The skateparks are closed, there are barely any people on the streets, Black Business just celebrated its first birthday, and today, Naquan Rollings uploaded a new edit, “Pre-Roll.”
Between its beginning in L.A. at the time of Kobe’s death, and a second half in New York as quarantine was beginning to take hold — there’s something particular in the way this video manages to discreetly capture the this surreal clusterfuck of a year (or third-of-a-year, fuck.) Videos with these dudes always have this special feel because you see a crew in the background doing crowd control on the rollaways, but now the sidewalks here are just …empty.
The predictions were true. The quarantine has everyone inside making #content — this was one of the most extensive link lists for a Monday update in a while. How sustainable it is? Who knows. Boil the Ocean is already speculating on what will happen if we enter a COVID-19 induced footage drought, e.g. will Thrasher be forced to only post “Classics” videos like how ESPN plays old games during off-seasons.
Wasn’t expecting this substantial of evidence towards the theory of #fashion taking over our spaces after we leave them to emerge quite this unsubtly + quite this fast.
Colin Sussingham gives the background stories on a few shots from his new book, Boys: A Decade of Skateboarding in NYC. The book is now up for sale on his site + there is a launch party tomorrow (September 17) @ Sisters Gallery from 7-10 P.M. Flyer with all the details here.
Someone scoured every IG story, every outtake, and every other cutty corner of the internet for every single Nik Stain clip in existence to make this Instagram compilation of his recent footage.
Congrats again to Antonio Durao on the pro board. Despite the recent growth of #skatetwitter, skateboarders are still way more partial to the ‘gram — so we’ll just leave the thread of Antonio odds ‘n ends that we have been compiling since July on here for the non-tweeters to peruse.
Genny is making edits again! His latest features some bro cam + a bunch of alternate angles from a handful of more proper projects released over the past twelve months. It ends with a sick iPhone slo mo of T.J’s fakie flip over Bond Street, which is basically just a barometer for believing anything done on a skateboard from now on, e.g. “Can you believe so-and-so did that?” “Well, T.J. fakie flipped Bond Street, so yeah.”
Quintessence is a new video from Sam Mccormick that was filmed from 2013 to 2019, and features an overview of every piece of New York crust or diamond-plate that was sought after in each of those years, kinda on a Now That’s What I Call Cellar Doors 2015 vibe. Includes full parts from Joseph Delgado and Neil Herrick at the end. (Jackmauh is a sick last name, btw.)
Lurker Lou is having an art show for his “Purple Shoe Lou” project this Saturday, May 4. 269 Humboldt Street. (Grand Street L train…does that thing run on weekends rn?) 7-10 P.M. Flyer here.
QS Sports Desk Play of the Week:C’mon. We’re sympathetic to the Thunder’s plight in that its oddly reminiscent of the “good” Knicks teams from earlier in the 2010s (moreso now in the Russ-only era…not the whole “drafting three MVPS and only having one left” thing), and we’re obvs massive Russ fans at the QS Sports Desk, but Dame’s shot was one of the most iconic playoff moments in any of our lifetimes. And apparently Portland-based skate filmer, Tristan Brillanceau-Lewis, who put out Portland Public Skating 2 last summer, in addition to a bunch of other videos, shot this close-up angle of Lillard’s game winner.
Quote of the Week: “This drink tastes like melted Spongebob ice cream.” — E.J.
Hearing there was a “b sides” Jay-Z concert at the re-opened Webster Hall the other night made me want to track this part down, so here it is. Zered pretty much has the two best Jay-Z song parts, and both are for “b-sides” (“Lobster & Shrimp” had a video and everything, but that shit is buried in the pile.)
Gang Corp is an organically formed group of friends, born of their love for skating and curiosity for the world, and aided by social media — but not governed by it. Fort Greene native Naquan Rollings just released their second full-length video, Black Business, which is their best yet. We hit him up to try and get some insight into the ingredients and process behind Gang Corp doing what they do.
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Where are you from, and how old are you?
I was born in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. I actually just moved — I live in East New York now. I’ve lived in Brooklyn my whole life. I turned 21 last September. I’m getting old super fast. I still feel like I’m 18.
When did you start skating?
That’s always a weird question that I can never really answer. I remember when I was around 10 years old, I had a board but didn’t take it seriously. If it wasn’t for my sister, I don’t know if I would’ve gotten into it. She’s 10 years older than me. When she was in school, she knew about Supreme and all that stuff. She kind of put me on, I guess you can say.
She always wanted a skateboard and my grandma ended up getting her one of those fake ones from Target. I would just ride around on it. I thought I was never gonna try all that trick shit, but I guess the more I was on it, the more I wanted to. I would start meeting people around Fort Greene who skated. I lived right across the street from the park, so anytime people came to skate it, I would hear it from my window, then would go outside and check it out.
