Naquan Rollings: 20 Year Issue
Portraits by Elena Saviano
I met Naquan for this interview on the corner of 7th street and Avenue C.
This is not a particularly quiet part of town. In New York City, no part of town is a particularly quiet part of town, and our interview, which took place on the stoop of some church or office building or whatever, was frequently interrupted by rolling skateboards, UPS delivery persons, construction, and frequent street screamers. While I jumped and glanced at every distraction, Naquan was unbothered. It was striking to me how unbothered he was at the noise and circumstance. Naquan was and is calm, cool, confident, observant. Just like his videos. Just like his photos.
Our favorite skate filmer is not stoic. There is an enormous amount of optimism in his disposition and his creative output. There is fun and joy and laughter, but there is also screaming and frustration and blood. His is a perspective not easily moved or shaken, and is more thoughtful than most, which you can hear in his voice and read in these words. Naquan’s a thinker. This is the third introduction for a Naquan Rollings piece I’ve had to write, and I’m not complaining, but it’s getting harder. I feel as though I’ve laid too much praise in the last three years, but we’re fans, and there’s a reason he’s in this issue. Again. It’s because he deserves to be.
You play Fortnite?
Yeah. I just got a PlayStation five probably like five months ago. So when I'm home, I just be playing that shit all day. It's damn near a distraction because then I'll be in the crib for too long.
In my head, you don't do anything that isn't skateboarding-related, so to hear that you play fortnight and drink smoothies is really fucking strange to me. Is there a whole crew of skaters or people within skating who are just video gaming?
I don't know. I feel like if you just play video games, you play video games. There's not like a whole skate side to it. There's other skaters that play video games. You know? It's not like that.
If you weren't skateboarding, do you think you'd be gaming?
I definitely would still be playing video games.
“You’re definitely more aware of shit when you get older. You know? When you’re a kid, you just don’t really worry about shit. ”
Like competitive full-time gaming?
That I don’t know. Those fools are crazy good at that shit. You mean like a content creator for like video gaming streaming and shit?
Yeah like a Twitch guy.
I don't know. I can't answer that because if it was now the answer is no. I just know if I wasn't filming skating, I would be doing something else.
Who do you think you would be if you never started skating?
I probably would still be playing basketball. I don’t know. I used to do a lot. I used to play basketball and soccer when I was in school, but that was mainly for fun. I never really thought of it like crazy. I used to go to this chess class every Saturday. He was like around the corner from my house and my mom used to take me. I forgot the dude’s name but he was hella cool. Like if I did good he would like he would fucking give me candy and gum and shit. He was tight.
What were you doing in 2003?
I’d go to school, go home, and play video games after school. In the summertime, I had this summer camp.
How old are you?
I’m 25 now.
So you were four or five then?
Yeah. I used to play a lot of video games with my dad. I still have my PlayStation one. Like my PlayStation one, two, and three. Any game we would play, if I died, I'd pass him the controller. It was fun. I kind of miss that shit. We never played those types of shooting fast-paced games. It's definitely too fast.
What were you playing with him?
Back in the day, we used to play Rachet and Clank, Sly Cooper, Crash Bandicoot, and just like all the old shit.
What advice would you give to yourself in 2003 to get you where you are today?
To be honest, I feel like I need more advice now than I did before. I used to be hella calm and used to not think about shit. I just used to like, live life and yeah, I don't know. I think about that a lot.
What do you mean?
You're definitely more aware of shit when you get older. You know? When you’re a kid, you just don't really worry about shit. I was always positive. I thought crazy shit for sure but I never ever had beef with nobody in school. It was always just regular. You know? I feel like I was always the one giving people advice.
Well, do you think that it's an ignorance is bliss kind of thing because you just don't have rent to pay as a kid?
Yeah, I was like hella innocent as a kid. I would always get in trouble and shit. I'm not gonna say I was a smart kid. I just used to get in trouble a lot but I was smart enough not to fight anyone. Like in high school, all my homies were already like hella smoking weed and shit. I started smoking weed when I was like seventeen. You know what the teachers would say? They'd be like, “Oh, you're so nice and sweet and innocent at first” and then I just get comfortable and start being a prankster and shit like that.
In skateboarding, you get attracted to a certain degree of chaos. Do you think it's matured over time? What do you think about the culture from when you started skating to now?
I mean, I'll say more kids are skating now. For me, growing up I was the only one who liked it a lot. Like there were other kids that skated but no one liked it as much as I did. I would hear all the stories of all the Cali homies who like we knew each other since they were 10 and they all went to school together. Going to school in New York everybody just like “Oh your shoes is chopped” and they just don’t understand.
“VX kind of died out so there’s not much VX videos. Everyone’s doing the Sony thing now.”
What's been the biggest cultural change in skating or skateboard filmmaking?
I mean, I guess the style of filming. Like VX kind of died out so there's not much VX videos. Everyone’s doing the Sony thing now. It just changes a lot, which is fine you know, there's always going to be changes in skating.
What Sony Camera?
Sony FX6 or whatever. I like watching them but you know for me personally I just won't film on those cameras.
What do you use?
HVX
Where do you think the passion comes from within people in skating who are like ‘I’ll only film on VX’ or ‘I'll only be filmed on VX’ versus people who are like ‘I don't care?’
I don't know but it depends on what you want. I just feel like most people do this shit just cause and not like how it was back in the day for pure fun and shit. It’s crazy. I do this shit for pure fun. This is my life. Like I'm still in New York doing the same shit I was like, six, seven years ago and that's what I want to keep doing. I want to keep lurking around here and finding shit and seeing how it keeps changing.
Where do you think you’ll be in 20 years? What would you like to be doing?
Definitely still skating. It’s weird like I'm around a bunch of shit now that's so inspiring. Like even just now being at Fashion Week. That shits hella inspiring for me.
Fashion Week?
Yeah. It sounds weird but my brain works in crazy ways I guess. I think about all types of shit from all aspects.
The last time I interviewed you, you said something that helped me to understand you a bit more, which was that you hear music from the side and that you have a more of a sideways perception of things. Do you think that you have pulled that from somewhere? Where do you think that that sideways perception has come from?
I don't know. I just feel like I've always just been like that. So it's cool to get to put skating into it. Even while I'm skating, I'm just thinking like, I want to film this person and this person.
When was the last time you skated?
In Paris. Which was like a month and a half ago. Seriously. I skated three days ago but I don’t count that. It wasn’t a good one.
It’s a tough industry, man. What do you think keeps you doing this?
I mean, it’s definitely tough. I don't work for any companies or anything so if homies aren't in town, I'm just like in the crib editing and seeing what I could do. I’m trying to get into some side little photo stuff.
What's been the biggest challenge in this industry for you?
Just trying to skate with certain fools, I guess. I don't know. I don't really be wanting much. I get inspired off seeing shit and then I'm like, fuck let's go do this but then fools have the sponsor obligations. I don't work for any company so it's weird to navigate who I'm going to skate with.
Is it political that way?
I don't think so, and I don’t mean that in a negative way.
What do you think is the necessity of print publications and tangibility in information? What's the point of having a physical thing? What value is there to that today?
There's literally value because it's like physical and it's there. Everything else is on the internet. That’s why I kind of want to do all of this zine stuff. I just take photos for fun and I just want to do something outside of skateboarding. Who knows where it'll take me? I just want to do something different.
Get the 20 Year Anniversary Issue, here.