What happens when the “Princess of Rap” is handed the keys to one of the most iconic entry-luxury sedans in the world—and told to make it her own? You get the molten chrome Mercedes-Benz CLA by Ice Spice: a glossy, genre-bending, hyper-feminine, cyber-couture reimagination of modern mobility.

As part of the automaker’s Class of Creators initiative—a program inviting emerging cultural voices to reinterpret Mercedes-Benz through their personal lenses—Ice Spice didn’t just design a car. She sculpted a mobile persona. The result is a one-of-a-kind art object: part sculpture, part fantasy ride, and 100% Ice Spice.

With its mirror-slick finish, bubblegum interiors, and high-gloss futurism, this CLA is less about horsepower and more about aesthetic power—a moving monument to self-expression in an era of algorithmic style and unapologetic stardom.

A Custom Built Star Car

The Class of Creators project is Mercedes-Benz’s ongoing campaign to embed its design legacy within the worlds of music, art, fashion, and pop culture. Past participants have included avant-garde stylists, digital artists, and next-gen filmmakers. But with Ice Spice, Mercedes took things straight to the streets—and into the charts.

The 24-year-old Bronx-born rapper has spent the past two years turning the music industry on its head, racking up Billboard hits and red carpet moments while crafting a brand steeped in playful femininity, social media virality, and subversive sweetness. Her take on the CLA takes that identity and alloys it into polished metal.

Exterior: Chrome-Lipped and Candy-Coated

At first glance, the car reads like a liquid sculpture. The body of the CLA has been refinished in a custom molten chrome wrap—somewhere between high-polish silver and holographic platinum. When light hits it, the surface fractures into kaleidoscopic flares, giving the illusion that the car is in motion even when it’s parked.

Accents include

• Bubble-shaped wheel wells coated in lavender metallic
• Chrome pink wheels with Ice Spice’s signature snowflake logo etched into the rims
• Sculpted fins on the rear quarter panel, evoking both Barbiecore fantasy and Tokyo street racer aesthetic
• A custom grille made of polished mesh with a crown emblem replacing the Mercedes star

LED underglow lighting casts a blush-toned pool around the vehicle, making it glow like a glam UFO in parking lots and photo studios alike.

Interior: Princess-Core Redefined

Inside, the vehicle is an immersion chamber of plush power. The seats are reupholstered in quilted pink velvet, with ombré stitching that fades from blush to fuchsia. The steering wheel is wrapped in faux fur, while the dash features a holographic control panel inspired by ’90s Tamagotchi aesthetics.

Ice Spice worked with Mercedes’ in-house design team to embed iconic touchpoints:

• Embroidered headrests bearing the initials “IS” in glitter-thread
• A rotating screen with a playlist curated by Ice Spice herself
• Mood lighting programmed to change with the beat of the music
• A pink-tinted panoramic sunroof and a perfume diffuser that emits cotton candy and rose blossom notes

It’s luxury through the lens of a pop futurist—an unapologetic embrace of hyper-femininity and forward-facing flair.

A Car That Mirrors a Career

“I wanted it to feel like the car version of my moodboard,” Ice Spice told press at the launch event, held inside a chrome-wrapped dome installation in Los Angeles. “It’s giving princess, but it’s also giving spaceship. Like, if I had to go on tour in another galaxy? This is what I’m pulling up in.”

That duality—sweet and sharp, dreamlike and driven—echoes her public persona. Ice Spice is as comfortable headlining Rolling Loud as she is front row at a Miu Miu runway. Her car had to match that range.

The CLA’s original design language already emphasized sleek, progressive lines. Ice Spice’s version amplifies that DNA through the lens of her own mythos—a rapper unafraid of softness, a Gen Z star fluent in remixing culture for her own ends.

The Technology Behind the Fantasy

Underneath the aesthetics, the car remains a Mercedes-Benz CLA—meaning it’s not just pretty, but performant. The Class of Creators version retains the CLA’s turbocharged 2.0L inline-4 engine, 4MATIC all-wheel drive system, and voice-activated MBUX infotainment.

However, this model includes conceptual enhancements:

• A custom voice assistant featuring Ice Spice voice prompts
• Interior sensors that respond to movement with reactive lighting cues
• Custom welcome screen animations built with Unreal Engine, showing an animated Ice Spice avatar stepping out of the car on startup

It’s not a production vehicle—it’s a drivable sculpture, one that bridges the gap between art car, influencer campaign, and performance tech platform.

A Statement on Celebrity Customization

This isn’t the first time a celebrity has collaborated with a car brand. Travis Scott’s Cactus Jack x BMW partnership, A$AP Rocky’s testing of EVs, and Kanye West’s military-inspired Sherp trucks have all blurred the line between artist and automaker.

But Ice Spice’s CLA marks a shift—where the brand not only borrows influence, but gives full aesthetic control to the artist. It’s not about putting a celebrity behind the wheel. It’s about putting them in the design studio.

Mercedes-Benz’s Class of Creators empowers voices traditionally outside the automotive space to reinterpret its vehicles—not just as transport, but as cultural objects.

And in doing so, the brand touches something electric: the realization that the car of the future isn’t only smart. It’s stylish. It’s personal. It’s performative.

Public Reception: Love at First Light

Upon its reveal, Ice Spice’s CLA became an instant viral moment. The official Mercedes-Benz Instagram teased close-up images of the chrome surface, igniting speculation before the full drop. Within hours, edits of the car flooded TikTok and Twitter, with fans dubbing it everything from “Barbie’s interstellar ride” to “Hot Wheels for cool girls.”

Critics praised the campaign for merging luxury design with genuine creative collaboration. Fashion and car blogs alike noted the project’s commitment to authentic voice, rather than mere celebrity sponsorship.

Even Mercedes-Benz executives acknowledged its impact. “This is not just a one-off,” said one spokesperson. “This is a blueprint for how cars can intersect with self-expression. Ice Spice showed us what’s possible.”

Legacy of the Chrome Princess

Ice Spice’s CLA isn’t for sale. It won’t be hitting dealerships. But its influence is already rippling through discussions in the industry. Expect more lifestyle-driven concept cars, more artist-led design language, and more fashion-coded interpretations of mobility.

It’s easy to think of this as branding. But it’s also the evolution of the automobile as identity vehicle—a space not just for motion, but for meaning.

In the same way artists personalize their studios or musicians design their stage sets, this project asserts that your car can be your most powerful extension—a rolling moodboard, a digital mixtape in motion, a mirror of your inner world.

Impression

Ice Spice didn’t just paint a car pink. She took one of the sleekest vehicles on the road and reimagined it through her world-building lens. Chrome and candy. Leather and LEDs. Rap royalty meets automotive legacy.

She showed that design doesn’t have to be neutral. That cars, like songs, can carry persona, narrative, and vibe. And she did it all while wearing a custom Mugler catsuit and matching chrome nails.

In a culture obsessed with speed, Ice Spice proved that what matters isn’t how fast you move.

It’s how loudly you glow while getting there.

No comments yet.