HIP AND HOPPED UP

REAL PEOPLE, UNREAL CARS & HIP HOP STARS Words by Chuck Dapoz and Jeff Mathews Pictures by Dapoz and Renee Gibson The DUB Custom Auto Show & Concert stopped in Los Angeles on September 30, for the second time this year. The LA Convention Center was packed with real people, unreal cars and hip hop stars. The DUB show bills itself as the world's largest customer auto show and concern tour. It's big. But more notable is it's a world apart from the Greater Los Angeles Auto Show, which is a showcase for the big-name, mainstream manufactures: Toyota, Nissan, GM, Ford, and BMW and the rest. Major auto shows cater to the well-to-do, the richest 20 percent of the population, who buy new cars and trucks. The DUB show is for the other 80 percent. For real people. For those who buy used vehicles and whose passion for cars has no correlation with the size of their paychecks or trust funds.

The displays at the DUB show were like its audience: young, gritty, unpolished, energetic, street-smart.

The cars ranged from simple customizations to over-the-top works of art meant only for display and competing for trophies.

A few of the winners:

The vehicles were imaginative, outlandish, and colored in palates and trimmed in materials never considered in Tokyo, Detroit or Stuttgart. Check out the photos below for a sampler.

The super bling

The crazy interiors

The outlandish

The imaginative

The scene was urban and to a degree antiestablishment. All attendees, even the media, were frisked before entering. The convention center was filled with displays and references to drugs, guns, death, music and exposed skin (with onsite tattooing and piercings). Not your everyday Oldsmobile crowd.

More than 22,000 people attended, entertained by hip-hop stars Lil Scrappy, Lil Mama, Soulja Boy, Lloyd, Richboy, Hurricane Chris and Fabolous.

© DUB

The crowd rocked © DUB

The vehicles sizzled

© DUB The DUB show returns to the LA Convention Center in February. We can't wait. For more on the DUB Show go to http://www.dubmagazine.com/dubshow.