Sweets and Chops keep it real
I do know a little bit about it. My friend Josh Hill has
been wanting to revamp the brand for a while now. None of us original guys are
involved with it. This is something that will probably come up a bunch during
this interview but we don’t own the name “Menace” and we never did, which is
why we had to switch names. “Menace” has been up for grabs for anybody who
wanted it. Josh thinks he can do something with it and if that’s what he wants
to do, that’s totally cool. He has my blessing.
I will say that it’s good to see the old star graphic with
the MNC and the gloves out there again. It brings back memories for me, man.
It’s nostalgic.
Why do you think
Menace still holds such a place in skaters’ hearts more than 20 years later?
I think that it’s the honesty and the realness of what we
were doing that made the impact. That’s what people picked up on. There was
much more to it than just skating. It wasn’t about being the best. It was the
lifestyle, man. I know nowadays, people call this type of image “swag” but that
word didn’t exist back in our time. To us, it was about keeping it real and
being who we were.
I’m humbled, bro. I think we were so in the moment that we
didn’t realize the impact we were having. We were doing what we loved. I can’t
believe people still bring this stuff up and I appreciate all of it. I’ve
always felt like we were fortunate because I’ll be the first to say on record
that, for me, I wasn’t really doing anything all that cutting edge or beyond
extraordinary when it came to skateboarding. But I do feel that whatever I did
was done proper. We were more about style and doing things right. But for it to
still have an impact all these years later is amazing.
So was Kareem really
the “Mastermind” behind Menace? How
much of a role did he play in the overall direction?
Yes, Menace was essentially Kareem’s project. His offspring.
But once it was all put into action, it became a collective effort between all
of us.
How did that work
exactly? What did the riders bring to the table in this collective effort?
A lot of the stuff we came up with was more spur of the moment,
spawned from all of us hanging out together. Obviously, we were all really big
into hip hop culture. We’d see a cool album cover and decide to do something
with it or listening to a song, decide to name our wheels “Butter Pecans”. That
was our collective thing.
Kareem masterminded the foundation of Menace. He was the one
who had the vision and knew what he wanted to do with the company. He was
initially approached by Rocco to do something with riders already in mind…
riders with big names, actually. Well-established pros who were already set-up
in the industry. But that’s not what Kareem wanted to do. He wanted to bring
riders to the table who were like-minded with backgrounds similar to his own. I
feel that’s what made it work. We all had history together growing up skating
the streets of LA.
That’s what initiated the whole process but once it all came
together, we took it upon ourselves to bring ideas to the table that we thought
were cool. Kareem was always down to give things a try.
For example, I remember all of us going to World Industries one
day to check out the operation. What caught our eye was this huge denim-tinting
machine they had running. They looked like huge washing machines that were used
to do the color of their jeans.
“Hey Reem, what if we made money green Menace denim?”
“Let’s try it! We have all we need right here!”
Just like that, we tried it and they came out amazing! But it
was all organic, man. Nothing premeditated. There wasn’t some explicit
marketing plan or branding strategy.
Like “Enter the Pu-Tang”, that was Billy and Shiloh’s idea.
We were just sitting there, listening to Wu-Tang and looking at the album cover
when they both start throwing out this idea!
“How sick would it be to turn the W over to make it a M!
Yeah, put Menace in the middle where it says Wu-Tang and instead of the album
title, make it say, “Enter the Pu-Tang”!
Obviously, we were down. But it was all so spontaneous…
which was pretty typical with concepts throughout the Menace timeframe.
Friends vs BI. How did
you get along with Kareem and Rocco from a business point-of-view?
Kareem and I go back years before Menace so stepping into
our business relationship was a smooth transition. I respected Kareem as a
business associate as much as I did as a friend and brother.
I didn’t really know Rocco much aside from skateboarding but
Kareem cosigned for him so he was good in my eyes. I was always on top of what was
going on with the business side of things anyway. I think one big thing about
my relationship with Kareem is that we both knew how to separate our business
relationship from our friendship. I think that’s a big reason why we remain
close to this day.
Do you think the rest
of the crew was able to maintain this mindset? Was the overall direction of Menace
unanimously decided upon by the riders?
Yeah we had an original plan from the beginning that was carried
out. As a matter of fact, I remember getting our first checks and deciding to
sacrifice a little more of our earnings back into the company in order to do
more things. I mean, we had a full denim line, an accessory line and a
cut-and-sew line… that doesn’t come cheap. But these were all things that were
talked about collectively and agreed upon.
For me, this wasn’t an issue. I knew that I wanted to do
something more long-term and I always tried to look at things that way.
You gotta remember, there wasn’t much money in skateboarding
back then. If you were making 2g’s a month, bro… you were the man! You were
doing big things! You had your little apartment, your Honda Civic with your
little rims… you were good! Like, back when Girl first started, the biggest
thing was how much they were getting paid!
“What!?! You guys are getting 2k a month to start!?!”
They hadn’t even started the company yet and were getting
paid like that! That was huge.
But I will forever be indebted to Reemo for the opportunities
he has presented to me. I’m not only talking about providing me the platform to
showcase my skateboarding but also allowing me to step in and gain a better
understanding of business, in general. He was always looking out for me.
I remember the first thing he did as he handed me my first
Menace check was take me to the bank. He basically made me open up a bank account
that day. Things like always reminding me to pay my taxes and taking the time
to make me understand what it meant for me to be an independent contractor for a
company. Real life stuff that I didn’t really know but had to prepare for.
Going back a bit… and
on the complete opposite side of the Menace spectrum, I had no idea you were on
Powell back in the day! Was that through Paulo? Were you one of Paulo’s kids?
I was just always in the mix, man. Fabian, Juan, Gabriel,
Rudy, Paulo and Guy… we all grew up skating together. You can actually see me
in the background of their part in Ban This. There were a lot of us but I’m in there.
How it happened was after those guys had all left, Paulo was
still on Powell and had to film for Propaganda.
My friends and I were all out there skating with Paulo and Stacy took notice.
Paulo put in the good word and got me in the door.
Were you one of those
kids with tricks in Paulo’s Propaganda
part?
Yeah, Billy and I are both in there. On the last day of
filming, I did a fakie airwalk down the stairs and Stacy decided to throw it
in.
But yeah, Stacy came up that day and asked me to one of
those all-night sessions they used to have at the Powell park. He wanted me to
skate in front of the team manager, Todd Hastings, to make it legit. Billy and
I both went up to Santa Barbara with our friend Ruben and skated around. We
must’ve made a good impression because they put us on right there and then.
How did SMA enter the
picture? I remember that period being when you first started to get some shine.
After Stacy left Powell, they began to restructure the team
and I knew I wasn’t going to last long there. I was on the team because of
Stacy and once he was gone, I wasn’t that hyped about it anymore so I quit.
A week later, I was skating Transitions in East LA and ran
into a friend of mine, Victor Franco. He was riding for SMA at the time. Victor
asked me what was up with Powell and after I told him I’d quit, he basically
put the call in right there on the spot. It was that easy.
How was your time on
Santa Monica Airlines? Looking back, it does seem like a pretty weird fit.
What was that video they had? Debunker? I actually had footage for that one but I don’t know
whatever happened to it. I don’t know if the Team Manager at the time was
totally convinced on me or what, but I was shocked that I didn’t make it in
there. I honestly thought it was pretty decent footage! (laughs)
We’re all our own worst critics but I thought there was some
pretty good stuff there! So when it finally came out and I wasn’t in it, I was
kinda shocked. Oh wow!?! Okay.
But it was all good once Russ Pope came into the picture.
That’s the homie for life. I actually thought SMA was a good fit for me. I felt
I brought something different to the company. Even my ad with “The D.O.C. in
LA”, I thought I brought something more left field to the brand.
So did ATM Click come
out of the LA X-Large scene that was going off around that time?
Yeah, that ATM collaboration was basically born out of those
X-Large connections. X-Large was huge
back then and really provided a platform for us… I remember doing a photo
spread through them for URB Magazine with a young group called TLC before anyone
knew who they were.
We always looked up to Mark and Ron growing up because they
represented who we were. The fact that Mark was a Latino kid from South Gate
who made it, he set the standard for what we would strive to accomplish. He
gave us hope. If he could make it, so could we. It was amazing because before I
knew it, there I was skating with him. It was almost like a dream and also served
to give me even stronger motivation to keep it going.
I feel like skating for ATM put the stamp on my skateboard
career. Regardless of what could possibly happen afterwards, the fact that Gonz
turned me pro could never be taken away from me.
Were you at all
expecting to go pro when you did?
I say this in a very humble way but we all reach a point
when you basically know you’re at your pinnacle. Where you think to yourself,
“Man, I’m hot right now!” (laughs)
You don’t say it out loud but you do start feeling a certain
way and then people say things that confirm what you’re already thinking. For
us, it wasn’t necessarily about riding for the best brand or making x-amount of
money but more about gaining respect from our peers. If I can go to Embarcadero
and make those dudes acknowledge what I was doing, that was everything. That
was our mentality. If Henry Sanchez can come to Los Feliz and give me props,
that was the epitome of “making it” to me.
I’d reached a point where even though I didn’t have a board
out, I considered myself pro. I could tell it was coming… and I remember
skating one evening with Mark when he just came out and asked me out of the
blue.
“Hey Joey, I think we’re going to turn you pro but we’re gonna wait with it because I’m going to leave Falahee and ATM to start something new.”
Being asked to go pro was awesome but at the same time, we
wanted ATM Click to stay! We thought that company was so dope! I felt it was
perfect. In fact, I remember Jeff Klindt calling X-Large one day right when ATM
was just getting started to see if I’d ride for Real. This is right after he’d
put Billy on Real, too. I was flattered for Jeff to offer but I thought ATM sounded
so amazing that I had to see it through.
So yeah, Mark wanted to turn me pro but wanted to wait on
putting my first board out until 60/40 was up and running. I had one board out
for that company but I just didn’t feel the same passion for that brand. I know
it sounds cliché but at the end of the day, you gotta love what you do. Thomas
Edison once said, “Find your passion in life and you’ll never have to work a
single day.”
That’s so true. And at that point, I just wasn’t feeling 60/40.
I was pretty much mentally gone. Luckily, I had already spent the summer with
Kareem in New York and the seed for Menace had been planted.
What did you see as
the big differences between ATM and 60/40?
Even the name “ATM Click” was cool. “Click” is a hood term
so right away, it made sense. We were already a click, man. And I liked the
image that Mark was bringing because it was artsy but still had some street to
it, too.
No disrespect to Mark or Ron but ATM just seemed so much
better. Mark’s graphics for ATM seemed so much fresher than what they ended up
being on 60/40. I’d look at some of
those graphics by that point and know that it wasn’t really Mark. I could tell.
They just had some weird stuff on there… like I remember seeing shirts with
this demonic looking clown or something. It was weird.
ATM had that Steven Cales Puerto Rico tee, Patty Hearst and
the Snot Remover guy with a straw up his nose. Those shirts were dope! Shirts
with Mark’s characters all over the front… I think ATM seemed more “Mark” in
comparison, which I felt was something missing from 60/40.
What did you think of
the name “Menace” and the overall art direction of the company?
I thought the name was perfect because it represented who we
were. We were Menace not because we were dysfunctional and violent but because
we symbolized what skateboarding was from our point of view, which to a lot of
people was menacing. The truth is that we represented skateboarding from a
point of view the skateboarding world had never seen or experienced yet.
How would you describe
this point of view?
It was the perspective through the eyes of a young urban kid
who didn’t really come up in the suburbs. From someone more inclined to go the
gang route as opposed to doing something positive. It’s like Biggie said,
“You’re either slinging crack rock or you got a wicked jumpshot.”
That’s how we saw it. You either get caught up in dealing
drugs and gangbanging or seeing what you could do with this skateboard. That was our way out. In this form of art
that is skateboarding, we were able to escape being caught up in that negative
environment. It gave us the platform to show kids from the suburbs or out in
the Midwest what it was like to see skateboarding from our point of view.
Skateboarding from kids who are really in the hip hop culture.
We brought this real grungy street music to skateboarding.
It was almost like Nirvana! They came with this straight out the
gutter-type rock that really got people’s attention. It was kinda the same
thing for us with skateboarding. Menace was the Nirvana of skateboarding! The
NWA of skateboarding! It was our collective effort. It wasn’t Sal from Plan B,
it was the entire Menace crew. An entire group of kids from the same
background… bro, from the same neighborhood!
Eric was from Rhode Island but he applied that same style
and point of view we did. In our minds, because of how he carried himself, Eric
was pretty much from the hood. From the first couple of times we met him up at
Embarcadero in SF, I’d always think to myself, “Man, this white boy is down!”
You mentioned
something earlier about Rocco already having pros in place for MNC before
coming to Kareem… any idea who they were?
It wasn’t even called Menace yet at that point. It was more
of an idea that Rocco had presented to Reem with riders loosely attached. It
wasn’t like those guys were ready to go, these were names Rocco felt like
Kareem should approach.
But if I recall correctly, I want to say Chris Senn. He was
huge back then, cleaning house in contests. And I also want to say Willy Santos
was another option. I think there were a few more but those are the two that
come to mind.
Talk about the heads
who almost got on Menace. I’ve always
heard Rick Ibaseta and Ivan Perez almost got on. And what about Shiloh?
This has been brought up in interviews by a few of the other
guys. I know Billy brought up Rick Ibaseta. But honestly, the only person I
remember Kareem showing us a tape of and seriously asking what we thought as a
potential rider was some vert guy.
I can’t even remember his name but I just remember us being
like, “Nah…”
Ivan would hang out with us for months at a time when he’d come
out from New York. We’d chill and skate but him getting on Menace was never a
topic of conversation that I remember. I don’t remember Rick Ibaseta either but
that might’ve been Billy bringing that up to Kareem one-on-one. He was never
brought up to the group though. It was always a collective thing.
How come Kareem never
skated for Menace?
I always wanted him on! Who wouldn’t want Kareem Campbell on
their team!?! Shiloh, too! Shiloh would’ve been dope on Menace.
I know it was talked about at the beginning that once
everything was established, Kareem and Shiloh were going to join us. That was
the move and to be honest, I don’t know why that never happened.
In retrospect, I think the biggest hurdle with that and a
lot of the other issues we faced was the trademark stuff. It’s one thing to
start over once but twice? First with All-City and then again with City
Stars!?! That threw a huge monkey wrench into all of those initial plans. We
were always having to restructure and figure everything out again. Having to start all over after gaining all
that momentum is the worst possible scenario. I think that’s really what held
us back with so many things.
What would you say is
your all-time favorite Menace ad? So many classics there.
If I have to pick one, it’s gotta be that Jody Morris
wide-angle spread where we’re all sitting together and I’m throwing up the LA
sign. I think that one best described us. Right when it was all in its infancy,
in its purest form.
We didn’t even have any Menace product at that point yet.
That’s why we’re all wearing different stuff. Billy’s wearing that Illinois tee,
Eric’s got a collared tee on and I’m wearing a Polo tee. There wasn’t a single
item anywhere in there that represented the company other than it saying Menace
at the bottom… but look at how that worked out! That had an impact! All of a
sudden, you started seeing kids wearing designer gear and all different kinds
of tees. If we would’ve had Menace gear, I think we probably would’ve all been
wearing it but we didn’t. We just happened to be with Jody and we knew we were
going to be doing this company in a few months. We got an idea for an ad, let’s
shoot it.
Were you nervous with
how little skating there was in those first few ads?
Not at all. It was something that hadn’t been done before. You
said it yourself: those ads are classics! I think that’s what made those ads
special.
“What? These guys are just hanging out? Wait a minute! Can
these guys even skate? Why are we so attracted to this whole thing going on
here?”
That was the impact. As a matter of fact, we originally
didn’t want to have any skate ads at all! We didn’t want our ads to become
“just another skate ad” like everybody else’s. We wanted to present us first.
Show us for who we are, not what we do. Because I feel like once 20 Shot came out and did what it did,
our plan worked. I still get people today telling me how hyped that video part
got them.
Talk a little about 20 Shot Sequence. How it came about, how
long you guys filmed and all of that… because there was a lot riding on that
for you guys. Like you said, you guys really had to show and prove.
20 Shot was filmed
over the course of 4 months and I still remember Kareem bringing the final cut
over to a friend of ours house and watching it with everybody. It was such a
good feeling to see the final result of something we put our heart and soul
into.
We were blessed. Eric, Fabian and Billy all did some amazing
stuff in that video. Those lines on the picnic tables were so good and I don’t
want to take anything away from that but like I said before, I do think the
impact of that part had more to do with our style and how we did our tricks. A
switch heelflip over a bench wasn’t that big of a deal, especially by today’s
standards, but the way it was done was so clean. It made skaters realize that
you didn’t have to do the hardest trick in the world, just make it look dope.
That’s worth something.
Gotta ask about that
opening fight in 20 Shot? I always heard
that was jokes but a broken collarbone ain’t funny.
We were always so hard on Matt but we loved him to death. He
just tried so hard to be something he wasn’t and you gotta remember that we
were just kids back then...
So we’re all out filming at Lockwood one day for the video and
the thing with that spot is that it’s all black asphalt. One fall on that,
you’re black. We’re out there getting filthy and here Matt pulls up looking
like he just got back from the mall! He’s got on a new Polo hat with his cream
Polo tee and some brand new kicks…
“Dude, you better get outta here with that stuff right now.
We’re over here getting grimy and you’re looking like you’re trying to go to
the club!”
But he didn’t heed to what we were saying! So Billy set it
off.
“You know what, man? No, forget that! If you come to
Lockwood, you’re getting dirty.”
And that’s what happened. We weren’t hitting him for real. It
was all fun and games. Somehow he really did end up hurting himself but that
wasn’t our intention. We were just giving him a hard time. He was alright. Of
course, you don’t see the footage afterwards where we pick him up and give him
a pound. That stuff was left out.
What went down
between you and Mike V at Slam City that year? I remember you two almost getting
into it on the course.
That’s a good question. I was honestly just out there
skating and really don’t know what happened. All I know is, all of a sudden,
Mike’s in my face.
“Hey man, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m just
skating like everybody else.”
It was crowded so everybody was getting in everybody’s way.
It wasn’t anything personal. But for whatever reason, he wanted to pinpoint me.
Maybe the moment got the best of him? I’m not sure but I do think that neither
of us really wanted things to escalate. As caught up in the moment as we were,
I didn’t want to make matters worse because I knew what could happen. I even
remember telling him, “Let’s just leave it. Leave it alone.”
In the end, we shook hands. Moments after all that, it was
done and we were good. People don’t remember that. We’ve been cool ever since.
I know the Menace Epicly Later’d opened up with Fabian
almost coming to blows with some kid while out skating. Was it a constant thing
for people to challenge the Menace crew because of the brand’s image?
Yes, I feel like that did happen a lot. I think people
wanted to test and see if we really were what they thought we were portraying. Some
drunk kid at a house party while on tour getting belligerent in front of his friends.
Coming up to me like, “Man, you ain’t gangster.”
I had to show him what was up. Those types of things did
happen but I was never the live wire. I was always really vocal and animated
but I was never the dude who would go set something off. I was usually the
peacemaker, trying to break things up.
That’s something I don’t think too many people realize is
that we were all pretty cool on tour. We were the type of dudes who’d come into
town and try to interact with the kids. We were respectful. I don’t think we
were ever stand-offish or refusing to give autographs, which I think a lot
people seemed to think was shocking. It’s like they were expecting something
else. They’d want to see the act. Kids were always trying to come up and smoke
with us or whatever but we’d always try to keep it professional.
Who came up with the Mission Impossible-style break-in for Trilogy? And why was Menace kinda
crowbarred into the video like that? Were you bummed about doing another
montage instead of individual parts?
That whole thing was Reem’s idea. Reemo and Socrates came up
with all that. That was a lot of fun just filming all around Kareem’s house one
day.
As far as how Menace fit into Trilogy, we could’ve put out video parts but there was so much
stuff going on under the World umbrella and basically, we only had Socrates! He
was doing everything, man! It was crazy! That dude was putting in work. That’s
honestly why they had to do the 20 Shot,
Trilogy and Daewon vs Rodney-type of videos. That’s just what made sense.
You have to understand that with World, they couldn’t just
focus on Menace. That’s not their only bread and butter. They’re looking at it
from a panoramic-perspective. They had all these other brands, too. It would’ve
taken too much effort to focus on one project with everything else that was
going on… and even if that was the case, why not just put out a World video
instead? World was their baby!
I was kinda neutral about the whole thing. I know some of
the other guys felt differently but I could’ve gone either way. I did think
that it was a little strange but I knew the reasons why. I kept myself informed
enough to know why. I’ve never tried to let myself get too caught up in
something if I knew the reasoning behind it. Why am I gonna kill myself over
something I have no control over? You gotta go with the flow and do what you
gotta do.
One of
skateboarding’s greatest what-if’s, how serious was the full-length Menace
project? Was it ever really coming out?
It was deadly serious, man. The Menace video was
detrimentally serous. We were hook, line and sinker all about it. And I hate to
keep bringing it up but I do think that trademark scenario turned out to be a
huge obstacle with this project as well. Not only would it knock the wind right
out of us, it was also demotivating and distracting. Instead of focusing on
what we needed to do, like a video, we had to basically re-do everything on the
business side that we’d already worked so hard on to get to by that point. We
really liked that Menace name. That was who we were.
But yes, the video was super serious, bro. There was no
joking around about that one. We were really trying to make that happen.
Is it true that the
video was done and Reem deaded it?
No, that’s not true. We had got to a point where the video
was just about there, where it was almost done but for whatever reason, it
didn’t happen. I can’t even explain why. Honestly, I can’t. The copyright stuff
started going on and that video kinda got lost in the mix. I guess some things
aren’t meant to happen. But to answer your question: Kareem never deaded any of
that.
What was your attitude
towards filming and coverage? Socrates said the crew was generally pretty lax
about it.
I don’t want to speak for the other guys but I personally loved
filming with Soc and I think he’d tell you the same. I used to call him up and
we’d go out all the time, just me and him. Go out to Chaffey and spend the
whole day out there.
It’s just like with anything else where you can get caught
up in the lifestyle and image of it but I always tried to keep a straight and
open-minded perspective on what I needed to do. I can honestly say I gave 100%.
For the record, and I’ve never told anybody this, I was actually
skating with a bad shoulder for years. I never even told Kareem this. From
right around 20 Shot up until around 1998
or so when Kareem got us all insurance, my shoulder was really messed up, bro.
I’d wake up screaming in the middle of the night with my shoulder out of joint.
I kept it on the low because I didn’t want it to seem like a crutch but it
definitely played a large part in my career. The guys would ask me what was
wrong but I always felt embarrassed about it. Luckily, after a while, I got it
mastered to where I could pop it back in myself Lethal Weapon-style.
I’m so thankful Reem got us that insurance though. That was
cutting edge! Skateboarders never got insurance back then and it ended up
paying for both of my shoulder surgeries. I didn’t have to pay a penny. And
because of that injury and those surgeries, I was introduced to resistance
training through my physical therapy. Believe it or not, I now have a personal
training business on top of doing real estate. If it wasn’t for skateboarding,
I wouldn’t have been led into any of this. As my Orthopedic Surgeon once said
to me, “Adversity is the motor of unimagined opportunity.”
You
brought up the D.O.C. earlier, who were the Doped Out Children and how'd that whole
thing come about? Who was all in it? How serious were you guys when it came to
graf and which skaters of the crew had some of your favorite styles?
My friend Juan and
Fabian started it back in ‘88 or so. It consisted of a few of us who frequented
the Belmont tunnels where a lot of the original LA graffiti writers got up. Later on Reemo, Gabriel, Guy, Rudy, Shiloh, and Billy also joined the
crew. Graffiti was part of the culture that came hand-in-hand with hip hop,
breakdancing and skateboarding. It just came with the territory.
Shiloh and Billy were really good, in my opinion. It was just like riding our skateboards in that we each had our own distinct style of doing it but I do think those two guys stood out the most.
Shiloh and Billy were really good, in my opinion. It was just like riding our skateboards in that we each had our own distinct style of doing it but I do think those two guys stood out the most.
It did seem like that
original crew got pushed back a little over the years but why did Billy leave
the Menace/City Stars mix entirely?
Honestly, I’m not sure. I think maybe after a certain point,
let’s be honest here, it just got a little difficult for us. That’s why with
the point of view I always maintained, it was easy for me to transition. I
never had a problem with knowing when it was time and bowing out gracefully. I
was always clear about what my plans were in skateboarding, beyond the physical
responsibilities of being a pro. I felt the calling from behind the scenes and
allowed myself to evolve accordingly.
Would kids like
Spanky and Mikey Taylor ever been have considered for Menace? Was it weird
seeing what Menace ended up as with City Stars?
It was a different era, man. Things had changed and we had
to evolve. What we brought to skateboarding with Menace wasn’t new anymore. By
that point, you had your DGKs in full swing so we had to bring another
perspective. Keeping it on that same level but bringing in some new blood.
In retrospect, becoming City Stars allowed for a broader
marketing strategy. Bringing kids into the mix who weren’t necessarily from the
hood but possibly related to famous actors instead. We knew their talent could
still let us showcase what we were about. It was about being genuine. This is
why when we introduced this new breed of kids under City Stars, we named them
“The Terror Squad”. It wasn’t about being afraid of what we were portraying
with the image anymore, now you gotta sweat us with what we’re doing on our
boards! These kids were killing it! It was their time and City Stars was their
platform. Paul, Mike, Spanky, Devine and Justin were forces to be reckoned
with.
City Stars was a lot of fun for me because I was able to
focus all my energy towards helping Reemo reestablish the brand. I liked
working to bring up this new breed. It was therapeutic and helped me cope with
how the times were changing.
So you knew going
into that Street Cinema part that it
would be your swan song?
I’d been knowing that. I actually wanted that part to be
more of a subtle retirement-type of thing. I didn’t even want it to be in the
main video at all but more like an extra part on the DVD version we were trying
to come out with.
I’d had my second shoulder surgery the year before the video
came out. I was ready to let it go but Reemo wanted to wait until the next
tradeshow because my board was still selling pretty good. I was thankful for
that but I was honestly pretty much done a year or so before it was official.
What about that intro
with you rapping in the car? So good!
(laughs) Yeah, my brother was heavily into music and I really
enjoyed working with him on stuff. I’ve always enjoyed listening to early
hip-hop and there was a certain part of me that enjoyed rapping but it was
never too serious. I never wanted to be a rapper or anything. I thought it was
fun and something cool to put in my part. There were definitely some people
like, “Come on, man!” after they saw it but I didn’t get too much grief for it.
I think some people thought it was cool, too. To this day, I’ll still have
random people come up to me and quote different parts of my rap to me… like, “I
rise. I rise.” (laughs)
It was just fun, man.
So what are you doing
now, Joey? I know you were at Diamond for a minute, now you said you have a physical
training business as well as being deep in the real estate game? Are you still
skating at all?
I’ve been in real estate for the past 5 years and now have
my own real estate company, City Stars Realty. And yes, I also have my City
Stars Personal Training business. My heart will always be in skateboarding so
it only seemed right for me to name my brands to coincide with it. I am a
skateboarder and I have skateboarding to thank for making me into who I am
today. Even though I did really well in school, I didn’t go to college. I made
the decision at age 16 to follow my dreams. Skateboarding was my college and I
feel like I do have a degree, not through any sort of certification but through
experience. I’m grateful to have been so successful.
I’m married now with 3 beautiful boys and I’m also an Assistant
Pastor at Truth Tabernacle Church in Hollywood. I definitely have a full plate
but I still try to skate every once in a while. Rudy Johnson sends me boxes
every so often and my boys like to skate but at 42-years-old, it’s a little
harder to get going. It’s funny because I can still do things in my mind but
physically, some things just don’t happen anymore. My mind writes checks that
my body can’t cash.
Looking back on
everything over the years, is there part of you that feels your inner-city backgrounds
might have been glamorized to a fault or potentially exploited? Watching some
of the gangster posturing and “Yeah Nigga!” hypeman antics, does any of
that stuff make you cringe now?
Not at all, man. We are who we are. I don’t think it was
exploitation, it was the people accepting us for who we were and this
translating into the phenomenon we chose to portray. I’m not ashamed of who I
was. That was me in my purest form. I acted the way I did and spoke the way I
spoke because that’s whom I was.
Know that I am a different person now. I’m a husband, a
father and a man of God. This makes the message of the Gospel that much more
powerful because it’s the power to transform, to renew. I often say that skateboarding
saved my life; Jesus saved my soul.
Do you still have your Menace and City Star necklaces?
(laughs) I do! I still have my necklaces! Those chains are
very dear to me for what they meant and are another example of something that
Kareem did for us to show he cared. One time he made us all these leather
jackets, too. Expensive leather with the City Stars Abilist logo sewn-on the
back. I still have that as well. It’s not that material items should put any
meaning on a relationship but the fact that he did what he did out of his own
pocket meant a lot.
Can’t thank you enough for doing this, Joey. Anything you’d
like to add? Shout-outs or words of wisdom?
First and foremost, I thank God Almighty, for without him coming into my life 8 years ago, I don’t
think I’d be where I am right now. I'm thankful for everyone who has helped and inspired me to become the man I am today: my Mom, my wife Claudia, my 3 boys: Isaiah, Jeremiah and Josiah; Kareem Campbell, Nick Tershay, Greg
Carroll, Stacy Peralta, Mark Gonzales, Russ Pope, my LA family: Fabian Alomar,
Juan Haro, Gabriel Rodriguez, Rudy Johnson, Guy Mariano, Billy Valdes, Shiloh
Greathouse and Paulo Diaz; my Pastor Joe Silva and my friend Chuck Messmer.
Watch the company you
keep. Those whom you choose to surround yourself with will in turn be the
influence that shapes your life.
I love skateboarding because I am skateboarding. Thank you for the opportunity, Eric. God bless!
I love skateboarding because I am skateboarding. Thank you for the opportunity, Eric. God bless!
15 comments:
Great job Chops! Best from Germany!
MNC!
Eric! How you doing man!
"My mind writes checks that my body can’t cash." I like that!
Nice one. What a difference of perspective between two God loving former pro skaters compared to Lenny Kirk.
Jody Morris was in the mix during the early/best Menace phase. He's probably sitting on a gold mine of photos of these guys.
loved his part in that SMA video.
Great interview! I remember being influenced by the SMA part, through 20 Shot. It kept skating fun for me. Menace is timeless! Joey Suriel always stood out with his skating and having a sense of humility.
I asked for a board to be signed in '95. I met a down to earth person, that just happened to be on Menace, skating a spot with Mullen and acted no differently than anyone that just skates for the right reasons; you'd be doing that anyway. It stands out to me over 20 years later.
I like the quote "you dion't have to do the hardest trick, just make it look dope". I could never do the hardest tricks or have the impetus to skate massive gaps or handrails in a 'try hard' fashion, so the Menace ethos of doing simple tricks with style appealed to my nature. The shots of them chilling such as the Wu rip off advert just added to the mystique and created debate by a lot of skaters as to whether the team was 'any good'. This only added to the appeal. It was fun to watch '20 Shot' and feel like you could try lines yourself on your own local spots.. Rad interview and props from the U.K
I love that these menace and early LA street guys all turned out to be so humble, friendly And mature, vs these pissdrunx types who pissed their life away.
yeah,thanks for another great interview!
spain loves the chrome ball!
I wouldn't call this dude humble! I've seen him be a total dickhead to others while skating during one of the ASR's! Looked like he was suffering from "cool guy" syndrome!
Mike V confronted Joey at Slam City Jam because Joey was smoking a Beedi, those weird Indian cigarettes. Mike V thought it was weed and took it upon himself to make Joey put it out. To this day I'm willing to bet Mike V doesn't even know that it wasn't even weed.
Thanks CHOPS...
This goes from a radical idea in a garage to corporate speak midway through. Alien’s outro in the TWS video was the shit.
Amazing interview!
Suriel was one of my favs and had me rocking Menace from top to toe when I was growing up and hot damn, I've seen 20 shot sequence so many times that I can tell the tricks in my sleep.
Cheers from Sweden!
Sometimes when you read such interviews you start thinking about serious things like love, relationships, hobby and inspiration, sense of life at the whole. Famous people are very interesting by their personal experience. In this dialog I like the most photo from tour of Europe.
Great interview. Met (almost) the whole Menace team in 1998 in Prague, real people who left a real mark on the skateboard culture forever. Thanks Joey, everybody at chromeball and everybody involved with Menace, even the newly revamped MNC skateboards.
Mike V killed Joey's vibe in a heartbeat.
Post a Comment