the whole TK situation had me really bummed. I don’t know about the rest of you guys but I was real TK fan. TK did a lot for a dude like me to feel seen as a skateboarder. I’ve said this before, but for a lot of the black community their frame of reference was roach from next Friday, and Tony hawk (if they played Tony hawk they weren’t 100% sure Kareem was real). TK was the first black pro to really have presence in mainstream media. He was in rap videos and wore trendy clothes. Shit that that I was very much into at 16. His baker 3 and BHAD parts weren’t the best, but we’re still rewacthable because the energy. Those songs slapped. I was bummed when he got dropped from baker, but I understood. I was mad I didn’t take his decline a little more seriously. Of course I don’t blame anyone, rather it be slap or his friends. I actually sent him a letter with some slap pals and shalom stickers and wished him well and hoped he’d make a comeback. IDK if he ever got it.
I’ve had to cut off friends because of their mental health. So I can relate to how hard it must have been for Andrew to let TK go because he couldn’t help him, and keeping him around would become a liability. That shit a little to close to home. I had a friend who went from being the best dude. Ride or die, shirt off the back, to leaving dead rats on people’s doorsteps and getting mad when we tell him that shits not cool. I don’t talk to him anymore. My fiancé gets mad because I bring him up in stories all the time, but it’s because we did so much shit together. It’s kind of like that with TK. Like if I post footage or pictures of me from like 15-19, part of that era for me is influenced by TK. And now it’s an asterisk next to it. Just like there’s an asterisk next to the 10 years I had hanging out with this dude, who ended up getting fired for assaulting his boss, and threatening me because I told him breaking up with his now lawyer ex to because he wanted to fuck around was the dumbest move of his life and he’d regret it (he did). I tried to help him, but I couldn’t force him to go back on therapy. His boss actually sent him to therapy but he didn’t want to pay for it, so after the free sessions were over, he stopped THEN was fired. You can only do much.
Obviously at 31 I was already over that childhood admiration of TK, but still sucks to see him fall so far and then beat a man to death. I wonder if this is how gator fans felt. Definitely wouldn’t buy a TK reissue, that’d be fucking weird. That bummed me out on a personal harder than expected, you don’t think of how much your a fan of someone until they let you down. I just expected he’d pile out like a regular pro skater in their 30s does.
TLDR :
I was a TK fan. Now I’m not. Fuck TK. Mental health is important. You can’t always save your friends. You’re not responsible for their actions.
If there’s errors or typos, whatever i wrote this on a phone and it took longer than expected.
Topic: Terry Kennedy of baker (Read 765665 times)