Though most people still don't know most of what 19-year-old Brooklyn native Desiigner is saying on his breakout single "Panda," one of the lines that breaks through is the one that lead to the song's title in the first place: "Black X6, Phantom / White X6 look like a panda."
Desiigner is referencing BMW's crossover SUV X6, and truth is, from the front the white one does kind of look like a panda, thanks to BMW's signature grill design. But given the obvious BMW call-out and popularity of the song, what we wanted to know was simple: Did "Panda" have any real effect on the car's sales?
According to a site called Good Car, Bad Car (which sites Auto News Data Center), BMW sold 385 X6s in January of 2016, right when "Panda" hit the internet. But the majority of listeners didn't know about the song until after it was featured in part on Kanye West's album The Life of Pablo, which dropped in February. That month, BMW sold 624 X6s, as compared with just 402 X6s the same month in 2015.
Where things get really interesting is in May of 2016, when "Panda" took hold of the #1 spot on Billboard's Hot 100. That month, BMW sold 712 X6s. For comparison, the year prior they sold just 565. (What complicates the issue is that in June 2015, BMW sold 1448 X6s, which could be because June is when BMW switched from its 2015 model to the 2016 model, meaning a lot of 2015s were sold on the cheap.)
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Is there enough evidence to conclusively prove "Panda" gave the X6 a bump in sales? Nah. Not yet, at least. BMW did not immediately answer our requests for comment. But we were able to catch up with Desiigner himself at the listening party for his debut mixtape, New English, to get his thoughts. In a speaking voice that is almost as gargled and hoarse as the one heard on "Panda," he said, "BMW is doing they thing, but I do support the BMW family. I love the cars. It is what it is, we do our thing, man." He seemed to be playing his cards close to the chest, so we asked if that's because there's a BMW project—perhaps a "Panda" commercial—in the works. "I've talked to BMW. I did interviews on their lots and we talkin'." When we asked what the concept behind a commercial with BMW would be, he simply said, "Panda." Actual pandas? "Everything pandas, definitely."
So while Desiigner's influence on car sales is still just a (somewhat believable we think) working theory, it's obvious that now's the time before it's too late for the makers of the X6 to capitalize on this special moment. Oh, and in case you wondering, Desiigner's knack for naming cars after animals doesn't stop with Beamers. For example, he thinks Ferarri's are snakes. Lamborghinis are simply "'Zillas." (Shorthand for Godzilla, perhaps.) And what about a regular man's car, say, a Honda Civic? "You will never see me in a Honda Civic," he said.
