?That deal was the most $#&@ed-up deal that I've ever seen or heard of,? says Michael Berrin, better known as MC Serch of 3rd Bass, with an intensity that makes me think he's about leap out of my phone and into my office. ?I came to Jay-Z with the automobile industry in my back pocket to do a Shawn Carter edition vehicle that he approved, only to have the automobile industry basically shoot it down for fear that he was a bigger star than the car.?


Just as he's about to explain what happened, Serch is interrupted by the blare of a cell phone (the ringtone, fittingly, is Jay-Z's ?Empire State of Mind?). When I press him for more details about the vehicle, he tells me that it was going to be a ?Jay-Z Jeep? painted ?Jay-Z Blue.? Then he starts to say something else, but stops short.

?That's really a Marques McCammon question,? he says. ?I haven't spoken to Marques in a long time.?


***


Jay-Z's ability to make money by attaching his name to products is one of his greatest strengths as a businessman, and it's especially important given the ever-declining numbers in the record industry. In 2012, the year after Empire State of Mind went to press, he pulled in $38 million?less than one quarter of which came from album sales. Over the past few years, Jay-Z has shilled for Reebok, Hewlett-Packard, and Budweiser; in the wake of my chat with Serch, it was clear that Jeep was slated to join that list until something went wrong.

Finding out what happened to the Jay-Z Jeep starts with Jay-Z Blue, a color dreamed up by Jay-Z and marketing guru Steve Stoute. A decade ago, they approached industrial designer Adrian Van Anz with the idea of creating a shade to trademark as Jay-Z's own. Van Anz, creator of the vodka-cooled computer and jewel-encrusted iPod, happily obliged by creating a reflective, silvery medium-blue color with a dash of platinum dust. ?Gave it a little bit of my personality,? Jay-Z reportedly joked. ?I'm known for platinum.?


?Jay-Z Blue is a license for corporations to get Jay-Z in the building,? Stoute told Rolling Stone in 2005. ?Cars, laptops, lots of different things. I got deals lined up like you don't understand.?


The Jay-Z Jeep seemed to be the car in question. But after three months of pestering industry sources and trying to reach Marcus McCammon, I wasn't getting anywhere. And so, on a sunny spring day, I found myself at the front desk of a nondescript office building in San Diego, paying a surprise visit to my last hope for clarity on the Jay-Z Jeep.

?I'm here to see Marques McCammon,? I tell the receptionist brightly.


?Is he expecting you??


?Well, no.?