Shamil Randle, switch backside flip.
LOST AND FOUND/LEDGE-ENDS
There are many skaters and companies that disappear but are always talked about or remembered for years to come. Some even become legendary, but unfortunately, this cannot be said about all. Sometimes this is due to the fact that we never got to indulge in them very much in the first place. They are the underground myths, if you must. The guy who lets snippets out for the world to taste, disappears for a year or two until his next small outing, then vanishes for good. Leaving you feeling a little gutted, empty, and for the most part, wondering where they actually went and what they are doing now? I’m going to give you a short example of two people who fit into this category, and I’m gutted that I really cannot even give you too much information on them, if any, as they were only there for a hot minute.
Shamil Randle rode for World, featuring in a shared ams part in New World Order (see below in E-Clipse). He also had a few tricks in FTC’s first video Finally, and had another two short cameos, after making the move with the rest of his homies, in the Chocolate sections of both Goldfish and Mouse (fakie frontside pop shuv @ 1:17). But his only full part flying solo was in Chocolate’s Las Nueve Vidas De Paco. And that was it. No mo’ Shamil.
Shamil, inward heel.
The other guy that I wanna talk about is Maurice Key. Hailing from NYC, ‘rice first came on the video scene riding for World in 20 Shot Sequence. He then had a solo section in Trilogy… “Anyone in the audience ever get hit by a car?”. After Trilogy he rode for one of the meanest companies I can remember (it was even doper that the New Zealand Distributor was one of my mates who lived in Christchurch at the time, James Scott). The company was called FIT, straight outa ‘Frisco. It was home to Stevie Williams, Mike Graham, Sanch and Kelch, amongst others. He had a section in the oh-so-hard to find Credo, then a short shared montage in a 411 Video Magazine industry section, and that was the last we saw of him. Man, he had a mean switch front heel on him!!
I would really love to know where they went, I mean we obviously ain’t all gonna get paid millions by Nike, and things do change as you grow up and you gotta do what you do, but I wish these two guys stayed in the game. I take back what I said about them being underground myths. Shamil and Maurice, you are both legends.
Maurice Key, switch crook.
E-CLIPSE
The other night I pulled out my World boxset (a must have for any 90s lover) and busted out a video I never really got to watch that much BITD. This was due to the lack of distribution at the time (especially where I lived in the South Island) and also the worldwide interweb wasn’t readily available for mass consumption by your average everyday consumer, in fact, I dont even think it was around at all. I think this video was probably the most underrated videos for it’s time, as it came around post Questionable and pre Goldfish, which was a very awkward time given the state of what was going on in the world camp (half the guys were about to leave and form Girl). There was a lot of mean parts, but I gotta give this one to the masses this week because of the smoothness of Shamil and the mean tune that goes with it. This is Daniel Castillo, Shamil Randle and Richard Mulder in World Industries’ New World Order.
FINE TUNING
In this week’s Fine Tuning I am rolling with the theme of people who vanished real quick: Craig Mack. Yea yea, he’s one of Diddy’s boys. Y’all hate bad boy, I know, but you gonna have to excuse me on this one. A lot of you probably know him from the 2009 movie Notorious where Puffy introduces both Craig Mack and Biggie with the release party of a ‘Big Mack’, a promo form of a McD’s burger box. Big on one side, Mack on the other. Clever. Craig Mack was probably most famous for Flava In Ya Ear off of 1994′s Project: Funk Da World, on which the remix featured Busta Rhymes, LL cool J, Rampage and Big. However, I think this track deserves a mention. This is the follow up single to Flava In Ya Ear called Get Down which was produced by non other than Easy Mo Bee. Unfortunately, Mack went on to release only one other album entitled Operation: Get Down. I would like to dedicate this to Garage, as for some reason this song just seems to me to be a bit of you. Onelove G.
Click here for the video.
STOMPING GROUNDS
Sometimes it’s super hard to find images of shoes from the past. And it’s especially hard to find images of skate brand shoes. As you may or may not have guessed, I’m not the biggest fan of the majority of ‘skatie shoes’ around (haha), and this is due to how stale and generic they have become. I know the 90s was guilty for the whole space boot era of shoes, amongst other things, but there were a few that I will make an exception for. Some how skating in an air sole was sweet?! Fuck knows how we did it, cause I don’t think I could do it now. However, at the time most people did, and they did it fine. Back to the whole finding images thing though… So, I’ve found it hard to find pics of certain colorways of these shoes, and I don’t think that the colorways I did find will do the shoes enough justice, so I’ve put together a ‘montage’ of a few goodies from the ‘golden years’. Please don’t laugh at me too hard, like I said, the other colorways were meaner, but these shoes were the biz. Somehow Chey always managed to have the harder to acquire ones. It must have been the people he knew. Once again I must apologise if you are struggling to look at these shoes, but they were all part of the staple diet for skaters of yesteryear, and we loved ‘em.
DVS Mayan (Chico Brenes pro model). I was looking for grey/beige/orange and black/grey/red colorways.
DVS Stealth (team model). I was looking for white/white and brown/gum colorways.
DVS Prophet (team model). I was looking for the red/black/white and beige suede colorways. Maybe the closest thing to a skateable Air Max 90?
DC Rudy Johnson. I was looking for white/navy colourway.
DC Boxer (team model). I was looking for white/grey and black/white versions.
