
- #Element skateboards honest how to#
- #Element skateboards honest full#
- #Element skateboards honest series#
#Element skateboards honest series#
Named in honor of the late Harold Hunter, a giant in the New York skate scene, HHF has been supporting the skateboarding youth of NYC since 2006 with a series of programs and resources that improve kid’s lives through skateboarding and community.Īs a part of the launch, we hear from Public Enemy frontman Chuck D himself and we gathered with HHF mentors, local skaters and some of the Element team to put on a graffiti workshop and skate session at Substance skatepark in Brooklyn.

In early March, Element came to NYC for an exciting launch of the Public Enemy x Element collection in conjunction with our community partner, the Harold Hunter Foundation. It is through the belief in the power of Public Enemy’s ethos that Element has partnered with the group to create an exclusive apparel collection that aims to shine a light on the skate community of NYC. The fearlessness in their music, actions and opinions brought a game-changing sound to the world of hip-hop that is perhaps more relevant today than it ever has been. Their consistent pursuit for racial equality, to call out political hypocrisy and to bring awareness to Black America was blended with their revolutionary musical techniques.
#Element skateboards honest full#
MC’s Chuck D and Flavor Flav formed the group on Long Island in 1985 and they immediately brought a new sound full of political and cultural messaging that was rarely present in hip-hop to that point.įrom their humble roots in New York, the group rose to international stardom in the 1980’s and 90’s while they continued to stir the pot with their in-your-face lyrics. Independence, pride and an unapologetic honesty comes with the territory and that is certainly no exception when it comes to hip-hop icons Public Enemy. The city, its boroughs and the surrounding area have their own flavor that permeates every facet of life. How do you create something manmade that no matter how much technology progresses, the world still embraces the original creation? There’s hardly anything that does that.The streets of New York have always given life to a different breed individuals. No matter how much time passes, it manages to stay in the same form. I love the idea of building something from materials that’s a functioning, utilitarian device. I could talk about cars all day and shoes and music. What inspires the brand? I’m just inspired by life. I always want to be the dumbest person in the room. Also, be smart enough to hire people who are better and smarter than you but always try to be better than them, because that’s how things progress.
#Element skateboards honest how to#
The person who’s giving the orders better fucking know how to work, otherwise they’ll never be a fucking good boss. And you can’t expect other people to do the work for you. You look at every successful leader and it’s not about the gift of gab. It’s about rolling up your sleeves and getting on the grind. At the end of the day it’s about putting in hours and rolling up your sleeves and busting your ass. But I think the biggest thing is hard work. No matter how people tell you can’t do it, you still gotta do it. What advice would you give to a young upstart trying to launch their own project? I’d just say, don’t give up.

Because I happened to be a skater and an artist with a ton of connections, I started a skateboard brand. If I’m a rapper, I’ll do conscious lyrics.’ It didn’t matter what I was gonna do, it was going to be built on the same fundamentals. If it’s a house, I’ll build it from organic materials. For a long time I was probably a poser, not practicing half of what I was trying to understand, but it gave me this platform to be like, ‘If I start anything, whether it’s a rap group or a brand or whatever, I’m not doing it unless it’s my thing. The content of Tribal Quest and Jungle Brothers and all this Rastafari was really cool to me. I started listening to tons of reggae and positive hip hop.

I became obsessed with reading books about positive stuff – probably to offset the negative stuff that was going on in my life. I wanted to do something cool and positive that had an impact on kids’ lives and stood for something. It was about really having this opportunity in front of me to harness all the creative outlets that I had developed over the years. And was part of founding Element about wanting to share that experience with other people? Absolutely.
