SGV: who is Ricky Kim?
Ricky Kim: born 1980, Korean. born, bred, and fed LA. And now I'm also officially known as Mr. Kim from mrkimsays.com.

SGV: It's crazy, because the first time I'd ever even heard of you was in Hong Kong. I saw one of your Evil Monito vinyl dolls on display at Brian Siswojo's 8Five2 store. describe the rise of Mr. Kim and EM.
Ricky Kim: ok, check it out: 3rd year in college attending UC San Diego. I'm mad left-wing... protesting for janitor rights, down with the WTO. one day I met this cat name Alyasha... he was on a bike. He told me he was a designer and he wanted to know what I did. I gave him one of my flyers, and later on he hit me back. at the time fashion didn't mean much to me, but after meeting him I became fascinated by it. he introduced a whole other subculture to me. after that I began documenting everyhthing and that's how you probably got to know me in Hong Kong thru Brian Siswojo from the 8Five2 shop; the most professional business man in the world!

SGV: So Alyasha is the guy that put you on to game?
Ricky Kim: Alyasha is my mentor. before I do anything, I talk to him.

SGV: How long you been doing this?
Ricky Kim: 5 years deep come January.

SGV: that's not very long. you've made alot of progress for 5 years.
Ricky Kim: you know what it is? I was fortunate to hear the story of people. people were willing to tell me and bear me their souls. I gained so much from listening to people like Alyasha and Michael Lau (if you ain't knowing, just google it!)... people that are just legendary in their work. hearing their stories really allowed me to understand the subculture a little better.

SGV: the first thing that I noticed when I first visited EvilMonito.com was that... damn, you're one cerebral muthafucka! now how does that and fashion get along? is there any sensibility to it?
Ricky Kim: ok, really quick. I love fashion and I hate fashion because i'm fascinated by the psychological impact of clothes. clothes are really rooted to sin. the first sin that we noticed about Adam and Eve was that they were naked and they need to cover themselves. that issue of insecurity has not left mankind. so I'm fascinated at the way fashion and street culture and the expression of whats going on in the world and how that effects humankind. but at the same time I'm a victim, yes I am.

SGV: what are you a victim of?
Ricky Kim: I'm a victim of popular culture. you know what though? I'm an angry angry victim. unlike some people I'm not afraid to see people get pissed off. I want people to really understand what's going on about this world and how we can break shit down. I don't know man, whether I'm gonna be one small cog, or one big muthafuckin' cog that keeps the machine up... it's like "hey man, whatever works".

SGV: obviously you're very intune with marketing. it's more or less what you do for a living. being the politically conscious person that you are, how do you balance all that out? it seem like 2 conflicting forces.
Ricky Kim: absolutely. you know it's unfortunate I was born in America. one thing that got me really really excited was to see the community change. and you can't expect change thinking like a normal man. you gotta be ruthless you gotta be able to confront the beast and play the game. that's the only way you're gonna get change. look at somebody like Jay-Z for example. Jay-Z started off as a drug dealer, then he became a pimped out rapper, got on Rock-A-Fella, and now he's the president of Def Jam. you look at what he's doing and that was a solid conflict that he dealt with.

SGV: so what do you do? what job titles are you holding right now?
Ricky Kim: I'm the branding manager at Hudson Jeans. that company is gonna do 25 million next year. I'm the editor in chief of Evil Monito. I'm also the janitor at Evil Monito. I also run mrkimsays.com. right now i'm gonna start doing consulting for GreyOne, I had been doing consulting for FiberOps, IN4Mation... i'm also doing stuff for Commonwealth, also working on a N.E.R.D. project. and I also write. I write for about 30 different magazines.

SGV: what's on the horizon?
Ricky Kim: oh we got alot comming out. we got an EM x Creative Recreation shoe coming out. we got an EM x KSwiss collabo with Logan Hicks. we got an EM x Logan Hicks collabo with Medicom Life Enterrtainment. we got the Invisible Man x Shadow Conspiracy 22" cruiser project that EM co-ordinated. and I'm launching a print mag called The Landing... it's gonna be the anthropology of Los Angeles. breaking down the history of freeways, the whole immigration aspect, and up and coming talent on a raw level. I think it's gonna be a fun project and we're gonna try and kill it out here.

SGV: shout outs?
Ricky Kim: shout outs to Alyasha Owerka Moore. he's a true visionary and a true hustler. big ups to my dad... he's a hardcore Korean dad, and he's doing his thing. if it wasn't for his discipline, I wouldn't be who I am. and big ups to the readers and supporters of EM. they are much appreciated. thank you very much for letting us do what we do.

don't be an idiot, visit the links below.
www.evilmonito.com
www.mrkimsays.com