There’s smooth. Then there’s smoove. Power. Pop. Style. Traits that define a skater. Kevin Taylor has it—and then some. He always has.
With a deep bag of tricks and mad style, Kevin has enjoyed a distinguished career. Coming out of Pittsburgh, his work ethic reflects the grit of his hometown. He knows what he’s accomplished in skating, but he’s always stayed true to himself and his roots.
Kevin definitely loves skateboarding, and he doesn’t plan on slowing down anytime soon.
INTERVIEW BY: Humberto Arcila AKA Berto
Let’s check in on @thegodkt.
Frank 151: Yo Kevin! What’s Good?
Yo, just chillin’ here early on a Sunday waitin’ for the Steelers game to jump off ya heard!?
Frank 151: You from Pittsburgh. Most cats from the East Coast go to Cali to get they business goin’ but you chose Philly. Why?
I chose Philly cause all the Pitt homies like Matt Reason, the homie Greg… I had met Rick and da homie Raj in Pittsburgh. We came out to skate in a contest and busted! And it all came from there.
Frank 151: So you ended up stayin’?
Yeah, just stayed in Philly wit my homies and just kept bustin’ it up!
Frank 151: What’s your go-to spots?
My go-to spots… the Ghetto Banks forever. I like downtown. I like all the crazy stuff, under the bridge stuff. Yeah, before Rizzo Park they had all these ledges and these things on the ground. First things I skated back in Philly back in da day. Shoutout to the homie Joe for building all that stuff. It was fun, just skating… no stress.
Frank 151: So you part of the Hopps Crew now. How this come about?
It came about on the side of Nocturnal in the alley. (laughter) So we was chatting and my man Jake Todd got on the phone and said “Bust it. Let’s put it down!” This was waitin’ for us and with ScumCo going out of business… Shout out to my homie Nick and all the homies, Kai, everybody! So it came from there. Him and Mark del Negro wanted to put me on and said it was a good look—so… it looks good!
Frank 151: You have any projects/trips about to pop off?
Nuthin’ in the works right now for trips but we have been filming for a Hopps video part. That’s my main thing. So we were skating the Brooklyn Projects joint—and they announced it. So that’s all I got so far right now.
Frank 151: You have had, seriously Kevin, an amazing career—and it’s still goin’ hot. Any place/spot on your bucket list?
What I would really like to accomplish is to get my first Thrasher cover. I never had that. All the homies have one—but I never got one. It’s no jealousy or nothing like that. It’s just something I feel I should accomplish. But yeah, I would love to go to Frisco and skate more. I like that city a lot. And just to visit LA again. I haven’t visited since Covid and everything kinda went haywire and kinda lost touch with my homies, ya know what I mean? So that would be a good look to just get back there and just to say hello to all my people that helped me make it and had a good ride with them. Yo! We gotta go skate the ramp at Brooklyn Projects!
Frank 151: So Sal has been doin’ some Aesthetics limiteds. You like what he’s been doin’?
Yes!!! I like it! I wanna see what the next flip is ya know? It’s always good to get it out there and support what we have made. It’s all fun and good and I love every graphic they have ever made. So… like to be looking forward to something new from them is what I really really like. I don’t care what it is—anything Aesthetics is groovy to me.
Frank 151: Next time I’m out we gotta get out to FDR with Plain. You down?
Oh yes! Dat’s my spot right now you know what I’m sayin’? Going down… I like the tranny. There’s a few moves I gotta show you I been workin’ on. (laughter) So yeah… come on down. Know what I mean?
Frank 151: Anybody you wanna send love to. Any shoutouts?
Just all my East Coast Brovas for holdin’ me down, especially Philly cats and a shout to my Pitt Brovas. Just skateboarding in general. Everybody keep movin’. Keep pushin’. It’s good to see everybody just doin’ they own thing. We all gotta make our own personal videos ya know? I never had to do that back in our day. It wasn’t about that. We always got to see… maybe two videos we looked up to each year? And that kept us goin’. Now you get to see everybody! It’s so overwhelming—sometimes I gotta put my phone down ya heard? It’s too much bro! Just keep it movin’ and hope to see everybody soon. This is good.
Frank151: definitely hyped on you being my first interview. I appreciate this from you Kevin. A lotta love for you Brova. Til the next time we link up!
Hell Yeah!!! Thank you for having me be your first interview here. Can’t wait to check it out.
And a Gracias muy grande formy man Mark Brandstetter@plainandementertainmentLike always-you killed it wit daflicks! Shouts to da EAST!!!
BERTO.
