If you watched MTV in the mid-2000s, chances are you’ve caught an episode of the hit show Pimp My Ride a few times.
The show was all about taking some really bad beater cars and upgrading them to hip hop royalty levels. No surprise there because the show was hosted by rapper, Xzibit, who is an avid car enthusiast himself. He gives the guarantee that at the end of each show, the beaters would be decked out to the full — pimped in every good way.
The show was a hit and gained a pretty strong fan base for its humor and its different take on the typical rags-to-riches storyline. However, behind all success stories lie several behind-the-scenes truths that a lot of fans are unaware of.
Behind the Scenes on MTV’s Pimp My Ride
1. Xzibit wants nothing to do with the defunct show.
Never ask Xzibit about the show. Ever. When the show was not renewed, the rapper was devastated and became embittered to anything that bears the show’s tag.
Lest you think, the presenter is an unpleasant character to deal with. Testimonies from the show’s contestants prove that he is a genuinely nice guy to work with, able to mix work and play at the set, and is highly professional.
2. Xzibit once bought a contestant a car to be pimped.
Talking about Xzibit being a nice dude, there was one time that a contestant showed up with a car that’s beyond repair. Xzibit decided to buy the contestant a new set of wheels to be used for the show.
If you were a car dealer with used trucks for sale in AZ during that time, you would have made a killing if you partnered with the show.
3. The contestants’ reactions were all staged.
In most cases, if not all, none of the reactions are genuine. A lot of them had to be reshot for the reactions that the director wanted to see. One contestant mentioned that one really huge member of the staff approached him, put his arm around him, and showed him around the shop and told him they put a lot of work into it and they expect him to be a little more enthusiastic.
Even during their intro on the show where you see contestants going ape-crazy that they got picked, those were all staged. They all knew they were gonna be on the show beforehand.
4. The backstories were exaggerated.
Hollywood would not be Hollywood if it didn’t up the drama in the shows. Drama sells. That and sex.
One contestant claimed that the show’s producers “encouraged” him to dump his then-girlfriend because the lonely-and-single bit always makes for a story for the pimped car to help get him the girl of his dreams.
5. The pimped out cars weren’t 100% road-worthy.
Some additions and modifications were done for the show’s sake only and were removed afterward because some were not street legal. There were also several instances of cars that were decked out but still had the same mechanical problems when they started the show.
According to the show’s producers, the show was all about pimping rides and not fixing mechanical problems.
6. The cars were in the shop for months, not days.
Contrary to what was implied in the show, the cars they got for pimping spent months in the shop and not days. This led to major inconveniences for the participants, having to go through months without their cars.
The producers of the show gave the contestants $2,000 each to use for car rental services while their cars were worked on.
7. The contestants had the ride of their lives.
Despite all the show’s complications, the contestants admit that they had tons of fun being on the show. Most of them truly enjoyed the experience and would do it all over again if given the chance.
No matter how you look at it, whether you’re a fan of the show or not, Pimp My Ride has become a part of the mid-2000s pop culture that gained a solid following and fan base.
