STEVIE: If we don't sit up here and acknowledge the culture, then we just gonna let it pass by. dig what I'm saying? that's what people have been doing, that's why the urban culture and technical skateboarding and that Hip Hop type of lifestyle kinda faded because muthafuckas gave up on it.

SGV: thats what I was telling paul. now it's cool to be a skateboarder.

STEVIE: that's crazy dawg. it wasn't always cool to be a skateboarder. I'm still going thru the oppression. I've pushed myself so far it gets strange when I think about skateboarding accepting me. I've been so un-accepted for so long that I don't trust it. that don't mean I'm gonna stop or anything like that, it just means that I'm aware.

SGV: do you distrust the skate industry?

STEVIE: naw, I can't blame the skate industry. I can blame myself for the decisions I did make thru the facade of the skate industry. I'm the type of person that I got so much drive that I'll go for it, and when I get there and it ain't what it's cracked up to be... then yeah, I'm disappointed. but I can't blame the industry, I can't blame the facade that I saw. I'll take that blame. I piped myself. that was the path that I saw that I thought I should take. It's like I knew what I needed to do and it was just so many steps to achieve what I needed to achieve that it didn't happen overnight. I definitely had to go thru a lot of stuff to be where I'm at now and to understand my position. imagine if I was here but didn't understand my postition... I'd be like whoa. I'd probably be a really bubble gum skater.

SGV: how would you describe your position?

STEVIE: depends on what position you talking about to tell you the truth. I'm a skater and I'm a company owner and I'm a consultant. I feel as if I'm aware of the game, I know what's going on. I know I'm blessed to be in the position I am. I chased my dream and now that I'm here I gotta deal with whatever comes with that. it ain't all hunky dorey but I think I'm strong enough to deal with it. I'm here and I'm definitely trying to move forward. no one can take this away from me, only I can take it away from myself. that's why I can't blame the game, the game is gonna keep going on, whether I'm here or not.

SGV: now that you're stepping more into the entrepreneurial / CEO role, who are some of the CEO's who's careers you admire?

STEVIE: the CEO's that I look up to are everywhere. I look up to Rick Howard and Mike Carroll. Jay-Z and Dame Dash. Will Smith. Beenie Siegel. Greg Carroll. Ken Block. Rob Dyrdek. Michael Jordan. Russell Simmons. P Diddy. I look up to a lot of them. they are the faces of their culture. they get the stamp of approval from their culture... every last one of them. they let me know that thru reading interviews or being around them that I looked at it like... damn, maybe I can have a shot at this. I'm trying to go from the playing field up to the skybox. I wanna eventually have an overlook of the game instead of being in it. straight up... straight up.

SGV: do you feel responsible to represent for skateboarding in a certain way?

STEVIE: I carry that weight on my shoulders for skateboarding. when I go out there I make sure I'm doing it not just for me, but the way it's supposed to be done. and I feel like I'm blessed to be in the position I am where I have the opportunity to show it the way it needs to be shown. and do it the way it needs to be done. I got support from my core to be like; that's a real skater. that's just what I do. when you see Stevie out there, you know Stevie got skills. it ain't about, "he aight". naw, we could battle... right there! on some skateboard shit. I ain't the best, but at the same time I represent it correctly. all I ask for is the support to know that when I'm out there no matter how big I get I know that I came from nothing. when you been there so long you can't forget it.

SGV: you haven't had a video part in a while.

STEVIE: I haven't had a part in over 2 years. I been busy working on the game.

SGV: in your last part I remember you were doing some amazing shit. switch pop shuvit shifties come to mind. how do you balance being a CEO and continue to progress in skating?

STEVIE: you know and I know that you can't do both. that's probably why you haven't seen a video part from me in while too. but that don't mean I ain't skating... can't get that twisted. but I really feel like I don't wanna be skating forever. I'm sorry, that's not what I wanna do. If you know me, you know what I'm talking about. I just like to understand stuff. and I understand the skating game, not just because I was sponsored, but because I been thru the ups and downs. I been thru nobody liking you on your team... people talking shit.

SGV: let me take it back a bit. you quit Chocolate to start DGK. was that a craze one for you?

STEVIE: yeah, that still messes with me sometimes. that was a move that came out of me knowing that I would do my own thing one day. I just had to do it at the right time, and that was the right time. but it definitely did effect me as far my confidence. it's wierd... I was on the best company in the game, and left it to do my own thing. everybody once again thought it wasn't gonna work and that I didn't know what I was doing. it's crazy where I'm at now, they looking at me like whoa. but I still look at the other side of the game, like what if I was still just a sponsored skater? that way I wouldn't have to deal with all that company owner drama.

SGV: it's the day before the trade show (ASR), whats going thru your mind?

STEVIE: I really feel like its the day before my report card. hehe. I'm about to see what kind of grades I'm gonna get. I put in my work for the skateboard game and the otherside of the game. tommorow we shall see. we got Ghostface performing and all that sort of stuff. but that don't mean anything to my sales. at the end of the day its the sales that matter. it's my name on the line.

SGV: you ran away from home at 15 with nothing but skateboard dreams. I'm sure you had alot of doubters and you might have even doubted yourself at times.

STEVIE: for sure. fools were like, "you're 15 and you're running away. you're crazy!". but now its like I can show the doubters; this is what I ran away for. I showed and proved, but on something that everyone thought was corny. I remember there were plenty of times that I was thinking to myself, "what the hell am I doing on this skateboard?" it's wierd to talk about it now, but there were countless times that I would think about it. I would look down on my board and just be like, "psssssch!" I'd skate by and people would say shit like, "this nigga's skateboarding, he be doing what the whiteboys do". I'd be like, "damn!". oh well, I had to keep it movin'. everybody doubts themselves sometimes. there's nobody out there with Superman confidence. that's why a lot of people quit. things don't work out they way they want. I've been at the rock bottom of skateboarding... actually the rock bottom of the world. I was homeless sitting there and watching my favorite people go by. I was watching other people come up yet I was still doing what I was doing and hoping that one day it would pop off for me too. I had faith in myself and luckily things worked out.

SGV: what you got coming up?

STEVIE: I'm about to shoot my new Reebok commercial. it's gonna be on regular TV, the I AM WHAT I AM spot. I'm probably gonna go back to that same street gap. the one I frontside flip in my ad, I'm probably just gonna frontside flip it again. when I'm dealing with shit like that, that ain't real skateboarding, that's just control and having a trick on lock.

SGV: so frontside flipping a street gap isn't real skating?

STEVIE:no not really. I mean don't get me wrong, that is definitely skateboarding... I'll probably break a sweat. I might not get it first try, but we wont waste a whole bunch of film.

SGV: what's your frontside flip percentage on flatground?

STEVIE: 50%. but I can do probably 15-20 360flips in a row. 360flips and hardflips are my tricks. I better be able to do that shit... that's what they pay me for, right? my frontside flips, hehehe. naw, I really love skateboarding though. I'd be doing it even if I wasn't getting paid. I just love it.

SGV: you're really good at it, you got natural talent. and you got that Black pop.

STEVIE: I learned the pop. pop is nothing you can get overnight. you gotta work on your pop. it has a lot to do with your confidence too. you gotta be able to size up the ledge, size up your obstacle. if you size it up and think you can do it... it's weird, in some crazy sort of way your body makes itself do it. I realize that everyone can't do it. I got some ill stuff coming out... wait and see.

SGV: you have really high standards. like if the ledge ain't at least waist high you ain't fucking with it.

STEVIE: yup. I love the challenge of skateboarding. and right now what I consider a challenge to me is (Santa Monica) Courthouse. that spot right there is it. it's all about what manual can you do on there.

SGV: what's left? hasn't everything been done on there already?

STEVIE: naw, its wide open. when someone is sessioning that spot hard you gotta just sit down and watch. it's as fun as watching someone session a 20 stair rail. except that you can't skate a 20 stair rail for an hour. you'll only get 4-5 tries... which is amazing, don't get me wrong. it's just that's not the type of skateboarding I do. I like to skate for a few hours, get sweaty, build up some confidence. it's probably the same way somebody who jumps off 20 stairs feels about it. I like skating courthouse because I don't doubt myself but its always a challenge for me.

SGV: nothing simple about the courthouse stage.

STEVIE: yeah, but there's so many tricks that could be done there still. like nobody has really taken any flips tricks there.

SGV: just ollieing up it is hard enough for me.

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