The automotive industry has been undergoing something of a renaissance as of late. Automakers are working feverishly to develop new electric and hybrid vehicles to meet shifting consumer demands and regulatory standards. They’re also exploring the feasibility of autonomous cars, with some manufacturers like Tesla and Nissan already offering semiautonomous cars for sale.
With this sea-change comes considerable opportunity. And one Black entrepreneur who has been known to capitalize on diverse business opportunities — Percy “Master P” Miller recently announced his plans to develop a supercar. And while early twentieth-century entrepreneur C.R. Patterson remains the only Black owner-operator of an automobile manufacturing company to this day, one should not discount Master P’s ambition.
Master P and His Ambition
Born in the Calliope Projects in 1970 and determined to escape the violence and poverty around him, Master P transformed a malpractice settlement inheritance of $10,000 into a record store that became the foundation for a music empire. His eventual record label, No Limit Records, spawned multiple multi-platinum albums, and allowed him to bankroll further entrepreneurial projects, including artist and sports management companies, film and television production, and even food retail.
Master P has long been an outspoken advocate of Black entrepreneurship, a topic he speaks about frequently in interviews from outlets as diverse as NPR to Black Enterprise to REVOLT TV. In his promo run for one of his latest ventures, a retail rice brand, he notes that it’s time that Black entrepreneurs begin investing in the products the Black community consumes and that are not only overwhelmingly produced by White-owned corporations, but historically have been sold with (often racist) Black imagery.
Master P and His Supercar Investment
With this sentiment in mind, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Master P’s next foray is in the automotive world. After all, hip-hop artists and fans have long had a love affair with car culture. Yet despite the wealth of such hip-hop luminaries like Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter and Sean “Diddy” Combs, there remains a dearth of Black-owned car manufacturers. And high-end car companies continue to profit off the “cool factor” that affiliation with hot hip-hop acts provides.
To that end, Master P has partnered with a former Tesla engineer, Richard Patterson, to create Trion Supercars, which aims to develop affordable luxury SUVs and other vehicles. The company has begun a limited production run of a supercar, the Nemesis RR, a luxury sports car with a mammoth 2000 hp V8 engine that can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 2.8 seconds, and is already taking orders.
It’s a bold move for a businessman without prior experience in the automobile industry. But for an entrepreneur like Master P, with limitless drive, ambition, and vision, it’s a good bet that Trion Supercars will be a big success.
