Praise for Unique Hustle
“Will’s always taken care of me with the best whips in the world. When I was a kid, we used to play a game called Bingo, and when you shouted ‘Bingo’ that was the car you wanted. Now kids do that with my cars. I give Will full responsibility to do his thing, and he always does a great job.”
—LeBron James
Los Angeles Lakers
“Will Castro is an artist. He sees things with a deep vision where others may see nothing.”
—Erik McMillan
Former all-pro NFL safety
“Will Castro is my brother. He’s all heart, a true friend. He’s always there for me and my family.”
—Fat Joe
Hip-hop artist and actor
“Will Castro is one of the best people I have met in show business. And the fact that he’s also Puerto Rican doesn’t hurt. He’s one of the most knowledgeable people in regard to the repair, renovation, and restoration of vehicles. His story is amazing. You have to read this book. I love the guy.”
—Geraldo Rivera
Journalist, reporter, author
“Will’s craftsmanship is impeccable. For him to take regular cars off the street and add style, luxury, and street flavor…I’m blown away by it.”
—Sean “P. Diddy” Combs
Entertainment mogul
My Drive to Be the Best Car Customizer in Hip-Hop and Sports
Will Castro
With Mark Finkelpearl
Mango Publishing
Coral Gables
All rights reserved. No reproduction, even in part, without the written permission of the publisher.
Copyright © 2019 by Will Castro with Mark Finkelpearl
Published by Mango Publishing Group, a division of Mango Media Inc.
Front and back cover courtesy of Johnny Paul Melendez, Lebron James, and Will Castro; courtesy of Nat Newsome
All other photos courtesy of The Will Castro Archives
Photographers: Jim Bibbee, Troy Parasio, and Steven McMahon
Graffiti art courtesy of Keith (Reme) Rowland
Layout Design: Jermaine Lau
Mango is an active supporter of authors’ rights to free speech and artistic expression in their books. The purpose of copyright is to encourage authors to produce exceptional works that enrich our culture and our open society. Uploading or distributing photos, scans or any content from this book without prior permission is theft of the author’s intellectual property. Please honor the author’s work as you would your own. Thank you in advance for respecting our authors’ rights.
For permission requests, please contact the publisher at:
Mango Publishing Group
2850 Douglas Road, 2nd Floor
Coral Gables, FL 33134 USA
For special orders, quantity sales, course adoptions and corporate sales, please email the publisher at [email protected]. For trade and wholesale sales, please contact Ingram Publisher Services at [email protected] or +1.800.509.4887.
Unique Hustle: My Drive to Be the Best Car Customizer in Hip Hop and Sports
Library of Congress Cataloging
ISBN:(p) 978-1-63353-889-4 (e) 978-1-63353-890-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 20199932087
BISAC category code: BIO002030—BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Cultural, Ethnic & Regional / Hispanic & Latino
Printed in the United States of America
THIS IS DEDICATED TO my grandfather Bonfacio.
He believed in me, kept me focused, and engrained in me my work ethic.
I love you endless papi.
Table of Contents
Chapter Four
Customizing and the Explosion of New York Hip-Hop
Chapter Five
Tuning into Television
Chapter Six
The Three Kings
Chapter Seven
Busted (and Miami)
Chapter Eight
Major Setback, Epic Comeback
Epilogue
The Long Yellow Line
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Unique life scrapbook
This book is amazing. When I was coming up in the game, if you were into cars, flyness, and taking it to the next level and you did not know Will Castro, you were going to hear about him soon; his work speaks very loudly. It inspires me. He’s part of hip-hop culture. Just start with all the whips he did with Busta Rhymes. I remember once seeing an eighteen-wheeler filled with Busta’s amazing cars, and they were all Will Castro builds. Eventually, Will and I connected through Fat Joe. All the cars that Will built for Joe thrilled me. Will started by putting rims on my Escalade. Then, from there, we upgraded to foreign cars—we started getting into the Rolls-Royce world, the Bentley world, the Phantom world. And I found as we were doing all this together that his customer service was unbelievable. He’ll get on an airplane and fly to you just to have a conversation. Will Castro was born