- Rappers Jay-Z and Kanye West take a blowtorch and saw to a Maybach in their new music video "Otis" — all in the name of helping the 13 million people suffering from a devastating drought in East Africa.
- The Maybach, which now looks more like a luxury dune buggy, will head for auction soon.
- The sale of the car will benefit the East African Drought Disaster relief fund.
NEW YORK — Top Gear has dubbed it the "Jayzach." It's the Maybach 57 that's been either mutilated or heavily customized — depending on your aesthetic viewpoint — by rappers Jay-Z and Kanye West in their new music video "Otis."
The Maybach, which has a base price of $375,250, is now sans doors and roof, courtesy of changes wrought by a blowtorch and a saw.
Looking more like a luxury dune buggy, the car is bound for auction, with proceeds to benefit the East African Drought Disaster relief fund, according to the video released by West on Vevo.
An estimated 13 million people in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya are suffering from the worst drought in 60 years, according to the World Food Program, which calls the situation a "moral outrage."
Whether the Maybach suffered from a moral outrage is up for debate.
The Maybach gets stripped of key components while Otis Redding croons "Try a Little Tenderness" in the background as West and Jay-Z swap raps and poses. The rappers then take the car for a spin, showing off exaggerated wheel arches and four supermodels in the backseat, screaming and holding on for dear life. An oversized American flag provides a backdrop.
The video provides some of the most excitement seen by the limping Maybach brand in months. In late June, Daimler boss Dr. Dieter Zetsche bemoaned the state of the luxury brand, saying "we are not running at the levels which we planned when we launched the product."
He said that the automaker sells 300-500 Maybachs per year.
"How the future of this brand will look like is not decided yet," Zetsche said. "No final decisions yet."
The Maybach brand has produced some of the most exclusive automobiles in the world, typically with price tags in the $400,000-plus range.
When discussing the future of Maybach, Zetsche said it "might be prudent to exchange views (with other luxury carmakers)" such as Aston Martin.
Inside Line says: It might be prudent to exchange views with Jay-Z and Kanye West who seem to know just how to inject some excitement into the staid Maybach brand.
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x5daddy says:
01:06 AM, 08/17/2011
fr88 you're silly...
That car is a thing, and as a thing cannot represent anything innate to humankind. To place a thing on some sort of pedestal over Jay-Z and Kanye's right to do what they want with something they bought is passing a judgment you do not rank to pass. BTW - buying the car and then giving it away is a far more worthy cause than just giving the money to charity because buying the car supports the industry building the car, in which people work, receive salary, support their families, and are allowed to continue being creative in engineering and craftsmanship. Charitable money usually ends up as a puff of smoke that vanishes soon after it appears, and in the long run simply funds the extension of the misfortune it is supposedly fixing.
Broaden your horizons fr88, and the truth will set you free ?
fr88 says:
09:22 AM, 08/16/2011
Regardless of one's view of the Maybach's merits as a thing of beauty, they are exquisitely crafted, superbly engineered machines worthy of great respect for the striving for perfection, the exhaustive engineering, and the patient care and workmanship that went into their creation. A machine like that represents man's innate desire to create something that transcends the ordinary, an aspirational creation expressing one of man's very best achievements in engineering and craftsmanship.
The wanton destruction of this achievement by a couple of grinning street thugs serves no purpose whatsoever, other than, perhaps, to illustrate the complete moral, ethical, and aesthetic bankruptcy of the hiphop culture.
If these reprehensible lowlifes were at all serious about wanting to contribute to charity, contribute the entire $400K spent on the car along with the thousands spent on producing the video, rather than the few pennies an Ebay sale may bring for its mangled remnants. And better yet, leave the fine automobiles of the world in peace and simply fund their favored cause by turning over a percentage of their annual earnings to the charity.
lolxd says:
04:48 AM, 08/16/2011
Maybach = Glorified Mercedes
I think America should show some competition in the uber luxury market as well. Bring back Deusenberg!!!
tenta20 says:
09:02 PM, 08/15/2011
Awesome. Kanye and Jay-Z brought back attention (even though it may be temporary) not only to the Maybach Brand but the crisis over in East Africa. It's a win-win. They customize a car, an excited fan or car collector buys the car and the money goes over to help the hungry in East Africa.
ULTIMATE WIN.
angry_mushroom says:
08:34 PM, 08/15/2011
I was slightly put off by cutting up a Maybach, but then I remembered that I don't think much of the car's styling. I don't suppose they'll use this one in a new Mad Max movie?
jeremy_c says:
06:26 PM, 08/15/2011
These guys are not stupid. It is calculated publicity stunt. For $1 million which is less than what a 20 second commercial cost, they are getting a lot of publicity. The question is that these guys have no class for doing something like this. Effective, yes, but no class. Like cutting up a Van Gogh to get yourself noticed. Kind of pathetic that someone has resort to doing this to get noticed.
jensonious says:
05:45 PM, 08/15/2011
"The Maybach brand has produced some of the most exclusive automobiles in the world, typically with price tags in the $400,000-plus range"
To me they took a $400,000+ car, customized it, and then sliced it up and made it look like crap. And now they are trying to sell it at an auction and then spend the money on charity. I cant imagine anyone paying anywhere close to $400,000 for what they did to that car. So in my eyes they took over $400,000, threw over half of it in the trash and then they want to spend the rest on charity and call themselves charitable?! Why not take over $400,000 and send it straight to charity? Or they shouldtake all of the profit they gained from this crappy song, album, and video and then send it all plus the amount from the auction to africa then it sounds slightly better.
toyotapowerx says:
03:39 PM, 08/15/2011
I like the idea of chopping up a Maybach for art. Much worse has been done to a Porsche 911 that was crushed into a cube and placed into a museum.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtUEoY3Y-EM
aston_dbs says:
02:56 PM, 08/15/2011
This proves that not all rich people are smart.
AND... Once an idiot, will always be an idiot...
carpaul1 says:
01:09 PM, 08/15/2011
Well have to give it to Mercedes, at least they are consistent.
Smart is the ugliest tiny city car.
Maybach is the ugliest big supposedly luxury car.