Ian Reid
Ian Reid’s video entitled “Ian Reid’s Video” is a cinematic collage of absurd events, women behaving badly, and dope skateboarding that he filmed over the years while hanging with his friends. It will become one of those films you’ll still be talking about, years from now.
How is it that you skate for a living?
It’s a hustle, man just like everything else. It’s not my only source of income, but it’s a decent one. I can’t really explain it, cause every other motherfucker would do it. So that’s like
“giving up the hustle.” It’s dry-snitching. Definitely can’t dry-snitch on my hustle.
City rent ain’t cheap, what else do you do for a living?
You’re asking about the hustle side. That’s that “get yourself indicted” shit. I can’t go into that. You seen my video. I make videos. I’m a videographer, cinematographer.
What kind of equipment did you use to make your video?
A piece-of-shit camera. One bullshit camera and one fucked-up computer.
You edited it yourself?
Yeah, I did everything. No reason to have someone else doing shit that you could do yourself.
What made you incorporate Brian Wenning into the video?
That’s my man. We skated together everyday for six years. Six years of our lives we were inseperable pretty much. That’s like my little brother. If I do anything, he’s going to be down with it. It’s the same with other people in my video.
Where else did you film besides Brooklyn?
I went to Philly. I lived in Philly for a while. I went to New Jersey, that’s where Brian is from. LA of course. I traveled up and down California. I went to the middle of America on some wild tours. I’ve been to Spain, Japan, England, and France. I’ve been everywhere. It’s not really to film my video. I just have my camera with me all the time. I’ll just pull my camera out and start filming shit. I wasn’t running around with the camera like, “Yo I’m making this video, do this or do that.” I just had the camera on me and started filming shit.
What is it about filming that you enjoy so much?
I guess I enjoy it to the extent that I can look at it later and laugh or show someone and know that I made them have a happy day by showing them some wyling shit. I guess I enjoy it for that, but I ain’t one of those happy-go-lucky motherfuckers that enjoys filming for the fuck of it. That ain’t me.
All these little things in your video like kids fighting and people getting robbed give your video a special quality, how’d that all come together?
I’m from the hood. If you’re from the hood, that’s what goes on in the hood. Niggas get robbed, niggas get fucked up. That’s just daily living in the hood. That’s just how it is. Growing up in the hood you see niggas getting beat the fuck up. You see niggas getting ratchets pulled out on them. Any nigga in the hood can do it, you just pull out your video camera and you film it. And that’s all I did. I just filmed what was around me, in my environment.
How’d you end up in Alabama?
I was on this tour for this company I used to ride for and we just did a Southern States Tour. We went from Maine to Miami. Then from Miami to Texas. Then from Texas back to New York. We made a crazy ass triangle of sorts. During the course of that tour we went to Alabama. I been to those places again after that on some random ass tours.
What are some of your pet-peeves with the skating industry?
There are so many copycats and clones in skateboarding, it’s ridiculous. It’s flattery to a degree but it’s really wack. Take how just one motherfucker started dressing a certain way and the next thing you know, ten little dickheads started dressing just like him. Another thing is motherfuckers in the hood dressing hood, and then some of these dudes in Skateboarding dressing like that, thinking it’s cool. Then there’s the whole trick thing. The resurgance of certain tricks that are being done right now is almost a regression to a degree, but it’s still progression because they’re going forward with the level that they’re doing the tricks at. I think that the creativity has somehow gone away. Fools just started doing old shit just because they couldn’t do anything else, or because they were told “Do that. That’s what’s cool.”
What about how skateboarding’s become the great marketing machine?
Skateboarding has always been the ultimate marketing machine. You got a company and you give thirty kids who skateboard, t-shirts for your company. Those kids skate around the city or wherever they live, all day. People see these kids and it’s a walking advertisement or billboard from these thirty kids wearing your t-shirts. Let’s say these thirty kids live scattered, so they have to take the bus or train to meet up. Once they meet up they skate together in a group and any group causes people to look at them. It was common sense and only a matter of time before people really caught on to the fact that they could use this shit to make corporate money.
As a Black man have you seen any differences?
Yes, and here’s a funny story about that. Me, my old friend Mr Pappalardo, and Brian [Wenning] used to skate everyday. We all used to do the same kinds of tricks, but all of us did it differently. One day we were skating in Love Park. Pappalardo ollied up the main ledge and did a 360 flip off. The same people were sitting there looking at him. Then I ollied up and did a 360 flip off and they all cheered. I’m thinking to myself, “We just did the same exact trick and his was probably ten times better than mine. It’s the reverse dick riding sometimes that comes into effect. I’ve also been places where people don’t like you and they want you to get out of here. That’s just cause they were not taught right and they have misconceptions of what Black people should be like.
Are there any places you just won’t skate anymore?
Fuck yeah. There are too many. Philly is a place I just won’t go ever again to skate. It’s illegal, man. I skated there at the best point in history. The session everyday at Love Park included me, Stevie, Brian, Tim, Kerry, Rich Adler, Kevin Taylor, Quack, Fred Gall, Lil Tony, Omar, Bernie, Daimen Smith and Kalis. We’d all be there. That was the best point in skateboarding in Philly, for me. Not for Philly, but definitely for that whole Love Park era–it was the best shit ever. Just to go back there now and you can’t really skate it, makes me be like “Ah fuck that. [There] I had the best times ever, I’ll just live with that.”
You got any projects coming up in the future?
I’m doing a bonus edition to my video. It’s going to be a re-edited version and it’s going to have enough new shit to keep people happy. Me and this company called Acapulco Gold are doing it, and it’s gonna be dope. It’s going to come out in May. Ill probably do something with Brian about his new shoe. Plan B will do some kind of tour and I’ll go and film what I see on tour.
How did you get hooked up with Acapulco Gold?
That’s my main Auggie from Supreme. He used to design all the Supreme shit. That was one of the companies that has supported me for a long time. He left and started doing Acapulco Gold and then he was like, “We should do something together.” And I said, “Aight, let’s do it.”
Acapulco Gold goes hard.
Yea, his shit is the best. His shit is dope. There’s other people I was going to do shit with, but at the end of the day everybody was bullshitting. He was the only person who was really about making something happen.
Aside from Acapulco Gold what companies are you associated with?
DC shoes, Plan B, Irak, Supreme, Venture. Marcel thanks a lot.
What do you think contributed to your getting where you are right now?
Hard work. Believing in yourself and having people around you believing in you too. Brian believed. His attitude was “You’re my man, we’re rocking together, and that’s it.” We used to sleep at the Seaport benches and wake up in the morning and skate again. We used to sleep at Stevie’s house in Philly and we used to sleep in random places. We both believed “either both of us is going to make it or one of us will make it. Whichever one of us makes it, will keep helping the other one.” He’s the one who made it and I’ll never be fucked up in the game because of him. It’s like Jay-Z and Bleek, except he’s White and I’m Black. Bleek aint the best, but because Hov is that dude, Bleek is always good. It’s the same. Because Brian is that dude, I’m always good. Not to be riding on another man’s shit, but that’s my man, he fucks with me like that. You just gotta have motherfuckers around you who believe in what you’re doing and that’s it.
What’s the response been to your video?
It’s dope. There’s been videos similar to mine, but never one as real deal as mine, and from the aspect I put shit together. People genuinely like it. They ask, “When’s the next one?” I can’t make that kind of shit happen. All the shit that happened in my video with the exception of skateboarding, is shit that goes on in everyday life. I aint everywhere to film that shit everyday. I can’t really say, “I’m gonna make another video in 6 months.” I could, technically make another video in 6 months, but I don’t think it would be as good as that one, and I wouldn’t do it. Generally the response has been dope. If you ain’t never been to New York, Philly or LA, my video gives you insight into these places, but not that bullshit you see on TV or magazines or on the internet. My shit is the real deal. That’s really what’s going on. Niggas getting fucked up, niggs getting robbed, little kids getting beat up–that’s what goes on in the streets.