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    Amplifier

    Kanye West and Jay-Z Auctioning Off Mutilated $373,000 Maybach for Charity

    By Caryn Ganz | Amplifier – Mon, Aug 15, 2011 8:46 PM EDT

    In "Otis," the first video from the Kanye West and Jay-Z (a.k.a the Throne) joint album Watch the Throne, the two hip-hop moguls oversee some unconventional body work to what appears to be a brand-new Maybach: The German luxury car -- base sticker price approximately $373,000 for the cheapest model -- gets sliced and diced with a blowtorch and power saw. In the first 30 seconds of the clip, the automobile loses its roof and doors and gets remixed into an open-air Jeep-style vehicle perfect for joyriding around a parking lot with a quartet of young ladies in the back seat while fireworks blast off, which is exactly what Jay and Kanye proceed to do in the Spike Jonze-directed video.

    MTV News asked an expert to appraise the cost of the damage (or improvements, depending on your take) to the car, and the price ranged from $20,000 for a quickie job -- just the welding and painting -- to $150,000 for a fully reinforced frame. Expensive? Sure, but Jay allegedy spent $250K on a bar tab last night, so it probably didn't break his bank. "The thing is, the value of that car is nothing now, you couldn't drive it on the street," DUB magazine's Myles Kovacs told MTV. "It would start malfunctioning bigtime."

    Jay-Z and Kanye West are certainly presuming the car is worth far more than "nothing," however -- according to a note posted at the end of the video, they're planning to auction the Frankenbach off for charity: "The vehicle used in this video will be offered up for auction. Proceeds will be donated towards the East African drought disaster." AllHipHop confirmed the auction is legit with the rappers' reps. (The group's publicist hasn't yet responded to The Amp's request to confirm the Maybach is the real deal.) No word how or when the vehicle will be sold off, but potential buyers should presumably plan to host lavish Watch the Throne listening sessions in the car rather than go cruising in it.

    Following The Amplifier on Twitter is just as satisfying as buying a megabucks Maybach -- and it's free! 

    See Also:

    • Everything You Need to Know About Jay-Z and Kanye's #ThroneDay
    • Who Would Boo Beyonce and Jay-Z? 

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    12,878 comments

    • Bill Briggs
      Bill Briggs  •  6 months ago
      Very nice of them to donate the money to those children in Africa for clean drinking water. I'm all for that. Now they can donate the same or more to the children in the United States. The children are going through hard times with their families here too. The rich should cough up some money and help out. They can't take the money with them. Just greedy and self serving bigots.
      • Jonathan
        Jonathan 6 months ago
        The rich should cough up some money and help out?! Who employs you? A richer person than you. For whom does he work? A very rich person. Who pays your wages? Both rich people either directly or indirectly. If you can't see that a hatred of rich people is utterly insane, then you don't deserve to sponge off them any more. Why don't you take a moral stance and quit your job in order to run a not-for-profit business? Plenty of rich people do that (just look at Warren Buffett and Bill Gates). If you say it's because you're not rich enough to do it, then clearly you too are greedy and self-serving. Listen up socialists! You're the 99%, and I'm the person with common sense looking down at you from the realms of higher knowledge.
    • Raven
      Raven  •  6 months ago
      fools! i hate rap and i am a dj!
    • MiQueen
      MiQueen  •  6 months ago
      It was in poor taste. Yes.But, let's remember that it was people like Adolf Hitler who through eugenics and racial hygiene actually decided what "lives was not worth living" All lives are worth living. You don't like this.... be a better person and boycott them! Stop buying their music! I did long time ago. I only support artists who try hard not to do anything stupid. Needless to say my list is short!
    • Steven
      Steven  •  6 months ago
      Anybody reacting to "human beings make video use budget for creative expenditure" then throwing in black, white, the bible and some more popular hate need to simply realize that you can point a finger at everything you see. There is budgeted waste in everything, from the packaging on your socks to your McD coffee cup. In entertainment, especially movies, "items that cost money" are trashed all the time. (Matrix Reloaded had the set used for the highway scene donated as materials for housing, because that particular "waste of money" was excessive enough to not spend the same money to trash it as well as having a simple place and use, to build houses. Now you could take the same stance applied to this articale and can look up every movie house not donating it's set materials and run off with more hate.) ---So when you start throwing anything specific about color or creed you're off your hating rocker. Jay and Ye decided to spend their music video budget money...they have that right not because they're "black, illuminati backed, bible this and that", but because Jay made himself rich off poetry called rap that he worked on and made his flow a rythm etc. and Kanye learned how to make beats, be creative with sound and realize his own potential to not produce but to be a star hmself. ---I bet the haters can't say they ever did anything so great as to see their own potential.
    • Freemerryjane
      Freemerryjane  •  6 months ago
      Dont they make enough money off their so called talent? Crap how rich ya gotta be.
    • AZ
      AZ  •  6 months ago
      they just do an auction for the tax write off for 300k, that car is probably worth 50k in the market,, they can save bunch of money from Obama tax breacket..
    • roger
      roger  •  6 months ago
      Can't these guys ever do something better with their money and stop blowing it on cars and bling, i have a great idea will jay z payoff my mortgage instead of blowing it at a bar, what a waste... guys like this need a reality check , take it all away from them and then they will WAKE UP.............
    • roger
      roger  •  6 months ago
      i'M GONNA TRASH MY LAPTOP AND PUT IT UP FOR AUCTION FOR $300,000 ANY TAKERS ? COME ON IT'S FOR CHARITY...
    • ZomZomZom
      ZomZomZom  •  6 months ago
      Horrible 'artists'.
    • Obama Needs To Go
      Obama Needs To Go  •  6 months ago
      west you are a yard ape monkey
    • l
      l  •  6 months ago
      Vainty dumb just give 600 Grand to Africa instead of jacking up a car.
    • jja_American
      jja_American  •  6 months ago
      nobody said that 'they ' were smart..just able to sing..
      Money is meaningless ..and those 2 have no creativity.
    • Ann
      Ann  •  6 months ago
      don't worry the car was purchased with reparation money
    • Tony
      Tony  •  6 months ago
      Watch the throne? only throne they got is in the bathroom, and they're the kings of turds who fall for this crap. They so stupid yo
    • scott
      scott  •  6 months ago
      Relax people. This dumb stunt gets them more than 300k in free advertising.
    • Robert
      Robert  •  6 months ago
      2 DUMB FUC_ _ _.I HOPE THERE CHILDREN DONT GET THIS GENE.
    • Fizzgig
      Fizzgig  •  7 months ago
      maybe they can give Africans rides in it.
    • robert p
      robert p  •  6 months ago
      why would anyone buy a mutilated maybach for hundreds of thousands of dollars....
    • amstaffbru
      amstaffbru  •  6 months ago
      what is the throne,,the toilet.
    • Matthew
      Matthew  •  6 months ago
      You people are shockingly stupid. That car's value will EASILY increase astronomically for no reason other than it being used in 'Otis'. Sooooo... they spent all the money, altered the car, and will now make MORE money than they spent for a foundation to help children. How is that bad?
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