DGOn May 24th 2011, I landed in London’s Heathrow International airport for what would be a life changing experience. I had built a relationship with Maximillion Cooper who runs Gumball 3000 in regards to collaborating on exclusive merchandise for the race. After designing a few custom Good Wood pieces (the driving glasses being the highlight) as well as Crew/Drivers and a 1 off suede Members Only jacket that was in collaboration with Colette in Paris, Max was generous enough to invite me on the race. The tone was set from the jump after David Hasslehoff asked if he had been checked into the “weed hotel” after being on the same floor as the COA conglomerate. [Note we only smoke that GOOD] Oddly enough rumor has it The Hoff supposedly trashed his room that evening and was not seen at any other point of the trip, much to the chagrin of Europeans everywhere who cried when Hasslehoff was a no show. Needless to say The Hoff is big in Europe!
I was going to do a city by city break down of the trip, but after thinking about it I felt like it was more important to concentrate on a couple of main points.
Hip-Hop is global. Everywhere I went in Europe which included London, Paris , Barcelona, Monaco, Venice, Belgrade & Istanbul I saw hip hop. While walking the streets of Belgrade with it’s graffiti’ed out concrete landscape it felt like Serbia was much like home in Bushwick Brooklyn. It was just dope to see people like DJ Muggs, Bun B, & Eve get universal respect from DJ’s/people in general throughout the continent.
These guys on the Gumball tour really live the lifestyle rappers rap about. They really have multiple Bugatti’s, Ferrari’s, and crazy concept cars I don’t even know the names of. They really paid 35K Euros for just a table without the liquor even being included. They ordered so much Cristal at the F1 Billionaire Party at the Fairmont Monte Carlo that by the end of the night the club was littered with bottles that hadn’t even be been popped. (They got popped one way or another with a little help from my friends)
There was even an instance where one racer was knocked by the French authorities for going roughly 350KM on the highway. They impounded the car, found some “inspiration” and sent that guy to jail. In France they base their speeding tickets on your income so the ticket came out to something absurd like 10% of the dudes income. This guy laughed. Told France to keep his Ferrari since is costs considerable less that 10% of his income and had a new Ferrari delivered the next day to the next leg of the race in Barcelona. You can’t ball like that. Gumballers can!
However it wasn’t all pure partying and exotic locations. Sad part is it wasn’t until the last leg of the trip from Belgrade to Instanbul with the worst hangover in history (thanks Bollywood) that I would finally figure out the moniker of the rally. We had over 900 miles to drive in one day to hit 3000 and complete our journey. Shouts to Tamer Hassan from British cult gangster flick “The Business” for finally getting us through the Turkish border and giving us the chance to get pick pocketed in Istanbul LOLZ. The final party at Reina Club was fly as hell, and this eclectic group of people from all places and backgrounds went hard one final time rock star style!
As Max Says im now a “GUMBALLER 4 LIFE!!!”
Thanks to The Entire Gumball 3000 Team.
Also Look for The COA Team invading The USA for 2012.
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