Skateboarding has done everything for me I wouldn’t make the beats that I make I wouldn’t make the music that I make I wouldn’t write the lyrics that I that I write because I probably be somewhere trying to [ __ ] fit in you know skateboarding taught me that individuality is the most valuable
Commodity that I have to offer the world what makes me different is what [ __ ] makes me special it’s the reason why why I’m sitting here right now can you me one thing look right in the camera and just say I’m forell Williams AKA skateboard P you heard the
Mixtape and I dedicated that mixtape to to skateboarding in the early 80s we were like kids going to like Mount Trashmore where they had the snake and the bowl and then actually they ended up building the halfpipe just so tonyhawk and like Christian hooy would come down and do
These exhibitions and it was like you were watching deities when they catch when they caught air it was like you were watching the you were watching the gods I had a friend named Eric Paul he used to get like all the cool decks and um I couldn’t afford them so he would
Like give me his old ones I had the Hammerhead hooy couple of pal pelta boards for my birthday my dad got me like the nest Copus sport it was like baby blue and I had like pink grip tape and I was like so like excited about it skateboarding sort of liberated me I
Mean music did too but like that inspired the [ __ ] out of us and my friends were so much better than I was um but like music was like such a strong influence I always respected the power of music and it always like it always mesmerized me so when we were like
Hanging out skating and [ __ ] like I was always like the guy that was like sort of controlling the boom box and [ __ ] so like you know some of my friends wanted to listen to like Suicidal Tendencies and black flag and the other ones were would be like yeah but have you heard
This new group Eric B and rockim you know when they were like really into it us smoke that was the [ __ ] so like for me it was just kind of like you’re hearing these Punk attitudes whether it’s coming out of like the punk music itself or you’re hearing the rebelliousness of like hip-hop
Production at that time and how amped it would make you because the music was just that crazy from then it was like I continued to learn in music and then like marching band became like the the real forward force in my life because right around that time Tribe Called
Quest came out and they had this song called Bonita ala bum that I I was so [ __ ] obsessed with that I was like okay this is the coolest thing I’ve ever heard in my entire Life and from that point on I went to chat and I was like man we got to try to just make some of this [ __ ] just for fun and so that’s when we started entering talent shows after we had made a few of our own little tracks so that’s how we
Got started and then so once we got discovered it was kind of like okay we don’t know how long this [ __ ] is going to last cuz we’re from Virginia where there’s no music industry there was no nothing and weirdly enough Teddy Riley decided when he moved his operation from
New York he didn’t go to La he didn’t go to Atlanta which would be the obvious pick if you’re going to go down South for whatever reason he went to Virginia and of all places in Virginia Virginia it was literally like a 5 minute walk from my high school so what were we
Going to do we were like all right well we’re going to do these talent shows and did the talent shows and then got discovered and then and then my life change because I was given that opportunity do I think that I’m going to be able to do anything after I write
Teddy’s verse rum Shaker no but I’ll try and then so like this guy Kenny Ortiz I gave him like my demo or whatever and uh he took the demo with him to New York and he was like we gonna bring you up and let you work on their next album and
When that brought me to New York my soon Tobe manager was interning for him so his cousin Malik worked at Tommy Boy and Tommy Boy had just signed this guy norga we go in studio with him and we make Super Thug and Boom that’s when it just like it then next thing I know I’m in the studio with puff [ __ ] notorious b Christopher Wallace walks past like [ __ ] big walks past and I never got to work with him but like he walked past like big walk past me and like I’m in a club and
[ __ ] Tupac is standing there and this is like he’s fresh out of jail like [ __ ] Tupac I’m like man I ain’t never going home I ain’t ever going home and it just kept going and kept going and kept going and kept going at a certain point point
We needed to do a show out in Japan Neo had heard about me coming to Japan and they realized that I needed a studio and his studio is in the basement of like his building where like he has all of his samples and [ __ ] he shows me all of
His clothing samples and I’m like literally I’m like losing my mind at all of this gear his imagination became his reality and I was so [ __ ] Blown Away by that so at that time Reebok said like you know maybe FR might want to do a shoe or something and I’m like all right
Well if I do eventually I definitely want to get to a skate shoe because that was that was my core that’s how ice cream was born man that was the my only Purpose with ice cream skateboarding gave me a gift perspective and that [ __ ] is like valuable I just wanted to give
That back because it provided me so much am I the best skater no but my perspective came from skateboarding and I took that with me I never let it go what brought us together was like that experience on that board and Landing a trick but what took us further in life
Has nothing to do with the board it’s just the mentality that it gave us as long as you stay true to it it never need your perspective never needs recharging the thing is is that skateboarders don’t get enough credit man the business of skateboarding is
Like a roller coaster it goes up it goes down you know it’s cyclical but you know what keeps you [ __ ] surviving is your perspective as long as you stay loyal to that [ __ ] you get to do [ __ ] like this man build a Barracks where kids come in
And be they walk in one way and come out another
source