The city is an ice rink right now, making it as good of a time as any to revisit the remaining stack of magazines in company storage. Strength ran this article in 1999, back when a concept as vague as “black skateboarders!” was substantial enough to build an issue around. Thanks to Alex Dymond for submitting this one to the archive.
The article doesn’t have the cult status that Big Brother‘s “Black Issue” does, but every fringe skate publication from back then was more-or-less playing catch up with Big Brother throughout their lifespan anyway. It has a cool narrative by Neftalie Williams about growing up in Springfield, Massachusetts, loving something then thought-to-be for “blonde-haired kids from California,” seeing Ray Barbee’s Public Domain part for the first time, etc. (Does anyone know where that Neil Blender quote re: “rap music is the worst thing to happen to skateboarding” is from, or if it was taken out of context?) There are some shots of New York names in there, though much of the photos aren’t particularly incredible. No Chrome Ball-level scanmanship here, sorry.
“Show us your girl and get outfitted by Quiksilver” :|
After that portion of the issue, it gets weird… ;)
As a bonus, here are scans of the Kareem Campbell interview that ran in Juice magazine’s 20 year anniversary issue this past summer. It might’ve flown under a lot of people’s radar given Juice‘s low profile out here. The interview is the most detailed thing he’s given since leaving the spotlight some ~fifteen or so years ago. Kinda never imagined that non X-Games dudes were making as much money as they actually were back in the late-nineties, early 2000s, early internet age.
Previously: Big Brother – The Yellow Issue, Big Brother – The Black Issue, Winter 2012
Man I miss looking at photos of skating. videos are cool and shit but pics are dope becase u have to guess what happened before or after the picture. Photos make it look more magic.
paying homage to my heroes. this was def center stage in my school project last semester.
Nollie to frontside bluntside in 1999 is sick.
That’s the longest interview I’ve ever seen.
that was Neil Hendrix, not Blender.
The Neil Blender quote is “The mixture of rap and skateboarding is pretty dumb.” and it’s from a Transworld interview from 1999.
That’s not really the same thing then.
Guessing he wasn’t a big Muska fan though :(
Brian Hoard was regular. That was actually a fakie ollie over to switch front blunt. Sick either way.
Darkstar was a rad fucking company before being bought out…shouts to kareem Campbell for helping bring skateboarding to the trap
Always good to see some Kareem photos, sometimes I forget he was the top dog for a minute.
Also good to see all the comments about that nollie/fakie over blunt, that def caught my attention. Sick.
WHAT U GOT !!!! yo
Thanks for this. I had that Karl Watson photo cut out of a mag and stuck to my bedroom wall for the longest time.