A common symptom of these days and times is describing anything that happened in the past three years as “last year.” If you said that December 2020 night when we all bundled up to watch Homies 2 get premiered on a Grand Street handball court in ten-degree weather was “last December,” people probably wouldn’t even blink.
But nah, Homies 2 is over two-years-old now.
Happy New Year 🍾
Tyshawn Jones was on Hot 97’s Ebro in the Morning last week. He says he’s retiring the can tricks.
Kei Tsuruta put out an extended end-of-the-year iPhone edit of all the Homies Network crew with reportage from Tompkins and beyond.
Monster Children has an interview with Naquan Rollings out.
Neema Joorabchi already released another video — not even a month removed from the release of “limp” in December. “Okay Then” dropped on the Transworld site just before the year timed out. Looks like the knob-job on the Crosby and Grand diamond-plate thing has already been conquered. Also, holy frontside flip at the Lily Pads.
Anyone who has been a fan of Coles, Kyota, Kei and their crew since the days when they were filming on a Nintendo 3DS has enjoyed watching them all grow into their skateboard powers in month-to-month leaps. We’re nine months removed from the below-freezing outdoor premiere of Homies 2, and the three of them are back with a new one, already leaps ahead of the last.
Rest In Peace Brendan Leddy. Some of you might remember Brendan as having the first part in the Long Island video, Short Ends, which premiered alongside Static 3 in 2007, and also featured the first-ever parts from Jake Johnson and Luke Malaney. Brendan would go on to join the Air Force and he became an engineer after serving. He will be buried with a Silver Star. Tell your friends you love them ❤️
From summer trips to Hudson Valley swimming holes to building igloos at Tompkins, Kei Tsuruta’s “Donut Pub Mix” video is a 14-minute iPhone edit that features a lot of what was going on the periphery of them filming for Homies 2.
Not much info on this one, but “Last Straw” is a really sick New York winter edit that ramps up an octave in the last minute or so. That Euro gap to uphill landing kickflip is *wild*.
This year had a particular way of ensuring that few things that came before it could ever look or feel quite the same again. The world of The Homies Video — released just a year-and-a-half ago — is a foreign place compared to the one we now all inhabit. Yet Homies 2 plays like a matured continuation of the first project. There’s a comfort to the video’s energy; despite all of 2020’s turmoil, people on skateboards everywhere found silver linings and reasons to laugh with their friends as if it were any other year.
Like the man says after watching Seven roll away from a pop shove down the twelve at World Trade: “I’m so happy for my friend.” What are skate videos but longform reasons to feel the vicarious rush of others’ feats? ;)
Video by Kei Tsuruta. Features full parts from Coles Bailey and Kyota Umeki, both of whom also had sections in Jolie Rouge just a few months back. The rest is montages that include the entire Homies Network extended family.
It’s a perfect, heartwarming ending to what has been an overwhelmingly eventful Skateboard Oscars Season ™. Happy New Year everyone ♥
