyrics.

The study also revealed that rappers mention a total of 18 different types of cars in their music, and of the cars mentioned, only a handful are even worth noting because most are hardly mentioned at all.

Hip-hop music and car culture have always had a strong tie, but until now there has been no rigorous analysis proving how close the bond really is.