Black Dave | Quartersnacks

An Interview With Black Dave

Features & Interviews November 9th, 2011 · 10:15 am · 11

As we approach the end of the year, the Quartersnacks Rap Desk‘s vote for “Rapper of the Year” is torn between 2 Chainz, Future, and Black Dave. On Monday night, Dave performed at some random lounge in the Financial District (appropriately a block away from C.I.A. Ledge…it wouldn’t be right if it wasn’t next to a skate spot), as an opening act for some members of ASAP Rocky’s crew. This performance may be the tie-breaker that puts Dave ahead of the competition. Torey Goodall claimed that “watching Black Dave perform was like that last scene in The Karate Kid where he kicks everyone’s ass.” Switch Mike equated the event to seeing your own child accomplish something great. Taji Ameen interviewed Dave and was kind enough to send it our way.

Photos and Words by Taji Ameen

So what the hell were you thinking when you decided to dress up in a suit and call yourself The Black Donald Trump?

I have a lot of ideas going on in my head that I’ve been trying to expand on. The whole reason I decided to enter the music world was to release them for people to see and have a good laugh to. I’ve been skateboarding for nine years and it has been a great way to express myself, but with music I can show a bit more of my humor and personality. Being The Black Donald Trump consists of balling out on a budget, missing cabs, going to the chicken spot, drinking 40s, and smoking blunts on your homie’s roof.

Yeah, we have seen Heath Kirchart and Jeremy Klein skate in suits in Birdhouse’s The End, but never Black Donald Trump shredding Tribeca in one. What is the story behind that baller-ass suit?

Well I called myself the Black Donald Trump because I’ve always seen myself as an entrepreneur, which just makes the suit necessary for the video. I needed a fucking wig, but I blew it, and couldn’t find one in time. His crazy hair style wouldn’t work too well while I was skating anyway.

The video kind of reminded me of Harold Hunter raps from old Zoo York videos. I was backing that.

I most definitely look up to Harold Hunter as a New York legend, as a role model in a way. Not only because he was a great skater, but he had a successful career in acting at a young age with his role in Kids, and that’s something I always wanted to be, a well-rounded person who did it all, and had a damn good time while doing it.

Money on the Floor, Lighters on the Dresser

Daily News November 7th, 2011 · 9:02 am · 1

Billy McFeely – Frontside Bluntside – Photo by Brian Kelley

BLACK DONALD TRUMP will be performing at TBD Lounge tonight for a 40 Oz. Van party. Located at 15 Gold Street in the Financial District. It says 9 to 4 on the flyer, so who knows when Dave is actually supposed to go on. Flyer here.

Speaking of Dave (and rap): him, Taji, and Leo are all in some Russian rap video.

Two weeks late, but in case you missed it, Boil the Ocean offers some interesting commentary on the increasingly popular VHS revisionist trend (i.e. “Why can’t VHS be the new Super-8?”) apparent in many of today’s skate videos produced by people over 21. Some of these projects are cool, but this is the sort of thing that quickly becomes annoying once too many people jump on the bandwagon.

PFP2: See You Lazer is a local-based video featuring some 2nd Nature affiliates. Teaser here. It has a few painful-looking slams, so you may not want to watch if you’re about to leave the house to skate…

Here’s a Philly, D.C., and Baltimore based digi cam clip, which includes key scenes from Paid in Full, key tracks from Supreme Clientele, and key points of Roscoe “Imma Sip Moscato” Dash’s underrated influence in youth culture. They rock QS tees, so there’s another plus.

Solid interview with QS-bro-homie-4-life, Christian Banks. It’s not at all about skateboarding, but a good read for anyone that enjoys making music.

Spot Updates: 1) Not a popular spot, but the two up-and-over walls across from Columbus Circle that Shawn Powers skates at the start of this clip had their run ups re-paved. It’s a cool looking spot that mellows out late at night, so you should film some stuff on it. 2) Ziegfeld, still over-doing it, seven months after disaster struck. 3) This may be late, since the drunken Jane-to-Le Bain stroll is not as popular as it was this time last year, but the mega curb between the two (that Dan Zvereff somehow nollie back 180 heel nosegrinded in a line), is gone.

Holmes & Co. in Jersey City is currently selling the greatest tee shirt of all time for $15. Quantities are limited. Photo by Jason Lecras.

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Top Back ‘Til the Summer’s Done Links

Daily News September 19th, 2011 · 2:16 pm · 7

Shout out to Wavy Mike & the rest of the crew for making our summer video possible.

Trailer for Black Dave’s upcoming music video, “Black Donald Trump.” B.D. > Every other skateboard rapper.

You’ve probably seen this kid Tyshawn Jones at 12th Street before. He’s Twelve-years-old and rips. Best of all, his entire “throwaway part” is filmed on the streets of Manhattan, with no skateparks in sight, which is amazing considering some kids don’t know the difference between filming in plazas/parks v.s. street spots these days. Someone tell Theotis to send him a box. Wait, that might be kinda hard…

Here’s a brief introductory promo video for Lurker Lou and Tyler Mate’s new board company, Iron Claw Skates.

Thanks to Lowcard Mag for coming out and covering the Quartersnacks anniversary party this past Thursday. They posted up some photos here. The seven-year anniversary will be at the Boom Boom Room and nobody’s getting in.

You’ve probably seen it already, but here’s a video of the Pittsburgh homies and some other people shredding around New York and the rest of the northeast.

Bill Pierce with a few lines on some cutty terrain in this new Nature Hardware commercial.

QS commentator “stoops” recently stated that he prefers Shawn Powers’ brand of nighttime street ripping to that of Anthony Pappalardo (which offended Pappalardo’s legion of legacy defenders.) Not sure why the internet is so fond of comparing everything, but we’re on Shawn’s side.

Check out the latest issue of Already Been Done if you have yet to do so. They have a great interview up with Allen Ying regarding his upstart magazine project, 43. While on the topic of online magazines, the digital version of the Philly-based Skate Jawn ‘zine is now online as well.

Oh, by the way, you guys were just celebrating the fall, right?:

Quote of the Week:
Doorman at the Zoo Office: “Where you been E.J.? Haven’t seen you for a while.”
E.J: “I was traveling all over, Rome, Barcelona, Berlin…”
Doorman at the Zoo Office: “Damn, you know where I really wanna go? Los Angeles.”

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K.T. & B.D. in The Skateboard Mag #88

Daily News June 1st, 2011 · 11:20 am · 5

[Click photo to Enlarge]

As revealed in the latest issue of The Skateboard Mag, Dave Willis and Kevin Tierney are officially ams for Zoo York.

Both of them have sick photos (and hopefully new video parts to accompany them in the near future), but the supporting text fails to capture their finer moments beyond Kevin’s tardiness, and Dave’s ability to skate without rest for hours upon end. A sensible alternative would have been a discussion of how traumatized Kevin is from the time Bradley threw the crutch at him and Taji, or his expertise in low-cost wineries. B.D. is also also a man with no shortage of great stories, and memorable, yet infrequent, Twitter activity. The Skateboard Mag also neglected to provide him with the proper space for a Waka Flocka shout out, which is unfortunate. (DuFlockaRant out now.)

Below is Kevin ripping around Midtown, doing New York stuff (long 5050s, switch front shoves, etc.) in the past Quartersnacks Christmas clip. We don’t have an extensive B.D. archive, but you can watch him in last year’s Zoo York promo. In 2011, they’re both much better at skateboarding than either of these two videos tend to indicate.

From New York to Oklahoma, we don’t care

Video & Remixes May 28th, 2011 · 1:51 pm · 11

Is this the greatest shirt to ever be featured in a Quartersnacks clip?

This was originally supposed to go online yesterday, but after falling into deep depression at around the 11:15 P.M. mark of a certain sporting event on Thursday night, Friday wasn’t the productive day the Quartersnacks office had envisioned. (To any Chicago readers: Has Scottie Pippen been temporarily banned from the city yet?) But life (barely) goes on, and enough emotional strength was gathered to put together our traditional beginning of summer / Memorial Day weekend montage. It features plenty of diamond plated ledges, long 5050s, a lot of 180s (both backside and frontside), a No Limit classic alongside its respective eastern remix, and even a Brengar cameo.

Features Josh Velez, Alex, Pad Dowd, Matthew Mooney, Galen Dekemper, Alexander Mosley, Billy Rohan, Dave Willis, Stephan Martinez, Kevin Tierney, Shawn Powers, and Ben Nazario.

(Alternate YouTube Link)

P.S. We don’t condone lying on dirty mattresses in SoHo so your friends could ollie over you.

P.P.S. Young Jeezy has a new mixtape out for Memorial Day weekend. Normally, this would get its own, dedicated post treatment, but he has been spending the past year recording Rick Ross bites (things have really changed, huh), so expectations for it aren’t as high as they were in the pre-Lex Luger/Fake Lex Luger beat and celebrity name as a hook era.