Ghost Ridin' da Whip!

December 29, 2006 1:14 PM

Hip-Hop Car Stunt Leaves 2 (Idiots) Dead...To ghost ride, frequently used in the context of "ghost riding the whip" (a "whip" being a vehicle) or simply ghostin' is when the driver and/or passengers of any given vehicle exit while it is still rolling and dance beside it or on the hood or roof. Ghost riding is one of the latest trends to be popularized by hyphy culture, which originated in the Bay Area of California. The act is one of the highest forms of "going dumb" and a representation of the style of hyphy. The term "ghost ride the whip" was given nationwide exposure in E-40's 2006 song Tell Me When to Go. However, E-40 was not the first to use this term, as it was coined much earlier by other Bay Area rappers such as Mac Dre.

Ghost Riding was also featured in an episode of The Girls Next Door When Kendra demonstrated the game for the other girls. The game ended predictably when Kendra's Escalade crashed into a stationary vehicle. anyone notice that most of the videos show, once again, white kids misappropriating black culture and making both races look stupid?
posted by jcterminal (67 comments total)

So when black people dance on top of moving vehicles it isn't stupid? Love that stupid white folk tag, maybe you could lose the racist attitude and try again.
posted by InfidelZombie at 1:22 PM on December 29, 2006

"It did not take Einstein to look at this thing and say this was a recipe for disaster," said Pete Smith, a police spokesman in Stockton. "We could see the potential for great injury or death."

And I'm sure there were cries of "fuck tha' police" whenever they showed up to stop the idiots from hurting themselves.

anyone notice that most of the videos show, once again, white kids misappropriating black culture and making both races look stupid?

So, the black kids are better drivers than the white kids? ;-)
posted by frogan at 1:24 PM on December 29, 2006

Man...what is the appeal of "ghost ridin'"? I thought I was being reckless back in high school when I would sit on the passenger side of the big front bench seat in my mercury and drape my feet over the hump to operate the pedals so to make it look like no one was driving.
posted by Burhanistan at 1:24 PM on December 29, 2006

WHY ALL THE HARD RETURNS, YO!
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:25 PM on December 29, 2006

anyone notice that most of the videos show, once again, white kids misappropriating black culture and making both races look stupid?

Yes, I prefer videos that only make one race look stupid.
posted by delmoi at 1:25 PM on December 29, 2006 [2 favorites has favorites]

OMG SOMEONE IMPUGNED THE DRIVING SKILLS OF WHITE KIDS
posted by maxreax at 1:26 PM on December 29, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Man...what is the appeal of "ghost ridin'"? I thought I was being reckless back in high school when I would sit on the passenger side of the big front bench seat in my mercury and drape my feet over the hump to operate the pedals so to make it look like no one was driving.

Well, that is pretty reckless.

One summer when I was staying with my dad in Mosquite texas, one of the neighborhood kids jumped out of a moving car, and ended up smashing his head on a police car. They were all white, if you were wondering.
posted by delmoi at 1:27 PM on December 29, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Here's a genius who gets his car stolen while ghost riding.

Possibly staged, but still amusing.
posted by synaesthetichaze at 1:27 PM on December 29, 2006

I know that Wikipedia is free for everyone, but I prefer the verbiage in my Metafilter FPPs to not be cut-and-paste jobs.
posted by CRM114 at 1:28 PM on December 29, 2006

Bwahahah This is the funniest thing I'e ever seen
posted by delmoi at 1:30 PM on December 29, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

While we're hatin', the second and third link are the same.
posted by mrnutty at 1:32 PM on December 29, 2006

BreitBart.com: a stunt in which a driver gets out of his car and dances around and on top of the slowly moving vehicle to a thumping hip-hop beat

On top of the car?

Wiki: Driver walks alongside slow-rolling car with the door open

Well there's your problem.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 1:32 PM on December 29, 2006

That's awesome. We really need to popularize more potentially fatal stunts that only idiots (white, black or other) will attempt.

Otherwise these nutjobs end up surviving into adulthood and getting other folks hurt or killed with their crazy pinhead antics.

cough cough *iraq war* cough cough
posted by Aquaman at 1:35 PM on December 29, 2006

Man,


I really don't want to do a MeTa callout


on the space wasted on the front page for useless returns and excess verbiage.








I'm a white guy so I don't want to misappropriate hard returns and make Asians and Swedes look stupid.
posted by The Deej at 1:36 PM on December 29, 2006

Dang, sorry I left too little space before my "posted by" in the above comment.
posted by The Deej at 1:39 PM on December 29, 2006

Black people die like this, white people die like this.
posted by keswick at 1:40 PM on December 29, 2006

More videos of car crashes, please!!!








.
posted by mr_roboto at 1:41 PM on December 29, 2006

The thing that gets me is that none of these white kids would dare actually trying to GO to a sideshow or actually hang out with black folks. Which, when you also add the segregation of churches, only proves that racism and fear of black folks is stronger than both stupidity and piety.
posted by yeloson at 1:42 PM on December 29, 2006

yeah ok, so i used paragraph tags instead of linebreaks. sue me for 'wasting space'. like most of the internet isn't?

secondly, the 'stupid white folks' tag is not in reference to their driving, but their dancing.

sorry, for being snarky, i'd go back and fix it, but there's no 'edit post' button. also, i'm a stupid white guy.

also, i'm not racist, i'm a regular old-fashioned misanthropist. i'd hate on blacks, but they carry guns.
posted by jcterminal at 1:43 PM on December 29, 2006

secondly, the 'stupid white folks' tag is not in reference to their driving, but their dancing.

Ha! You almost redeemed yourself!
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:44 PM on December 29, 2006

Also, it is not as socially acceptable.
posted by keswick at 1:45 PM on December 29, 2006

Fuck that weak ass O-town shit, I ghost fully capacitilated passenger planes.

That's right fly them friendlies, bitch.

FOO.
posted by The Straightener at 1:45 PM on December 29, 2006 [2 favorites has favorites]

Also, isn't it kind of uncomfortable to wear a baseball cap sideways? The bill gets stretched a bit and pulls against the headband, thereby causing pressure on the temples. Does this cause the stupidity or is it a result of stupidity? Maybe it's another age old question like "did the brain tumor cause the heavenly visions or did the visions cause the tumor?" (not so much on the heavenly aspect though).
posted by Burhanistan at 1:46 PM on December 29, 2006

jcterminal,
We just have to be careful that we don't fill up the internet tubes with too many returns or the truck won't be able to fit them all.

Maybe that's why there is no edit function; the extra spaces took up too much room in the truck, and now the edit button wouldn't fit. You broke it for all of us. We can't have nice things around here.
posted by The Deej at 1:47 PM on December 29, 2006

And people thought Houstown-style "tippin'" was wack. At least with tippin, it's really slow and everyone tends to stay inside the vehicle.
posted by First Post at 1:48 PM on December 29, 2006

[I removed the white space, but I don't know if it helps much]
posted by jessamyn at 1:49 PM on December 29, 2006 [2 favorites has favorites]

Do you mean "wack" as in "good," or as in "bad"? I just can't tell without hearing it inflected and watching how you throw your hands in the air when ypu say the word.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:51 PM on December 29, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

previously
posted by hortense at 1:51 PM on December 29, 2006

how keak da sneak managed not to blow up is totally beyond me.
posted by phaedon at 2:08 PM on December 29, 2006

This isn't black culture, for the record, though the term "ghost ridin'" might be. My brother and his friends used to do this back in the 80s and he was a rock-mullet-toting bass player who listened to ACDC and Led Zeppelin all day. It's just one of those stupid things that kids in highschool do, and there are a lot of them.
posted by The God Complex at 2:16 PM on December 29, 2006

The thing that gets me is that none of these white kids would dare actually trying to GO to a sideshow or actually hang out with black folks. Which, when you also add the segregation of churches, only proves that racism and fear of black folks is stronger than both stupidity and piety.

Um, what?
posted by delmoi at 2:33 PM on December 29, 2006

In October, a 36-year-old man dancing on top of a moving car fell off, hit his head and died in what authorities said was Canada's first ghost riding fatality.

36 years? not a bad run for dumbass.

also , hey canada! congrats on braking your cherry for
roof top dancing related death.
posted by nola at 2:35 PM on December 29, 2006

braking your cherry

Applies specifically to first time driving-related stunts.
posted by cortex at 2:38 PM on December 29, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Back when I was a stupid white kid, we just chased each other in cars down country roads. We stayed in the driver's seat. A friend had a wreck once, but he was white so he was OK. The black kids never did this, but I don't recall many of them having cars.
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 2:38 PM on December 29, 2006

White people [get run over while] ghost[ing] like this.

(...although in this case I think the bimmer was just pissed about wearing that stupid hood scoop and exacted its sweet, sweet revenge...)
posted by LordSludge at 2:46 PM on December 29, 2006

braking your cherry

Now that's a new twist on gas pedalin'.
posted by loquacious at 2:53 PM on December 29, 2006

speaking of popping cherries, i think lordsludge just did mine
posted by phaedon at 3:08 PM on December 29, 2006

White people [get run over while] ghost[ing] like this.

Now that is comedy.
posted by bob sarabia at 3:23 PM on December 29, 2006

[I removed the white space, but I don't know if it helps much] Thanks jessamyn (and lol).

We did a lot of hood-riding back in the 70s, but generally we tried to keep someone behind the wheel. In any generation, kids of all colors, races, nationalities, and religions will always find a way to maim and kill themselves. It's just the thinning of the herd.
posted by The Deej at 3:45 PM on December 29, 2006

well, it is a good way to clean out the gene pool.
posted by doplgangr at 4:01 PM on December 29, 2006

that video is somethin else lordsludge
posted by Afreemind2007 at 4:12 PM on December 29, 2006

They were jsut trying to keep it real.
Real dumb.
posted by Freecola at 4:14 PM on December 29, 2006

"I removed the white space"

You mean you removed the black space that had been misappropriated by the stupid white space.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:27 PM on December 29, 2006 [2 favorites has favorites]

winner!
posted by phaedon at 4:38 PM on December 29, 2006

When emitting Zarathos’ powers, Blaze's head became a flaming skull and he wielded a fiery motorcycle and trademark blasts of hellfire from his skeletal hands.

That's what Ghost Riding means to me. Living people can't compete, hyphy or no.
posted by freebird at 4:44 PM on December 29, 2006

Yeah we did it back in the 80s but because we weren't black we couldn't come up with a cool name - we called it roof surfing.
posted by meech at 5:33 PM on December 29, 2006

We used to "urban surf" on the tops of vans just like Michael J. Fox in "Teen Wolf."

Sometimes I think...what if I'd been killed doing something that stupid? I mean...emulating "Teen Wolf?"

Maybe I deserved a killing.
posted by ColdChef at 5:38 PM on December 29, 2006

Sometimes I think...what if I'd been killed doing something that stupid? I mean...emulating "Teen Wolf?"

Could be worse. You could be 36 and die emulating a rapper emulating Teen Wolf...
posted by LordSludge at 5:50 PM on December 29, 2006

Wow. What an astonishingly stupid thing to do. I mean, when I think of the great pantheon of stupid things, ghost riding is right there up there. Even more so when you witness someone doing it with a car moving at more than 2 miles an hour.

Bear in mind, this is coming from someone who did remarkable dumb things with automobiles in his youth.

At least it's one of those things that, when done wrong, quickly naturally selects those out of the pool. I'm not saying I want the kids harmed, but if they are going to engage in this kind of blisteringly dumb behavior, I ain't gonna shed tears when they get hurt.
posted by quin at 6:00 PM on December 29, 2006

How bored are these people?
posted by pompomtom at 6:04 PM on December 29, 2006

Do you mean "wack" as in "good," or as in "bad"? I just can't tell without hearing it inflected and watching how you throw your hands in the air when ypu say the word.

Well, maybe he did throw his hands in the air, but...

I just don't care!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:06 PM on December 29, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

white kids misappropriating black culture and making both races look stupid?
posted by jcterminal (48 comments total)

First of all, this isn't "black culture". It's stupid behavior committed by stupid people. To call it black culture is basically like saying blackface in the twenties is black culture.

Let me turn your racism around on you. If as you claim this is an example of "hyphy culture" (which is not a culture, but a trend, like neon colors on white teen girls in 1983) from which white people have stolen AND if we are all in agreement that this behavior is stunningly moronic, then you are essentially blaming a black subculture for having polluted the culture of white people.

In other words, you are parroting the classic racist argument that the minority culture pollutes white culture with bad ideas.

What you are missing is that stupid white people tend to copy the behavior of stupid black people because stupid people in general have the idea stuck in their heads that black youth culture is somehow more authentic than any other youth culture, and therefore black youth culture is the one to emulate (as opposed to black kids emulating white youth culture or groups ripping each other off roughly equally).

Examples of this? Drive by shootings are gang culture or urban culture, and making movies and writing songs about it is "keeping it real". However, school shootings, a predominately white, upper middle class phenomenon, are not white culture, and white kids don't write songs and make movies justifying it as "trying to survive". You write a song justifying or excusing the Columbine shooters, and it will be regarded asinciting violence, or hate speech.

In short, labeling jumping in and out of and dancing alonside a moving vehicle as "black culture" makes it much easier for racists to justify their prejudice.

Coltrane is black culture. Dr. Dre is black culture. Jumping out of a moving car is idiocy that crosses all color barriers.
posted by Pastabagel at 6:22 PM on December 29, 2006 [3 favorites has favorites]

In October, a 36-year-old man dancing on top of a moving car fell off, hit his head and died in what authorities said was Canada's first ghost riding fatality.

Thirty six years old? FFS, some people never grow up.
posted by five fresh fish at 6:58 PM on December 29, 2006

To call it black culture is basically like saying blackface in the twenties is black culture.

I don't see how one is anything like the other. Blackface was created by white people to represent a stereotype of black people. The term "Ghost Riding The Whip" is a phrase used to describe a popular activity in the hyphy "movement." The term and activity have been popularized predominately by black rappers.

Where's the correlation?

In other words, you are parroting the classic racist argument that the minority culture pollutes white culture with bad ideas.

I agree with you that regardless of race, this is a dumb thing for anyone to do. However, in the context of this fpp and all that it contains, saying that ghosting your vehicle in an attempt to emulate the latest popular trend in hip hop music is part of black culture shouldn't be met with cries of racism. Black people didn't invent ghost riding. However, the group that is currently making the activity popular consists chiefly of black youths, and that appears to be the topic of discussion in this thread. I guess what I'm trying to say is, lets not try and read too deeply into things?
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 7:12 PM on December 29, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Do you have to be mentally retarded to enjoy ghost riding or drifting, or is it only recommended?
posted by Chasuk at 7:20 PM on December 29, 2006

black people are like this
doot doot doot

white people are like this
deet deet deet

(comments 5th link)
posted by HyperBlue at 8:35 PM on December 29, 2006

I don't see this as a black vs white people, it's just really fucking dumb people. Paging the Darwin awards.

Hope all the idiots who do this, do it before they breed and pass on the stupid gene!
posted by aacheson at 9:25 PM on December 29, 2006

Someday we'll probably have a president that used to do this.
posted by StrangerInAStrainedLand at 2:20 AM on December 30, 2006

misappropriating

This word use suggests those kids could find a proper way to ghost ride. Like maybe using the [via].
posted by srboisvert at 3:42 AM on December 30, 2006

evolution works
posted by altman at 5:00 AM on December 30, 2006

Lordsludge is teh winar. One hundred and elevens all around.
posted by haqspan at 6:35 AM on December 30, 2006

This is the most entertaining successful ghostride I've ever seen.
posted by Durhey at 11:49 AM on December 30, 2006

Imbeciles emulating other imbeciles.
posted by wfc123 at 12:11 PM on December 30, 2006

What rubbish.

Dr. Dre is not black culture. He is a business man cashing in on stupidity and laziness.

He and his ilk are anti-culture.
posted by wfc123 at 12:18 PM on December 30, 2006

Man, we did way dumber shit than that when I was a kid, these jerks aren't even trying.
posted by wigu at 5:17 PM on December 30, 2006

I couldn't decide for a long time whether this video was a joke or not. There's just something silly about it...but I can't quite put my finger on it.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 4:58 PM on December 31, 2006

I was away for a few days but just want to clarify my statements.

Me: To call it black culture is basically like saying blackface in the twenties is black culture.

CitrusFreak12: I don't see how one is anything like the other.

They are alike in that both portray blacks as ignorant buffoons for the amusement of white people. It doesn't really matter who created it or funded its creation, or own the record company, etc. What matters is what it shows. Most people who see the E40 video are not familiar with hyphy culture.

Dr. Dre is not black culture. He is a business man cashing in on stupidity and laziness.

That's a personal opinion and value judgment. Dr. Dre has defined what rap sounds like for 2 decades. Rap is part of the culture, like it or not.
posted by Pastabagel at 7:16 AM on January 2, 2007