How Nineties Hip-Hop Legends Became Obsessed With the Mazda MPV

It is impossible but undeniable. In the video for Fat Joe’s 1993 banger “The Shit Is Real,” the Bronx-born rapper, boasting of his successful transition from a life of crime to a life of stardom, emerges onto a New York City street in his ride of choice. It is not a Mercedes, a Cadillac, or a Lexus. It’s not even an Acura. It’s a first-generation Mazda MPV, a snouty three-doored loaf, with which the economy brand entered the American minivan market in 1988 for the 1989 model year.

This story originally appeared in Volume 15 of Road & Track.

Joe wasn’t alone in his affection for this odd-duck truck. The MPV appeared in the lyrics and videos for a raft of Nineties East Coast hip-hop legends, including Biz Markie, the Wu-Tang Clan, Prodigy, Busta Rhymes, Heavy D, and the ­Notorious B.I.G.