I’ve always skated alone. When I first started in China, it wasn’t about social media or doing it for anyone else. It was about learning how to make mistakes and knowing the only way you couldn’t nail a trick was by giving up.
When I got older, I moved to the Midwest United States. Every skater I got to know out there had improved from time on the West Coast, so I ended up following what I’d seen to LA.
Taking video clips and photos was a phase all of us had to go through. At one point, it was about how good you were at the skatepark. Today, you need numbers to get a sponsor.
A couple of talent agencies discovered me from my clips; that’s one thing that skating has brought me. I get calls or texts for different modeling gigs. I also run a photo studio in DTLA. Other than that, I actually went to school for business and advertising. So I freelance a bit, you almost have to, out here.
These days, I don’t feel as angry as I used to. I feel like I grew out of rage.
Early on, I was listening to rock and European black metal; it was the rebellious side of being on a board that had resonated with me. I always wanted to be in a band, but I gravitated towards rap when I started making songs a few years ago. I take a lot of inspiration from classical music and jazz.
The first song I released was a sarcastic comedy skate-rap sketch that blew up online. It was pretty stupid, but it had a catchy hook and encouraged me to make more music. And when I got to putting out some more intentional tracks, the hype did not follow. I went back to trying to do sketches and shoots to try to get those tracks bigger, but it wasn’t something I felt proud of making – it’s that whole struggle of creating for others vs creating for yourself.
These days, I’m happy with sticking to what I can be proud of making or being a part of. The views, likes, none of that matters or should influence how you create or treat someone. LA can host some phony people who buy into that, which makes me want to hide sometimes. But I’m just going to keep putting out work I actually groove with.
-Lil Takeout for Dead Relatives.
