*Cadillac was founded 120 years ago in Detroit by Henry M. Leland, William Murphy and Lemuel Bowen. The luxury car was named after Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac; it became an instant status statement reserved for the elite. However, the car also has a past dark past, spiced up with the racism that defined the rest of America.
Did you know that General Motors discouraged its dealers from selling cars to Black customers and only stopped the habit only in 1932? The “unwritten policy” was meant to ensure Cadillac always remained a prestige car.
However, the policy shift came when Nicholas Dreystadt, a German immigrant and the head of Cadillac’s service division, visited several dealerships. While visiting, he couldn’t understand why many Black customers waited for their cars to be reserviced. On asking later, he learned that the Black customers had gotten their Cadillac cars by purchasing through white “front men.” He changed these discriminatory sales practices by 1930 when automobile sales plummeted in the Great Depression.
His change of tact helped to save the brand from fading into oblivion. Henceforth, Cadillac was no more a status symbol for the filthy rich white people.
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But that is all in the past. Rapper, entrepreneur, and activist Killer Mike got a call star in a Cadillac campaign for its new Escalade V dubbed “Black Future” despite the company’s racial history. Killer Mike clearly understood the historical significance of a Black man starring in a Cadillac commercial.
“Cadillac and my community have a long history,” the “Run The Jewels” MC confessed to HipHopDX. “There was a time where Cadillac, Chrysler and Lincoln, in particular, were in a war with who would be the big luxury automobile out of America. And Cadillac came out as a preeminent winner. And Buick was even a GM brand, but Buick was also a luxury car. At one point, Cadillac’s independent dealerships had policies where they would not sell directly to Black customers. It created a whole secondary economy of people who would charge Black people to go buy the car for them and things.
“But [Dreystadt] said, ‘This is silly. We could be selling more cars. This is desegregating; the prohibiting of people from buying cars makes no sense.’ They got dealerships to cut that — not all — but the ones that did saw exponential growth. Cadillac grew and grew past its competitors. Cadillac essentially was put in a higher place because Black people spent their dollars with them. And that’s a dope thing. Beyond that, Cadillac became a status symbol in American society and in Black American society.”
Killer Mike also narrates the story of one of his uncles who worked for the city as a garbage truck driver. The uncle had a dream to buy a blue Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham. This was a full-size luxury model that graced showrooms between 1977 and 1986. The uncle was so happy and proud of his car when he finally bought it.
Cadillac and music business also seemed to have a symbiotic relationship. Says Killer, “Sometimes you would get a Cadillac when you signed a record deal back in the day. I think BB King owned Cadillacs. So Cadillac, in my place and in the Black community, has a very prominent place. I’m a car guy. Cars mean the world to me. So in the early 2000s, when Cadillac came out with the Cadillac Escalade, it set a new bar for an SUV.
“It made utility vehicles for rich moms to go to the farmer’s market in. It was for guys that owned businesses who didn’t want to drive a pickup truck or a Benz but wanted the best of both worlds and could drive those to the office. So Cadillac again was hugely supported by my community. And this time, beyond just the Black community, the Hip Hop community, as well.”
https://youtu.be/C5ImudYnfVM
As part of his deal with the company, Killer Mike has been able to drive a white version of the Cadillac Escalade V for the past couple of weeks. Indeed, he and his wife Shana Render were driving around in it when he talked about the deal with the company. His wife also stars in the ad.
“Cadillac remains, to me, the tip of the spear of car technology,” he adds. “Cadillac V is genius. I’m driving one around. It’s big. It’s luxurious. It’s a spaceship, and it’s as fast as a rocket, and I don’t want to give it back [laughs]. Not only am I driving the truck every day, I’m also enjoying it. I’ve named it Storm Trooper.”
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