Drive: Cadillac’s Rap

Hip-hop arrived in the suburbs stealthily, and then all at once. Its clandestine arrival in the late 1990s coincided with a growing adoption of file-sharing services such as LimeWire, Kazaa and Napster, which allowed music fans of the budding Internet Age to plunder the world’s record collections one song at a time. After sufficiently installing a variety of irreversible malware on the family computer, downloaded songs were then burned onto blank CDs and played to deafening degrees with the help of car subwoofers.

Hailing from the toughest neighborhoods of New Orleans, the 504 Boyz almost certainly did not set out to make music for young white boys. But their exuberantly catchy songs—including “Tight Whips”—spanned the cultural divide with killer hooks.

We roll tight whips, everyday
Bentley, Lex, Mercedes and Escalades
We roll tight whips, everyday
Hustlin’ to make the paper, but that’s OK

Of those four luxury car brands mentioned, only one was intimately known to me. My good friend’s white-golden Escalade, with its second-row captain’s chairs, was the coolest way imaginable to pull up to the movies. At the time, I knew very little of the Cadillac marquee, but thanks to the 504 Boyz and that SUV’s abundance of elegance and swagger, it was enough to carry the weight of one of the oldest automotive brands in the world.

Nearly two decades later, audio streaming services have largely supplanted digital piracy, hip-hop is decidedly mainstream and Cadillac is making a comeback. 

How do you reimagine an icon? Well, it starts with adopting electric powertrains—something the Detroit-based manufacturer plans to roll out across their entire lineup in the next six years. The 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ sounds like a nerdy brainiac, but it’s still got that presence and attitude that made it a favorite of both soccer parents and legit rappers. While the rear-end design has been called into question, the IQ has enough performance to make any styling misfires easily forgotten. 

All four trims come with a 24-module Ultium battery pack of at least 200 kWh, powering a motor on each axle for all-wheel drive. The motors make a combined 650 horsepower and 615 pound-feet of torque in the regular version. Given a responsible right foot, Cadillac estimates a range of 460 miles on a full charge, or ten miles above the initial estimate—not bad for weighing more than four tons. It also employs a flexible, high-voltage architecture that enables 800-volt DC fast charging, providing up to 100 miles of range in only ten minutes of charge time.

Of course, Cadillac makes much more than SUVs. And that’s where the 2024 Cadillac Celestiq comes into play. Cadillac’s slogan, The Standard of the World, originated in 1908 after the company won what was then considered to be the Nobel Prize of engineering. Starting at $340,000, the Celestiq is an attempt at reclaiming that standard. This Bentley-grade, hand-built, luxury sedan is merely aspirational for many of us, but its styling will surely make its way into the company’s other offerings, just like the shared design between its slate of EV SUVs—from the IQ to the Vistiq all the way down to the entry-grade Optiq. 

Most luxury cars boast infotainment displays measuring around a foot of width, but the Celestiq’s is all of 55 inches (along with the IQ), spanning the entire width of the car’s dashboard. Rear-seat occupants can also enjoy their own 12.6-inch displays for watching movies, checking the internet or controlling the car’s stereo system. That’s either too much screen time for kids these days, or sadly, the new normal for American parents.

As for its performance, a 111-kWh battery pack and a two-motor, all-wheel-drive propulsion system will offer an estimated 600 horsepower and 640 lbs.-ft of torque with a range of 300 miles on a full charge. American automotive excellence? You bet. 

So, is this really the inspiration for a new generation of cars and adolescents? Well, as always, only time will tell. I’m sure a rap lyric will announce the answer before too long.