Emerica | Quartersnacks

In acknowledging Pretty Sweet‘s tenth birthday last fall, it was tough not to consider how it was one of the final videos before social media took over …everything. (Yeah, MySpace, Facebook, IG, et al. had all been around, but it had yet to feel like skateboarding revolved around them.)

Perhaps one of the final innovations of the old-world skate video ecosystem — before every innovation was steered towards increasing followers — was Emerica opting to release the raw files of their marquee project, part by part, for free six months after the video dropped. Emerica’s Stay Gold “B-Sides” are practically as well-remembered as the video itself (voted by QS readers as last decade’s second best), giving way to a 2010s phenomenon of fan-made remix videos and a recipe for getting twice as much mileage out of a video that a company could spend years working on — a formula still with us today.

Anyway, Element dropped Westgate’s raw clips from their E.S.P. Volume 2 video.

“When I was in California, some kids asked me what we listen to in New York. I said ‘Racks on Racks’ and Lady Gaga.” — Matthew Mooney

As current and trendsetting as New York is made out to be, we are perpetually late on terrestrial “urban radio” hits. This phenomenon explains why “O Lets Do It” was a fall 2009 hit for below the Mason-Dixon, and only a spring 2010 hit for New York, or “Make It Rain” being a fall 2010 strip club anthem for the south, and our gentlemen’s cabarets not receiving notice of its popularity until winter 2011. (Note: Boston might be even more behind — they were still playing “Stunt 101” on the radio in 2009.)

With summer 2011 being four days away, the office was in panic mode regarding how best to utilize Future and YC’s springtime hit / tribute to the Federal Reserve, “Racks,” before it becomes a “throwback.” Having no footage of our own, we began considering the re-edit route. Though Emerica’s brand aesthetic doesn’t quite go with YC and Future’s imagery, we noticed that Quartersnacks’ parent company, Trap Stars Entertainment actually sponsored Westgate’s large gap-to-bank ollie midway into his B-sides. So, proceeding with this project kind of began to make sense, at least to us. Either way, you’re not on the right website if you’re looking for edits that make sense (Consult previous editions: Andrew Reynolds & Bryan Herman.) The non-sensical rap edits seem to be picking up steam, so feel free to refer to us as pioneers down the line.

Alternate YouTube Link: Keisha, Pam, and Nikki

The next challenge will be figuring out what the summer 2011 anthem will be. Let us all pray that it is not “I’m On One.” We have been covering the development of seasonal anthems on Twitter, and will continue to do so.

Previously: 10 Most Disturbing Frames From Brandon Westgate’s Stay Gold part

Tag: Emerica

Still Gold — Brandon Westgate’s 2023 B-Sides

Brandon Westgate “On My Way To Mars” Re-Edit