And just like the BET 106 & Park performer, and Best Female Vocalist Chicago Awards Winner, and Chicago Pop Princess, Demi Lobo says, "You should take my picture"! That's what these superhot big-rim customized cars would say if only they could talk. And the craze has traveled all the way to Japan now! What is it about cars on oversized wheels? For awhile, I've been watching the takeover of the automotive customization scene with cars on big rims: 26s, 30s, 32s etc.! Now, I've always found myself crazily admiring these glamorous, playful and extraordinary automotive customizations. They bring a huge ear-to-ear grin to my face and in the moment of the induced giddyness, I'm always wondering to myself, "What is so visually pleasurable about the look of these cars? Why do they make me smile so much?" I think I've finally pinpointed what I believe it is though. Call it pinterest (hahaha). But, what I think it is, is that these big rim customized automobiles resemble giant toy cars, and now combine that with the fact that I'm a guy, and a boy at heart, and boys love cars! To explain more, the excitement that these cars generate, for me, is that they resemble toys in a different sense - even in a different world. It's like these toy cars spilled out of our rooms, magically mushroomed in size, and went "a rolling down the road". And they look so pretty, and immensely attractive, and visually addictive!
Now, some owners or customizers overdo the big-rim thing though. A few of these overdone customizations look stupid-retarded. For example, a car or SUV that looks like a monster truck just looks totally out of proportion and is just plain out damn ridiculous. Please, y,all need to stop that sh#t for real! Ya heard? (cups hand over ear).
For the most part, though, the majority of the big-rim automotive customizations that I've seen, are gorgeous. They look declicious, exciting, sexy, and just oh-so-lovable. They just really appear so brimming-with-automotive excitement, and toyish and push-around-able. Looking at them from the window, when I see them driving down the street, they just look so attractive, like rolling automotive jewelry. And they look like cool giant toys. Now, enter a different world for a moment. I can see giant baby boys just pushing these cars around in a giant wonderland home. Every time I see these cars I just imagine myself as a giant kid pushing them around like toys. They are indeed street toys! And they are sexy!
Ok, now, drooling over with, let's get to a brief history of the "big rim craze"! First of all, the popular name for the big wheels that these cars ride on is "donks"! Donk is an urban/hip-hop/African American term that originally referred to the vivacious, and sometimes large curvature of the derriere of - well mostly African American females. And I made it quite easy for you to witness below (hahaha). What all the automotive donks have in common is that they are eye-catching, rubber-necking-inducing bling-a-liscious-ness! And well, there really isn't too much difference to the feminine posterior of its equivalence - and I swear I can almost always be caught looking at them both!
Now, according an article on the trend, published in the Philadelphia Weekly in 2008, the beginnings of the donk automotive lifestyle began in Miami in the mid 1990's. It was what they call, poor city guys, driving cheap readily available cars, especially large, old-age cars, like Chevrolet Impalas and Chevrolet Caprices. What the owners of these cars did was jack up their cars to nearly four feet in the air and put a set of giant wheels on them.What resulted was "donk"! According to one person, "these cars were pieces of crap, but they looked fantastic. They shut the place down. Everybody went crazy".
The article goes on to state that Donk became the first underground
automotive craze of the information age. Many folks began surfing Craigslist for pick-up truck suspensions to purchase. Pretty soon you'd be seeing cars sitting as high as trucks. Infact, some were so high, that they flipped over. According to one person interviewed in this article, "it doesn't sound like something that you could get respect for".
However, that perception was soon to change. And it was a change that took place over the internet. According to the article, the practice of jacking up cars as high as possible were ditched for a more toned-down or classy look. The paint jobs ceased to be loud and garish and instead transitioned into being more low-key and/or factory-correct. The entire car was now dropped from a mile high in the air (gosh!) to more close to the ground. In other words, these cars were "slammed". And I soo love that terminology, it's so deliciously picturesque - a gorgeous piece of automotive vocabulary!
So to continue on that tangent, "slammage" became the new order of
the day.
This slammed automotive style involves eliminating huge amounts of metal off the wheel fenders through a process called shaving. This would make room for the donks or big wheels. According to what I see on the internet via Facebook, everyone is all about this now. "Major League" slammage is the biggest thing taking place, from the north to the south, from the east to the west. The big rims have even been seen floating across the seas (hahaha), as the style is now moving international to places like Japan! And according to the images that I've see, the Japanese have done some really splendid donk customizations!
Now in a departure from past depictions, or characterizations of the donk or big rim style as ghetto and hood crap, you know have folks saying, in regards to having their vehicles donked out, that "I want something unique, but not too crazy. I want it to be classy." Gotta love it! (Hahaha)! Furthermore, and according to the article, donks became domesticated, or more mainstream, when corporations sat up and took notice.They were like, "holy crap! There's an army of
backyard mechanics making money off this craze. Lets jump into this!" One early example is Toyo, a Japanese company that began to manufacture skinny "rubber band" tires which enabled big rims to fit on the car without it having to be jacked-up. Next to jump into the scene was Dodge, with its most magnificent Dodge Magnum wagon (the best
station wagon ever made, ever)! The Dodge Magnum had huge wheel wells that enabled it to fit large 24-in.rims. Now, with this corporate attention on the donk scene, suspension manufacturers, paint companies, and audio companies like Sony, began to angle themselves for some of that "ba-donk-a-donk-donk" money! Now, as I alluded to previously, and in no uncertain terms, and as stated in the article, Peter Mac Gilliuray, a spokesman for SEMA (Specialty Equipment Marketing Association), "in the beginning, the donk was this underground thing that most people didn't take seriously. It's seriously grown into a major market presence in its own right. Wow! Imagine that though! Right? Irregardless, though, you still have a couple automotive publications, like, Jalopnik, for example, that publish false stories on the Donk customization craze. What they do is show some of the worst automotive customizations as a representation for the Donk genre and then call it ugly. But, hey money talks! Lots of money is being made with this so-called ugly donk customization craze. Truth is, this is the greatest automotive customization genre ever to hit the automotive world. And it's here to stay. Those automotive bloggers are lost in a sea of immense love for the Donk (wipes eye with tissue after shedding a tear for them). Alot of the auto shops that take part in churning out these gorgeous, hyper sexy, orgasmic automotive creations, take great pride in their work, and produce some immensely attractive hyper-drooling-inducing big rim customizations. Infact, some of them are so sexy that I'd rather go an a date with the car than a girl! I'm just saying yall! (LOL)
Now yall take a look at some ugly, ghetto garbage donks
Now take a look at the new progressive donked car: classy, upscale, attractive, simply beautiful! Fit for the driveway of a middleclass home and beyond!
What a masterpiece this is! It's like a moving painting! Now notice how the car is on big rims just like the early mid-90s style, but instead of being jacked up looking like a jack-a$$ (hahaha), it sits low on the big rims. It's in essence slammed! For a moment, imagine that you had a huge gigantic hand with hyper-extraordinary powers and you reached up to a jacked up car and smacked it on the roof. In one swat you've slammed it to a normal ride height. Let me say this word one more time. Slammed. Slammage. Oh my God, I just love it. I just love the way it sounds. It sounds so good. It's such beautiful slang. It's slang-a-liscious (wow I just made a new word)!
Now when I started off this blog, I posted a link to the following song below. I've posted it again, because every well crafted donked car that rolls out of an auto customization shop needs to be blasting this track, because those bling-a-liscious whips are indeed worth a thousand pictures! And they are screaming for it to be taken!
Ok, now sit back, eat some ice cream and ask your girlfriend if she doesn't mind you being inattentive for a mesmerizing moment or two as you oogle at the following hyper-sexy donked cars! Oh, and after that checkout that super hot music track and that donk movie trailer at the end
That gold front fascia, along with the gold wheels of a complex wheel design - the overlapping segments - turns this muscle car into a piece of automotive jewelry! If it could only hang around someone's neck!
Checkout the light glaring in the distance (on the driver's side)! Gotta love it! It adds a movie texture to the picture. And then look at the driver, he looks as if as he is about to floor the pedal. The passenger leaning out the window adds a nice touch too. Lastly, the reflection of the wheel on the ground, is the life of this whole picture! This picture was shot "like a BAWSE" (in my Rick Ross voice)
I live for this photograph! With the tow straps straining at the axles, the car takes on the appearance of a tamed beast just brought in from the wild!
This '96 Chevy Caprice above is a lil bit special. It wasn't done by a shop, except for the paint, and the interior design. Other than that, it was (like Mary J. Blige, say), a "Family Affair". The owner, Brian Trowell, his Dad, and brother, tricked out this whip! Kudos to them on this one! The flat-faced rims are on point.That rear wheel with the big sexy lip screams SWAGGGG!
That rear wheel is so Major League! That swag is killa! That deep lip! You know when you see those full lips on a girl and all you can envision is a kiss.....that's what the lip on that rear wheel is inducing in me right now!
Clean! Cleaner than the sharp whistle of a guy trying to get a girl's attention!
Swerve! Can you picture it? A lil screeching on the brakes as it comes to an abrupt stop swaying a little on the shocks (hahaha)
Now observe this picture carefully. Check out the Range Rover parked besides the Chevy Caprice. The Rover should own that show, but rather, it's the Chevy! Can you feel its presence!!?? (Bubble trouble!) The steely white glaring lights? The blue UFO (lol) hovering over the dashboard!? This is such a 'You-should-"Take-my-Picture"'-car!
Just look at those dashing chrome exhaust pipes, totally giving the chrome bumper above it, all the life in the world!
"OMG, Becky look at..." this truck! This truck is so hot! This picture right here! This shot! This angle! Lord have mercy!
Now a recent surprising find by me is that there are automotive customization lovers who are women too. The big-rim car craze is now seeing an influx of the female species. And judging from the pictures below, they are coming as hard as the men - if not harder! I really appreciate the fact that there are females who love the automotive customization scene as much as we guys do. It's amazing! Below are a few of the hottest customized rides in the game - by females! And as this month of March is National Women's Month - time to recognize!
Mayra's Chevrolet Camaro:
Lauren Peter's Nissan Murano:
Kelsey Johnson's Chysler 300C:
Lord have mercy!! This car right here! Let me tell you, this right here is not a car! Rather, this is one of the most gorgeous females that I've ever seen, and I want her to be my wife!!!
Check out the statement the owner makes on these rims: BOSS LADY! This is just too beautiful! (And wheels like this are definitely a prize! You can protect your investment with
STREET SHIELDS!
And to the guys, if you're still caught up in this wonderland of sexy automobilia, tell your girlfriend to just hold on a second while you give your ears the audio pleasure of "Wonderland" by Demi Lobo! Plug in ya headphones and turn the volume up! Turn up! This girl is fire! "...if you don't know now ya know ya know"!
Now singing in my Eve voice, "Who's that girl? (La-la-la-la-la-Ia-la...)"Demi Lobo is an American Singer/Songwriter and Radio Personality born in California, and raised in Chicago. Demi Lobo is a Radio major who graduated from the esteemed Columbia College in Downtown, Chicago, and is now a touring/recording artist, and radio personality at WGCI 107.5, the number 1 station for Hip-Hop & RnB in the midwest. You can tune in to iHeart Radio to hear her sexy voice there every weekend.
Demi Lobo, the young creative girl, has served in the arts for many years. She started off as a singer in church, and then began writing poetry, which led to recording music at the age of 16. With a love for acting, Demi has always been a personality. She has 6 stage plays, and 2 commercials under her belt, and at the age of 8 Demi Lobo won "Best Actress" in a Miss America Pageant. She has also won several Chicago Music Awards, including Best Female Vocalist in 2012, and Pop Entertainer of the Year in 2012. The latter one though, wow! "Hi Rihanna" (Hahaha)! Demi Lobo has also performed on BET''s 106&Park, as well as opened for a Gucci concert featuring Nicki Minaj and others.
If you want to book Demi Lobo to perform at a car show, or is interested in getting her on the radio in your area, visit her website for contact information (www.demilobo.com), or better yet, I'll just provide it right here!
For bookings: contactdemi@aol.com telephone: 1-(312) 285-8929
Follow Demi Lobo on Twitter at
@DemiLobo and on Facebook at
Demi Lobo FansNow watch this movie trailer for a soon-to-come movie that will highlight the donk and big-rim automotive customization craze! Yessir!
Now, heads up y'all! There is a little skirmish going on about the "donk" name. According to the article I'm referencing, a veteran states that, "They call their cars all kinds of names - boxes, bubbles, Monties, Cutties - based on different makes and and shapes, but the most widely accepted term is “donk.”.
Now lets intelligently set some things straight here. Yes, the official Donk is is a '71-76 Caprice ad/or Impala, and here's the reason why: these cars were the first to be jacked up on big rims and given the name "Donk" as a result! But, now lets apply some logic, by extension. Everyone else who does not have a '71-'76 Caprice and/or Impala, but have put big rims on their vehicle can call their ride "donked out"! And doing so isn't taking away from the official donk vehicle, but rather, it's extending an ode to them, and some respect. Now let me say this, hereby, there exists, a donk, and a "donked out"! Bam! case closed!
