10 BIG THINKERS FOR BIG BUSINESS

MYLES KOVACS

As he cruises through his old 'hood in East L.A. in an "inferno red" Dodge Charger, Myles Kovacs marvels at all the everyday cars riding on 20-inch rims known as DUBs. Once street slang for a double dime bag of pot, the term DUB became the name of the hip-hop car magazine Kovacs founded five years ago that has transformed the car-tuner subculture into Main Street fashion. "This is not just urban culture," he says, sporting baggy jeans and a $14,000 diamond-encrusted watch. "This is pop culture."

No longer fearful of the street life DUB glamorizes, Detroit is now looking to Kovacs to pimp its rides. His stars-and-their-cars glossy--a kind of "MTV Cribs" meets InStyle--has become the place automakers go for validation and advice on the elusive youth demographic. Since Latrell Sprewell graced the first cover in 2000, Kovacs has built a $50 million empire that now includes toys, rims, concerts, car shows, MTV "Whips, Rides & Dubs" specials and the hot-selling Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition videogame. Along the way, the 31-year-old has become a star maker in Detroit. That Charger he's in comes compliments of Chrysler, which hopes he'll do for it what he did for its 300C last year. Kovacs hooked up 50 Cent with a 300C, who cast it in a video, making it a monster hit. "If your car is in DUB, it has street cred," says Chrysler marketing exec B. J. Birtwell. "Myles doesn't just put any whack car on the cover."

With car execs now talking like Snoop Dogg (a sure buzz kill), Kovacs is tutoring them on the difference between posing and getting real. At a Detroit auto confab last month, Kovacs lectured a room full of suits on the need to get out of their comfort zone. "I've never seen so many American cars on the road in my life; it's like you're living in your own world here," Kovacs told them. "I'm trying to educate people about getting closer to young consumers without going 'Yo, yo, yo'."

Kovacs embodies the idea of blending different worlds. Three quarters Japanese and one quarter Hungarian, he grew up speaking Spanish in tough East L.A. His first brush with cars and stars came as a high-school delivery boy at a rim shop frequented by Tupac. On runs to wheel makers, Kovacs nosed around for tips he uses now to design his own line of rims. Says former boss Diko Sulahian: "Myles always had that vision for what's hot on the street."

The idea for DUB came as Kovacs watched a car auction on TV in 1999 when country singer Alan Jackson's Mercedes fetched an extraordinary price. "At first I thought, 'Who's Alan Jackson?' " he recalls. "Then I went, 'Wow, there's that much value in celebrities?' " By that time Kovacs had parlayed an interest in the club scene into a gig editing an entertainment magazine. He persuaded two colleagues to jump ship and use their celebrity connections to start DUB. Unlike typical car mags, there are no reviews or criticism. Kobe Bryant and Mike Tyson have been cover boys, with nary a mention of their legal difficulties. "We treat people like human beings," says Kovacs, "and give them the privacy they deserve."