Da whip, Rollin' on 20s

Vehicles are rarely discussed in academia, and even more rarely as subcultural visual rhetorics.  The car, seen by mainstream society as a piece of technology that helps transport us from one place to the other, is redefined in Borderland Hip Hop.  Though there are many "subcultures" that use their vehicles as spaces to display character and talent, mainstream society is not interested in making the vehicle a space of ultra-rebellion.  Cars may be seen as status symbols in mainstream culture, but the altering of vehicles, and in-your-face changes made to vehicles, is a common characteristic of those involved in Borderland Hip Hop, and Hip Hop in general.

  VS.

Notice alterations to: the paint, rims, hood, bumpers, tires, engine, interior, radio, etc.

In Borderland Hip Hop, the vehicle re-landscapes the visual terrain of the road while many times still claimin' linguistic space with textual references to car clubs, internet sites, and last names printed on the cars, as well as, in some instance, loud music that interrupts the oral airwaves or society.

Vehicles as spaces of counter-hegemony is nothing new.  Discussing this in academia and in the field of Rhetoric is.  On streets throughout the United States, especially in Latino and African American neighborhoods, people are carving out their own space within and under the normative gaze (Cornell West) of mainstream culture.  The internet is also a venue where this continues to happen as well.  Below is a video posted to YouTube from a fan of Lowriders in El Paso, Texas (El Chuco).  The rhetorical tradition and rhetorical historiography should take note of these subcultural rhetorics that are at our fingertips on the Internet. 

Borderland Hip Hop