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Ace Hood's “Bugatti” Is The Rap Song of the Year For Decorative Arts Enthusiasts

Before cars, the Bugatti name was best known within the world of European architecture and design.

When you hear the word “Bugatti,” chances are you think of the fancy, expensive car and Ace Hood's "Bugatti," this year's unparalleled pump up anthem that screams a classic rags to riches tale, bragging about coming from nothing to find oneself waking up in a new “1.2 million dollar car," and all the other unbelievable perks that come with suddenly, living the high life. Unless you are somewhat acquainted with the history of 20th century decorative arts, you probably don't think back to the beginnings of the Bugatti family legacy and realize that before cars, the Bugatti name was best known within the world of European architecture and design. For me, 2013 will forever be remembered as the year that a furniture nerd like myself could pretend, with less delusion than usual, that the world at large was as excited as I am about early 20th century decorative arts.

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Carlo Bugatti's Snail Room from the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative Art in 1902

Even in the Dec Arts world, Bugatti pieces are not as widely known or praised as say, the more typical, stonerific Art Nouveau designs typified by French artists like Hector Guimard. That kind of flowing, dynamic line that has stuck more with the modern public consciousness because its so #trippymane is only a fraction of the styles being developed and touted at the turn of the century. Any doofus can admire and probably recognize an Alphonse Mucha poster in some college dorm (you know, that fin de siècle femme fatale with the wild sex-hair, smoking a cigarette and giving you a sexy side-eye glance you'd probably find at any campus poster fair), but where are my dudes rocking a Wiener Werkstätte print? (And if you're out there, hit me up)

Bugatti pieces exist in the intersection of the turn of the century's interest in the exotic, the natural and the new. The first time I saw a Bugatti piece was in 2011 while I was in Scotland for a couple of study abroad courses. At Mount Stuart, a huge Gothic Revival mansion on the Isle of Bute, there is a small conservatory off of the fascinating "Horoscope Bedroom" where there is a sitting ensemble by elegant weirdo Carlo Bugatti. At this point, my only source of reference to the Bugatti name was [“I Can Transform Ya”](http:// http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kta9If-sP4s) by Chris Brown featuring Swizz Beatz and Lil Wayne from 2009. I thought of that song's WTF line about Lil Wayne turning himself and a lady into a Bugatti and Ducati respectively, in what I like to think of as a René Lalique-style morph from sexy lady into machine. Then it gets into some body horror type scenario where a miniature Wayne navigates this woman's mechanical vagina ("I transform smaller and she puts me in her pants")? Standing there, looking at the Islamic-style mosaic table I thought to myself, how did the Bugatti name get from the international Art Nouveau scene into Wayne's wacky sex fantasy?

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Carlo “Killin the Scene Bring the Coroner in” Bugatti

The Bugatti family history is itself a pretty cool story. Architect and sculptor Giovanni Bugatti's son, Carlo, is my dude when it comes to furniture. He had two sons, Ettore and Rembrandt. Ettore took the family's élan for design and innovation and rather than applying it to more established artistic fields, took his pursuits to the new and exciting world of automobiles and did very well for himself, as evidenced of course by the existence of a song like "Bugatti". Rembrandt was all "fuck you dad" and decided to dedicate his life to making sculptures of animals and eventually killed himself. Ettore's son Jean, keen on taking up his family's business in cars, died while test driving a Bugatti race car when he swerved to avoid hitting a cyclist, if that ain't some Futurist poetic justice for ya.

So Bugatti has been a prestigious name in cars since cars came on the scene as awesome, expensive, fast and dangerous things for people to own. But the appeal of nice cars is so obvious, dare I say, basic? How much more exciting and interesting would "Bugatti" be if Ace Hood was really that stoked to find himself waking up in one of Carlo Bugatti's visions of sweeping round arches invoking the colossal architecture of a Mosque, exotic wood, ivory, copper, and mother of pearl inlays? Surely the foreign and exotic nature of visual quotes from far-away cultures in Bugatti furniture can be compared to the allure expressed in lines like "I fuck bitches from different races." The forever problematic assumption implicit in that kind of attitude is that women are objects, so why not just talk about the objects, man? Of course, appropriating foreign design elements was and still is problematic itself, but perhaps that kind of high brow villainy would find itself right at home among shout outs to the rest of Ace Hood's illicit, lavish lifestyle.

I know better than to hold my breath waiting for the rest of the world to give half a shit as much as me about the History of Decorative Arts. It's a stuffy historical niche that is already over-populated with the dusty buttholes of Art History and the other dusty buttholes of Design History and like anything academic, those buttholes take things VERY. SERIOUS. But guess what? It doesn't have to be this way! Newsflash: Just because something is important doesn't mean it has to be boring. If you wanna hem and haw about a Chippendale Highboy, be my guest. I'll be throwing turn up hands, imagining myself in a chair back in 1902 screaming, "I WOKE UP IN A NEW BUGATTI!"

Karen Peltier has an M.A. in the History of Decorative Arts from the Smithsonian Associates and The Corcoran College of Art + Design. She is currently working as a receptionist at a spa. She's on Twitter - @dudebutt