Midnight Club 5

I always knew there was a connection between trap music and illegal night time racing. Built a whole playlist around it. 

  

I recently discovered PINKFLAMINGO a group that goes around documenting various car communities around the US. These communities are located in areas known for trap music (Altanta, New York, Detroit, Los Angeles) with even rapper Lil Yachty and his Ferrari featuring in one of their documentary films. 

The culture of Japanese illegal street racing is being kept alive in the US. Just search "Atlanta street racing" newsclips on YouTube. A culture that declined in 1999 after Tokyo police started to crackdown on it. All that's left now are VHS tapes that circulate on obscure Japanese blogs and forums half of which are on blogs.yahoo.co.jp, a service that no longer exists. With their editing, wide angle lenses and 4:3 aspect ratio, the anonymous PINKFLAMINGO manages to capture this revived subculture perfectly.

Fireworks and Donuts





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Like in Japan, these groups meet up at night, a time where not that many cars are on the street. They move around from spot to spot playing a cat and mouse game with the police, hundreds running like cockraches as soon as sirens are heard.

The cars? There was a huge variety, American muscle cars, German sedans, Japanese sport coupés, pick up trucks, etc.

There is a lot of gang affiliation in these videos which isn't surprising. Historically groups such as the Aoyama Jokers were originally gangs with a passive interest in racing. That is to be expected with street racing attracting a wide variety of people. 90s Japanese street racing attracted everyone from teenagers to high ranking corporate executives with Porsches with a million dollars worth of mods.

The downfall of these American groups will ultimately be their own recklessness. Way too many drivers not involved and crowds got hurt during these videos. The legendary Midnight Club (?? - 1999) survived as long as it did and they put speed and safety above everything else.

TTD.