(Plus their guest verse in a rap song counterparts.)
As America’s premier inventions, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that both rap and skateboarding have similarities. For example, guest verses on rap songs and guest tricks in parts virtually operate in the same exact way: they start careers, they rejuvenate careers, give way to friendly competition on the same spot/beat, and sometimes, they simply provide material for the nerds to nerd out over.
…and yes, this is maybe the nerdiest thing ever posted on this website.
Putting your team on is the most hip-hop shit you could do in any realm of life, even if it often results in bankruptcy. We dug through the rich dual histories of putting other dudes on your song, and other dudes in your video part, seeking comparisons whenever they were applicable. This is rather Transworld video heavy because they embraced the power of the cameo far more than other institutions. Think of them as the Hypnotize Camp or Wu-Tang of skate videos…or something.
So, Waka Flocka released a video for “Lil’ Debbie.” The video and the song are disappointing from the perspective of this website, because the visuals / lyrics do little to live up to the title. In fact, the only mention of the snack cakes that the site is named after is “I get stupid cake, you can call me Lil’ Debbie.” One can only hope that a Lil’ Debbie diamond chain will eventually surface alongside the Fozzie bear one.
With all due respect to Brandon Westgate, this website’s favorite skater with a proficiency for skating up things that go down and absurdly high obstacles is Luis Tolentino. Pause right before the pop on the last 5050, just to ballpark how high the ledge probably is.
Did you know there is a decent sidewalk bump across the street from 12th & A? (Technically on the 11th Street side.) Billy and Shawn Powers knew. They did some ninja stuff over it.
The black marble banks on 48th Street & Park Avenue (or what remained of them) are completely gone as of this weekend. Someone tell the city to give companies tax write-offs for donating marble to 12th & A instead of just hucking it into a dumpster.
Attention all broke skaters: Gray’s Papaya now serves dollar slices. Not only did they price themselves out of the “Broke Skater Diet” bracket once the “Recession Special” slowly rose from $2.45 to $5.00, but they sold out by offering pizza slices cheaper than their hot dog specialties. If the mafia controls cheese prices, thus contributing to the rise in cost of pizza, does it control the hot dog market too? Or do they just melt Polly-O string cheese on dollar slices, and circumvent the mafia entirely?
Not really sure if the Fish is still “relevant” in skateboarding, but the NYPD shut it down for “illegal sale of alcoholic beverages.” (That probably means it was open after 4 A.M.) Naturally, people started a petition to get it open again.
Quote of the Week: “I went to see Paul Muni in Times Square and got blackout drunk…the only thing I remember is someone punching the Cookie Monster.” — Sweet Waste
Blackout was a video released by Satva Leung in 2001 or 2002 as a promotional piece for his of-the-time venture, Judah Skateboards. Much like Zoo York’s E.S.T. series, it is an assortment of montages split up by region, and provides a nostalgic look back at what New York skateboarding looked like ten years ago, before the internet changed everything, and kids got significantlybetter. (Here’s the photographic edition of “Ten Years Ago,” in case you missed it.)
A chronological list of observations:
Instrumental boops and bleeps have slowly become an outdated safety-zone for soundtracks in east coast skate videos. They had a stronghold on song choices in the beginning of the file sharing era, as they provided original music when record companies were looking for new candidates to sue for copyright infringement after their business model collapsed. Today’s standard seems to be bands from Brooklyn and Baltimore.
With the remodeling of the spot formerly known as Chinatown Ledges, and the demise of the big banks, we have lost the two dirtiest spots in New York (as rightfully pointed out in a Skateboarder article.) The Fat Kid spot might lay claim to that title today, but we’re open to alternatives for picking up strange diseases and rashes after falling.
Dag Park is an oft-forgotten entry on the “Spots I wish were still here” list. The best ledges / best ground combo in the city that you didn’t get kicked out of, circa 2000-2001.
People who move to New York with skateboarding largely in mind, but gradually lose interest (at least in actually skating New York, if not skateboarding altogether) in exchange for potentially lucrative art careers are not a new phenomenon by any means. The Muska has been on that program for quite some time.
Even though Dave Mayhew is disregarded by historians on the basis of his participation in The Storm, he has one of the best tricks ever done at the Banks. (Seriously, bikers are the only ones who ever launched off the big banks, and he backside flipped off of them…over a police barrier, i.e. he figured out how to treat the big banks like the small banks, pre-fence installation.) He was also ahead of the curve in doing impossibles out of tricks. Carroll had to step up and make it more legitimate, though.
Westchester spots look a lot like midwestern spots. Aside from Sue’s Rendezvous. That spot looks like it’s in Atlanta.
Remember when people who mostly skated Manhattan found out that there were a lot of recycled plastic benches out in Brooklyn?
The Flushing grate maintains to be one of the few New York skate spots where all of the best tricks have been done by locals. (For an internationally known spot, “local” means the tri-state area.) So other regions were never up for the title. James Reres will probably hold it for a while longer.
Anthony Correa would make a great Chrome Ball Incident post. The Zoo ad of the nollie half-cab crook revert at the Houston ledge has always been a favorite.
Blackout was the last video with enough foresight for future legends to give Geo “TOMA!” Moya the ender.
Continue reading for the montages of the other cities, just don’t expect anything great, as this video is being discussed for historical/archival reasons, not because it is exceptional in any way.
Wooh Da Kid (“All my white friends say Wooh Da Kid is rad! YES!”) actually made a significantly better Blackout recently. As there are probably ten non-disintergrated copies of this left on VHS throughout the planet, thanks goes to the original uploader.
