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When T-Pain was beginning to put together his regime to unveil his Nappy Boy Automotive division, the only co-pilot he thought of was HertLife. Hert’s story is fueled by a passion for the ride, accelerated by his use of drifting as therapy, while also having the creative gift of curating content that comes unmatched. Hert is a rider in every sense of the word, yet has a vision that few can comprehend, which makes him the best in the automotive biz. 

Growing up in Orlando, Florida, Hert’s love for automotive started at a video game level. “I grew up loving cars,” he explains, “not knowing you could actually do the stuff you do in video games.” By 16, he got his first car and “just fell in love with going fast and modifying cars.” His first project was a 2005 Mazda RX7, the very first car he learned to drift in. By this point, he was a valet driver for the Hard Rock Café, when he made a decision to quit and pursue his love of cars full-time. “I worked at a friend’s shop, barely making ends meet, and then from there, I got another job at a suspension company called BC Racing,” he explains. From BC Racing, he moved onto Enjuku Racing, where the heart of his career began. 

“They built race cars, and I went to my first professional drifting event with them, and they really exposed me to the big side of the sport,” he adds. “I always wanted to work there, but they were never hiring.” He took the direct approach. “I basically just started showing up sweeping floors and doing what I needed to do to let them know I wanted to be there,” he continues. “I went from sweeping floors to test fitting parts on cars for pretty much free.” In the midst of an automotive recession, the company needed all hands on deck in Sales, and Hert was up for the challenge. He became a leader in Enjuku’s sales division, and by 2010, he purchased another Mazda RX7 that he began modifying into his dream drifting car. While perfecting his drifting, Hert began creating content in the form of drifting videos that reached the eyes of Brian Scotto and the late Ken Block, who offered Hert the opportunity of a lifetime to join Hoonigan Industries out West. 

He spent ten years at Hoonigan, creating everything from Instagram content to YouTube videos and crystalizing his place in the automotive and drifting space as someone whose eye behind the lens is equally as unmatched as his hands behind the wheel. In 2018, Hert met T-Pain and they cut some videos together. Once Pain formed Nappy Boy Automotive, he circled back to HertLife as a co-founder and online personality for curated content. The two will bring Nappy Boy Automotive to the next level, as both have a mutual love of creative ideation that will transcend the road and lead to the digital, social media and branded apparel spaces.

HertLife may have a love of cars, but his reasons for the ride are much bigger than most drivers. “I lost my dad when I was 13 to cancer,” he explains, which led to compounded grief that he didn’t even process until adulthood. “And so, the first time I drifted a car, it was just such a special feeling. It gave me a feeling of blissfulness freedom, a feeling I hadn’t had since I was a kid, back when everything was okay.” This is the true reason why his curated content feels so special to viewers, setting him apart from the rest. “I fell in love with drifting just because it felt good,” he expresses. “Not because it was cool, not because somebody else said I should do it. It’s just something that felt good to me, and because it felt so good to me, I wanted everyone to know how good it feels.”

With a story like Hert’s, it’s no wonder both he and his work are so special. “Cars got me through a lot of hard spots in life, and they’ve taught me a lot of valuable lessons and have brought me a lot of wonderful things,” he says sincerely. “So I just love sharing that through my videos and having people feel like, ‘You should try this.’”