Ghost riding, frequently used in the context of "ghost riding the whip" (a "whip" being a vehicle) or simply ghostin', is when a person exits their moving vehicle, and dances beside and around it.
American rapper E-40's 2006 song "Tell Me When to Go" produced by Lil Jon brought mainstream attention to "ghost riding". [1] [2] Ghost riding is also another term used for car surfing, and the term is also occasionally used to describe a moving vehicle with no occupant, such as when a car without the hand brake applied starts to roll down an incline. [3] The practice originated in Northern California, specifically the Bay Area. It gets its name from the fact that while the driver is dancing beside the moving vehicle, it appears that the vehicle is being driven by an invisible driver. Subsequently, the trend was also featured in the lyrics of the 2006 track "Ghost Ride It" by Mistah F.A.B. whose wording speaks of "Dancing on the hood while the car's still rollin'". [4]
Ghost riding is an activity that has been practiced in the San Francisco Bay Area including Oakland, California, for many years, during what are called sideshows. [5] [6] It is thought to have started as a trend around 2006. [7] The popularization of ghost riding a car is a byproduct of popular Bay Area music and the hyphy subculture in general; additionally, it has been suggested ghost riding is a copycat crime popularized by YouTube videos and online social media. [8] [5] [7] [6]
Ghost riding is performed by exiting an automobile while it is left in gear. The automobile's engine runs at idle speed, slowly propelling the car forward. As with car surfing, ghost riding is dangerous and has resulted in deaths in North America. [8]
West Coast hip-hop is a regional genre of hip-hop music that encompasses any artists or music that originated in the West Coast of the United States. West Coast hip-hop began to dominate from a radio play and sales standpoint during the early to-mid 1990s with the birth of G-funk and the emergence of record labels such as Suge Knight and Dr. Dre's Death Row Records, Ice Cube's Lench Mob Records, the continued success of Eazy-E's Ruthless Records, Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment, 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin' and many others.
Crunk is a subgenre of southern hip hop that emerged in the early 1990s and gained mainstream success during the early to mid 2000s. Crunk is often up-tempo and one of Southern hip hop's more nightclub-oriented subgenres. Distinguishing itself with other Southern hip hop subgenres, crunk is marked and characterized by its energetic accelerated musical tempo, club appeal, recurrent chants frequently executed in a call and response manner, multilayered synths, its pronounced reliance on resounding 808 basslines, and rudimentary musical arrangement. An archetypal crunk track frequently uses a dominant groove composed of a nuanced utilization of intricately multilayered keyboard synthesizers organized in a recurring pattern, seamlessly shifting from a lower to a higher pitch that encompasses the song's primary central rhythm, both in terms of its harmonic and melodic aspects. The main groove is then wrapped up with looped, stripped-down, and crisp 808 dance claps and manipulated snare rolls coupled and accompanied by a bassline of thumping 808 kick drums. The term "crunk" was also used throughout the 2000s as a blanket term to denote any style of Southern hip hop, a side effect of the genre's breakthrough to the mainstream. The word derives from its African-American Vernacular English past-participle form, "crunk", of the verb "to crank". It refers to being excited or high on drugs.
Drafting or slipstreaming is an aerodynamic technique where two moving objects are aligning in a close group to exploit the lead object's slipstream and thus reduce the overall effect of drag. Especially when high speeds are involved, as in motor racing and cycling, drafting can significantly reduce the paceline's average energy expenditure and can even slightly reduce the energy expenditure of the lead vehicle.
The term hyphy is an Oakland, California slang meaning "hyperactive". More specifically, it is an adjective describing the hip hop music and the culture associated with the Oakland area. The term was first coined by Oakland rapper Keak da Sneak.
Car surfing involves riding on the outside of a moving vehicle being driven by another person. It has resulted in numerous deaths, predominantly causing severe head injuries.
Trail braking is a driving and motorcycle riding technique where the brakes are used beyond the entrance to a turn (turn-in), and then gradually released. Depending on a number of factors, the driver fully releases brake pressure at any point between turn-in and the apex of the turn.
Stanley Petey Cox, better known by his stage name Mistah F.A.B., is an American rapper, songwriter, entrepreneur, community organizer and activist.
"Tell Me When to Go" is the first single from E-40's BME/Warner Bros. debut, My Ghetto Report Card. Keak da Sneak is also featured on the track. It was produced by Lil Jon, and one of the first singles to kick off the hyphy movement on a national level and popularized the phrase "ghost ride the whip". The song reached number 35 in the U.S. and eventually was certified Platinum by the RIAA on February 2, 2024. The song first premiered online on the MySpace.com homepage and it was the first hip hop single to premiere online before being released.
Earl Tywone Stevens Jr., better known by his stage name Droop-E, is an American rapper and record producer. He is the son of the Bay Area rapper E-40.
Heroes in the City of Dope is the first collaborative studio album by Zion I and The Grouch. It was released on Om Records on October 10, 2006. It peaked at number 29 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart, as well as number 34 on the Independent Albums chart.
Turf Talk, is a Bay Area rapper involved with the hyphy movement. He is a cousin of Bay Area rapper E-40, and is signed to his record label Sick Wid It Records.
Thizz Entertainment is a Sacramento-based, originally independent record label, started in 1999 by rapper and music producer Andre Hicks, who was professionally known as Mac Dre, a poster child of the hyphy movement that swept through the Bay Area in the early 2000s. The label was relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area shortly after his untimely death.
Sultan Banks, better known as Traxamillion, was an American hip hop producer. He produced records such as Keak da Sneak's "Super Hyphy" and Dem Hoodstarz "Grown Man Remix". His first album, The Slapp Addict, was a compilation of Bay Area hyphy artists and was released August 22, 2006.
Motorcycle stunt riding is a motorsport which involves stunts known as wheelies, stoppies, acrobatics, burnout, drifting, and jumping. Motorcycles are sometimes modified to do multiple tricks.
Ghost Town is the informal name of the Hoover-Foster Historic District neighborhood in West Oakland, Oakland, California.
A running board or footboard is a narrow step fitted under the side doors of a tram, car, or truck. It aids entry, especially into high vehicles, and is typical of vintage trams and cars, which had much higher ground clearances than today's vehicles. It is also used as a fashion statement on vehicles that would not otherwise require it. The origin of the name running board is obscure; the first running boards predate automobiles and were installed on carriages as early as the 17th century.
A wheelie, or wheelstand, is a vehicle maneuver in vehicle acrobatics in which the front wheel or wheels come off the ground due to sufficient torque being applied to the rear wheel or wheels, or rider motion relative to the vehicle. Wheelies are usually associated with bicycles and motorcycles, but can be done with other vehicles such as cars, especially in drag racing and tractor pulling.
Vanessa Renee Reece, better known by her stage name V-Nasty, is an American rapper from Oakland, California. She is best known for being part of the group White Girl Mob with Kreayshawn and Lil Debbie, and for collaborating with Atlanta rapper Gucci Mane. Reece released her debut studio album with Gucci Mane titled BAYTL in 2011 through 1017 Records and Warner Bros. Records. In 2013, she signed a record deal with independent label Pinnacle Records and started working on her second album, as well as a reality TV show. In 2014, V-Nasty released a Mixtape titled "11Lem" along with a new single titled "Tweekin".
"Ghost Rider" is the alias used by a Swedish motorcycle stunt rider, called "probably the most famous flaunter of road rules the world has ever seen", whose internet videos have achieved a "cult following" with millions of views.
We Were Hyphy is a 2022 documentary film about Hyphy, a sub-genre of hip-hop.
Media related to Ghost riding at Wikimedia Commons