All the ingredients for the perfect rap song converge during late weekend nights on Erie Boulevard.

When the sun sets on the Syracuse strip, a city of gaudy cars, loyal crews and patrolling police take the stage for one of the region’s largest underground drag racing scenes. At red lights, drivers rev their engines and flash jaw-dropping rims. At green lights, drivers weave in and out of regular traffic and violate countless traffic laws.

The happenings are entertaining enough to draw hundreds of spectators who flood the sidewalks, but dangerous enough to draw a half-dozen cops to the area.

It’s the Erie Boulevard music video, and it doesn’t need Spike Jonze.

‘Man, that car don’t come out until next year, where in the fuck did you get it? That’s eighty-thousand bucks GONE, where in the fuck did you spend it?’ – Ludacris, “Roll Out”

Among the dozens of people who race on Erie Boulevard on a weekly basis, few can answer this question.

‘I spent way too much money on this, man,’ Matt O’Brien said, pointing to his souped-up vehicle. ‘Four years of every paycheck. I could have had a house.’

O’Brien, 20, owns a vehicle that couldn’t fit into Michael Jackson’s budget. He took the frame of an old Ford pickup truck, extracted the old engine from the front and re-installed a more powerful engine in the back, where its extravagance is fully exposed to admirers.

Like many, O’Brien has geared his automobile more for looks than for competitive racing. Nonetheless, the Liverpool resident attached a small set of wheels on the rear designed to enable one to two-foot high wheelies.

‘I guess it’s not every day that you can get to watch a big car like this lifting off right in front of your eyes,’ O’Brien said.

Many racers, though, are more inclined to race than pull tricks. Competitive drivers begin races with a mutual agreement — sometimes a verbal challenge before getting in the car, sometimes a simple look at a red light.

Generally, races begin at the red light in front of the McDonald’s at 2442 Erie Blvd. and last until the next light. Despite the short distances and the 40 mph speed limit, cars often reach speeds of 100 mph, a police officer said.

‘It’s an obsession,’ racer and Cornell student Jason LeVin said of the speed. ‘I just like driving my car, I just like feeling how it goes and making it go fast.’

LeVin owns a Subaru Impreza 2.5 RS with a rear spoiler that could poke into most city skylines.

Erie Boulevard also features the cars of rap lore. On a Saturday evening, a Lexus ES 300, a Dodge Viper and a Chevrolet Camaro SS all zipped through regular traffic.

In one instance, a car left a message for the other drivers it left behind. YRU 2SLO, the license plate of a Pontiac Grand Prix taunted.

Just another challenge, one could say.

‘You gon’ be here for a while, I’m gon’ go call my crew, You go call your crew.’ – Notorious B.I.G., “Big Poppa”

Rest assured, these people most certainly will be here for a while. When the weather is nice, roughly 400 to 500 people line the streets where the drag racing occurs. They arrive at 9 p.m. and often stay past midnight.

The most popular gathering spots are at the aforementioned McDonald’s and the Price Chopper than sits cattycorner from the intersection. Because people crowd both parking lots, drivers enjoy circling their cars through the lots for a glorified pit stop.

Saturday, several people simply elected to forgo the racing and park their cars. They compared engines, custom rims, exhaust pipes and, of course, competitive barbs.

‘It’s fun to just come out here and see what everyone’s got,’ said Mohummed Atiyeh, 17. ‘You end up meeting all the regulars, but, for the most part, you just know the guys by their cars. See that dude over there in the Chevy? Nobody likes him.’

Atiyeh extended his finger in the direction of Jesse Affleck, known as ‘Buckwheat’ within the drag racing circle. An evening earlier, Affleck received eight speeding tickets for his reckless driving. On Saturday, he stopped his car on Erie in front of the McDonald’s crowd and spun his tires for nearly 30 seconds, creating a misty smoke that enveloped the surrounding cars.

‘Really all these people are running these cars up here mostly for show,’ said Frank Miller, owner of a Mitsubishi 3000 GT VR-4. ‘I kind of cruise around. I don’t really feel the need to [show off], know what I mean?’

Yet when drivers do wish to flaunt, they certainly make their intentions known. Jamar Clark owns a Honda Civic, pimped to its fullest with a red and white leather interior and rims sharper than razors. Parked in front of McDonald’s, Clark’s automobile draws plenty of eyes.

‘I like all the attention it gets,’ he said.

Lucky for Clark, he’s got the audience of a rap star.

‘The police are gonna have to come and get me.’ – NWA, “Straight Outta Compton”

And do they ever.

Every Friday and Saturday, the five to six Syracuse police officers stationed on Erie Boulevard make about 100 stops, Officer Shannon Trice said.

At one point, he said, police had little control or knowledge of the underground racing that became popular about five years ago.

‘We have much tighter control over it now,’ Trice said. ‘We want everyone to have a good time but we want everyone to obey the law. It’s one thing if they want to cruise up and down the boulevard showing their cars off. It’s quite another thing to drag race and cut people off. It becomes a safety issue.’

Although no racers or spectators admitted to seeing accidents worse than minor bang-ups, the cops aren’t taking any chances. They use radar and laser traps to curb reckless driving.

Drivers aren’t taking chances either. Plenty place radar detectors on their dashboards that alert them to radar from policemen.

‘If the people stop all the craziness, the crazy driving, and just stick to hanging out and showing your car off, I think it would be a lot nicer,’ Miller said.

The problem, though, extends from the streets to the sidewalk. At McDonald’s and Price Chopper, store managers have become upset with the number of spectators who occupy space in their parking lots.

‘Basically, most of the businesses have trespassing affidavits,’ Trice said. ‘They don’t want you sitting on their property. People clog up their parking lot, drink alcohol and do drugs. It just becomes a big mess.’

Drag racing may be a mess for the police force and the store owners, but it’s a unique social outlet for hundreds of car lovers in Central New York.

And much like rap, it’s coming straight from the underground.

—Asst. Feature Editor Colin Dabkowski contributed to this article.

Published on April 23, 2002 at 12:00 pm