PETITE PORSCHES DON’T FIT Mike Jones' PROFILE. HOUSTON’s PLATINUM-SELLING BIG BOY DOES IT super-size style iN HIS 2004 FORD EXCURSION AND BMW 7-SERIES.

Story ADELL HENDERSON /// Photography RAYON RICHARDS

Call a spade a spade. The people’s champ Paul Wall is Houston’s ambassador of parkin’-lot pimpin’. Still, Mike Jones, who put the country onto “tippin’ on 4-4s” (if you need clarity on that pharse at this point, perhaps Cosmopolitan would be a better rag for you), is also a connoisseur of Houston’s car culture. “It’s so hot down here, everybody likes to shine,” says Jones of his town’s infatuation with steel on wheels. “Then you got the diamonds everywhere, and the grills. It’s the show-me state just like St. Louis” [Missouri]. With Houston hosting this year’s NBA All-Star game, many ballers will be taking flight, showing off their verticals at the Rockets’ Toyota Center. But Mike Jones, whose sophomore LP American Dream delivers more reality rap and country car jargon, promises equally exciting four-wheel, gravity-defying tricks on Screwston streets.

RIDES Car culture is huge down in Houston. Is it safe to assume that you had it bad for fly rides ever since your Hot Wheels days?
MIKE JONES Everybody wanted to have a hot car when they were growing up. I just wanted something to go from point A to B, no matter what it was. But as I started
making more money I started liking more and more types of cars.

I’m sure you’ve had quite a few big boy toys, before and after the fame. Give us a rundown of the Mike Jones Greatest Whips Collection.
My first car was a [Buick] LeSabre. It had a nice little paint job on it, but I went from that to the Lincoln Town Car on some 22-inch hundred spokes. It was clean. Then I went to the ‘94 Impala SS, then I went to the truck, then I went to the Bimmer. Now I’m looking at the Hummer, I’m looking at the 6-Series and I’m looking at either a Lamborghini or a Ferrari. I love the cars, man.

Between the candy paint, neon lights and pop trunks, H-Town cars are more noticeable than Yao at a midget meet-and-greet.
In some states when it’s hot people don’t come outside, but down here when it’s hot that’s the perfect time to pull out the candy red, the candy blue and the candy orange cars.

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