Noveske announced this morning a new lightweight AR platform chambered in either 5.56 NATO or 300 AAC Blackout dubbed the “Ghetto Blaster.”

The general design for the rifle is strikingly similar to the Honey Badger from Kevin Brittingham’s new firearms company Q, which is a refined version of the AAC Honey Badger (AAC was owned by Kevin at the time) that also spawned the SIG SAUER MCX (which was introduced while Kevin was employed at SIG SAUER for like half a minute). This latest incarnation comes from Noveske, a company founded by John Noveske (Kevin’s best friend) who tragically died an automobile accident some years back. Ever since then Noveske Rifleworks has been trying to keep the company true to John’s personality and vision, and the Ghetto Blaster is a product which seems to keep that Brittingham bromance very much alive. Designed in cooperation with Kevin (and available with silencer mounts for Q’s latest cans) it uses the Honey Badger’s collapsing stock and bolt carrier but adds Noveske’s famous barrels and receivers to the mix.

For those who aren’t familiar (or too young to remember) a Ghetto Blaster is another term for a “boom box,” a portable stereo system popular in the late 1980s among urban youths and especially useful as a rocket launcher platform.

From the press release:

Noveske Rifleworks is proud to announce the Ghetto Blaster Rifle — the introductory rifle configuration on our new Gen 4 platform.  This lightweight rifle (5.25lbs in the short configuration) features a customized version of our new Gen 4 receiver set, collapsible stock and Noveske Rail system (MLOK or Keymod option).  Adapted to accept a collapsible stock, the receiver set also includes ambidextrous controls, flared mag well, and new geometry relative to our Gen 3 set.  Additionally, the rifle features a Magpul grip, adjustable gas block, and Geissele SD-E trigger.  We teamed up with Kevin Brittingham and his team at Q to incorporate the collapsible stock and BCG in this rifle.

At launch, there will be three configurations available for pre-order:
7.94” 5.56 Stainless barrel, w/7” NHR
7.94” 300BLK Stainless barrel, w/7” NHR
16” 5.56 CHF barrel, w/15” NHR

Other configurations available in Q1 2018 include: Suppressed 300BLK Model (Ghetto Blaster NSD), as well as 10mm.

Pre-sale starts today with the first 100 rifles sold receiving a 10% discount. Rifles on pre-order will begin shipping in December.

Base price starts at $1995.

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84 COMMENTS

  2. The name is a very bad idea. I get the reference. I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s. Still, bad idea…

      • Joe,
        Even recognizing that you apparently have social skills equivalent to those of a chainsaw in a Hummel factory, do you see any correlation between your beloved “eye poking” and subsequent legislative or regulatory action? I’m in for some eye-poking – wearing an Infidel T-shirt as I type this – however, Maxim makes a big ballyhoo about a muzzle loader with pinned silencer! Instant ban in FUDD states. Street Sweeper shotgun? Banned by name in the AWB94.

        When legislators ban objects on the basis of “feelz” – what possible positive benefit is there in deliberately provocative branding? Provoking our opponents on a personal basis may be fun; corporate branding is a bit retarded.

        • A “Ghetto Blaster” can be anything. In my day, it was an alternate name for a “Boom Box” which was a 150 lb. radio/cassette player with up to 12 D-Cell batteries. AND EVERYBODY WANTED ONE, and no one (at least openly) complained about the synonymous term.

          MY POINT IS PRECISELY: We need to ‘trigger’ all the MFs and push-back EVEN ON THEIR TRIGGERING. NOBODY GIVES A FLYING F IF YOU OR I ARE OFFENDED (or feel an honest sleight against Society or one of the bulwarks of Society). F them.

          If it’s EVEN AN FING CONVERSATION IT SHOULD BE AN FING BRAWL.

          Give no ground, offer no quarter. Let’s go bitches, I’m getting old.

  3. “This latest incarnation comes from Noveske, a company founded by John Noveske (Kevin’s best friend) who tragically died in a drunk driving accident some years back.”

    Was he the one doing the drunk driving?

    While I can see the humor in the name on the ‘ghetto blaster’ (I also thought of the ‘Bond’ Q scene), I can just as easily see how it’s gonna get miss-spun in the current political ‘climate’.

    Yeah, they are gonna scream “RACIST!”…

    • To all the failures out there?

      Feeling triggered? Ghetto – Triggered? Ghettoblaster – Triggered?

      How about two heaping handfuls of go-elf-yo-self.

  5. Looks good I think they should have dedicated these rifles to the owner of Noveske and put an inscription on the rifle with his birth date and death date as an honoring moment. That would have been a nice touch. Maybe a limited production line with certain serial numbers. Other than that just looks like another AR-15.

    • Dude, you know you should have copyrighted that first. The competition is going to need names for their new weapons.

      did LOL on that though.

    • Thanks to Nick Leghorn for again distinguishing himself, this time uncritically reporting on a gun with a racist monicker.

      Thanks to these overtly racists posters for being honest.

      And of course to the mods for as always neglecting to warn racist posters and edit the offensive material.

      I know none of you can recognize anything as racist unless “NI**ER” is shouted over the PA or the Klan has a rally in the center of town so you should have a look at Stump campaigning and accidentally talking like he does in real life saying “ghetto” instead of “inner city”. Even Gump knows its a racist term!

      • The word “ghetto” is not synonymous with “inner city” at all. It’s an old word that specifically means an area of a city where minorities are forced to live. In the past, it was an area that minorities, most often Jews, were forced by law to live. In more modern times it refers to where minorities are forced to live to due economic or cultural factors, but not specifically by law.
        Although it refers to race, it does not imply any specific race.

        • This website pretty much doesn’t monitor any racist behavior. As a moderate firearms enthusiast married to a woman of color it appalls me and does nothing but reinforce the stereotype of the ignorant racist gun owner.

          Definitely not the way to get the “antis” to come over and appreciate firearms (where all it really takes is bringing one to a range and letting them shoot for them to realize how awesome our hobby is).

        • raptor jesus: it’s pretty hard to convince non gun folks that gun owners aren’t all OFWG racists when there are so many gleefully racist fuckwits who are regular commenters on this very popular gun blog and never get called out for it.

          I’ve given up trying, because apparently I was wrong.

        • Raptor Jesus and Swarf, I certainly take issue with the complaint that this website allows racist comments to go unchallenged. It’s simply not true, and demonstrated by the comments In this very post. The moderators of this website do allow some racist comments to exist, but they also allow the usual tidal wave of backlash against those comments.
          Moreover, this website gives specific encouragement to organizations that encourage minority gun ownership and minority firearms advocacy.
          And that’s the way it should be. Hiding, and effectively whitewashing the comments to make it look like racists don’t exist is never the answer. Let them make their asinine comments, and show them for what they are.

        • Valid points, JWT. You are correct that TTAG (and Robert in particular) posts articles about minorities– including LGBT folk– participating in shooting in positive ways, so mea culpa and my acknowledgment of that fact, but I also have seen plenty of dogwhistle posts from Boch about “thugs” and “urban dwellers.”

          And the comments contain cancer.

  9. So it’s a PDW whose projectiles won’t fragment right out of the barrel. Looks like eight different kinds of useless.

      • Meh… If I’m going to be going for a PDW, I wouldn’t want a pistol cartridge, even 10mm. Pistol cartridges are for pistols. In a PDW I want a full blown rifle cartridge and the barrel length to get the most effect out of it. For crying out loud, the P90 probably has better muzzle velocity than this thing.

        • “…I want a full blown rifle cartridge and the barrel length to get the most effect out of it.”
          Then it wouldn’t be a PDW. The only PDW I’m interested in is in 10mm, maybe, MAYBE a 45ACP if I can run stupid hot loads through it. Everything else deserves a real rifle.

        • G93 Pistol from Century Arms, in 5.56 .

          Airsoft stores sell the foregrip w/flashlight for $40

          It’s plenty good enough for pdw. Loud, flashing, smoky, deadly.

        • Taylor, I think we have different definitions of a PDW. I’m working from the baseline set by the M1 Carbine and P90. Small, light, and still packing most of the power of an intermediate cartridge. A PCC, even in 10mm, is a sub-gun, not a PDW. The idea of a PDW is to give you most of the functionality of a rifle without the weight and bulk. A 7.62×39 Krink or a Mk18 CQBR are both good examples of the concept. The P90 would be in my safe if there was an easy way to get one with a “proper” barrel length.

        • PWRSERGE, yeah, performance wise I’m thinking a PDW is a small, lightweight magazine fed rifle with a barrel at 12″ or under and capable of around 1,000ftlbs of energy at the muzzle. I’m thinking a maximum reliable lethal range of 100 yards, but with a performance emphasis on a rapid volume of accurate fire in close quarters.
          If you like the M1 Carbine, you should love a 10mm. It’s generating the same amount of muzzle energy at 16 in as the M1Carbibe does at 18 in.

        • To me, it sounds like you’re describing a submachine gun. To me, a PDW has to have the ability to deliver fire at practical combat ranges (out to 300 meters or so) It doesn’t need the full accuracy or power of a carbine at that range, but it has to be able to reach it reliably. What kills 10mm is not the power, but the ballistics of the round. It has almost twice the energy at the barrel that 5.7×28 does, but at 100 yards, the zippier 5.7 round sails light past it. (Not to mention the performance difference against soft armor that you see due to the change in sectional density.)

    • I second this! I wanna watch people dance and then recoil in horror powerless to stop dancing as my wubs explode all around them.

    • Tell me about it. I’ve been trying to find one that will take Glock mags and I’m having a hell of a time at it.

    • 10mm is a great pistol cartridge for a full sized sidearm, for a PDW it’s decidedly underpowered when compared to things like 5.7×28 or 7.62×35. It’s a pistol cartridge at heart. In a PDW, I want the ability to reach out to 100-200 yards reliably. Rifle or dedicated PDW cartridges can do that, pistol cartridges struggle.

        • I run a mk18 CQBR or a AKMSU-47 (not a real designation, but the closest approximation using Russian nomenclature). They are about the same size and weight as most “proper” PDWs (like the P90), but can still reach out to 200-300 meters easily.

      • AKMSU-47? Is that like a SAM-7SFK? The AKM part in your made-up designation conflicts with the -47. Sounds like a good choice for a hard-hitting compact weapon, though.

        • It’s a hybrid of an AKM stamped receiver and AKSU-74 gas system. Basically, a 7.62×39 Krink. Not something the Russians ever actually made, but a great idea none the less. The 7.62×39 loses very little energy from an 8″ barrel comparing to 5.45×39

  13. Absolutely asinine branding decision by Noveske. How this got through their decision process is beyond me.

    • I hear what you are saying, John Denver, but (if you think about it) all of the other manufacturers are shooting for the straight up Mil / ex-Mil types, or the 2Hi-Speed for you SPECOPS / Airsoft crowd.

      “Ghetto Blaster” makes it just over the fence. A little middle finger never hurt anyone accept the kind at the doctor’s office. NOVESKE peeps definitely are throwing some hi-middle with this one. It’s refreshing (IMHO).

  14. It’s a Honey Badger by the way. I guess that WAAAYYY better name was already taken.

    But seriously, ghetto blaster? I mean I get it, it’s noisy, just like a boom box. However, in a day in age where the phrase black hole is considered racist they seriously can’t see this causing problems?

  15. “For those who aren’t familiar…Ghetto Blaster is another term for…a portable stereo system popular in the late 1980s…”

    Wow nick, thanks for explaining that. Or else I would have totally misunderstood it as a weapon meant to blast people in ghettos.

    • Have you ever been to a ghetto? Most of the time there are people there who want to blast you, and your only recourse is to blast them first.

  17. A truly STUPID name regardless of WHEN it has been used. It would have been STUPID in 1985.
    WTF are they thinking? It’s funny?
    Nope. Just stupid.

    • They might have been a little better when he was alive (can’t quite put my finger on why / provide a great explanation). But they are definitely worth it, and are better than most other products out there. LaRue Tactical is in the same ball park, but I think Noveske still reigns (for the most part) on barrels, except for maybe some hunting barrels, and the carbon fiber ones from Proof Research.

      Expensive, but worth the $$$ ($$$$$$$).

    • I don’t see this getting approved for use by the Chicago PD… Even then I don’t think too many of their officers would shell out that kinda cash to get one. I mean that amount of money buys a lot of hookers and blow!

      • You’d be surprised. A buddy of mine makes custom patrol carbines to CPD specs. They are basically semi-auto M4geries with an ultralight build.

  21. Cool looking firearm. Terrible name. Open invitation for gun banners to point out how “racist” the “gun community” really is. Guaranteed to be on Nancy Pelosi’s shit list by morning.

  24. Our lovely lady of the gun, Dianne baby, Feinstein is gonna love this one! You will never see it in Komifornia if she has her way.

  25. So, not offended by the use of “ghetto blaster?” How about another version in flat dark earth color called the “Trailer Park Sanitizer?” Or in desert tan called the “White Trash Pickup?” Maybe a blue denim “Biker Bar Bouncer?” I knew many Black people back in the Seventies, and they ALL cringed at the term “ghetto blaster,” which they knew very well was created to denigrate them……………………..elsullo

  26. This gun is the equivalent of an Ed Hardy t-shirt. Targeted at 20-year olds with a head full of steam and no perspective or life experience. What a stupid and irresponsible name.

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