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Former NASCAR Cup Series driver Mark Martin recently appeared on a segment produced by FOX Sports where he detailed his views on how NASCAR as a sport draws parallels from the music industry and vice-versa. Martin spoke about how music and hip-hop, in general, captured the Arkansas native's attention ever since its boom in the late 90s and early 2000s.
The $70,000,000 worth driver recalled his introduction to hip-hop as a genre in the interview and spoke about how growing up in and around truck stops introduced him to country music.
The hip-hop phase for the now 65-year-old started when Dr. Dre, one of hip-hop's most prolific artists and producers, released the album 'The Chronic', which hooked Mark Martin for life. The former Stewart-Haas Racing driver also elaborated on his favorite artist as of today and told FOX Sports:
"I always had a diverse liking of different kinds of music, grew up around truck stop restaurants and stuff. There was always country music playing when I was a little kid. In 2002, it was The Chronic, blaring. From there I was sucked into Dr. Dre. For many people, Hip-Hop is a competitive sport just like racing. Rap fans have their favorite rapper, and mine, Gucci Mane. I consider him the original OG. Gucci Mane forever."
Mark Martin's thoughts on the ongoing rap beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar
One of the most talked about topics in current-day pop culture as well as in the hip-hop scene is the ongoing rap battle, or 'beef', between two of the biggest rappers in the industry, Kendrick Lamar and Drake. Seemingly instigated by J. Cole initially, Mark Martin recently shared his opinion on why the two artists have been firing shots at each other lately.
The 65-year-old former NASCAR driver talked about the topic in his piece with FOX Sports while also acknowledging that Drake wore one of his race jackets. He said:
"Most of the guys, they want everybody to know that they're the alpha male, they're the big dog. Right now in rap, Kendrick Lamar and Drake are beefing, two of the biggest and very best, each trying to prove they're on top. Shoutout to Drake, he posted a photo on his Instagram in one of my Viagra racing jackets."
Resonating with what has become one of the premier genres in modern-day pop culture and music, Mark Martin certainly is a godsend for NASCAR for engaging with young up-and-coming fans of the sport, along with instilling them with the core NASCAR values of yore.
