Cosmik42

On my corner there is a crew of younger kids, Skateboarders and Inline Skaters, always out in front of the Parkside station grinding. Some people view them as another obstacle to avoid on your way to the subway, but they always give me a feeling of hope.
See, this is a corner (like too many around here) that has been a little wild, a “hot-spot”, with older kids claiming Crip and Blood. Police are constantly posted up around here and yet there are still little beefs popping off and we still hear occasional gunshots.  So to see the next generation of shortys reject all that gangbang bullshit in favor of skating takes me right back to MY youth. Yeah, the gangs then were called the “Crazy Homicides” and the “Tomahawks” instead of the “Crips” and “Bloods” (Yes kids, N.Y. actually made up our OWN shit instead of biting off L.A.) but the desire to be down; to belong to something… well, that doesn’t change. I gravitated toward skateboarding, graffiti, and music as an escape from gang violence and found a creative culture that, at it’s best moments, managed to seem bigger than neighborhood beef. Bigger than racial, class, or economic differences. It was like the city opened up to me and blocks I couldn’t otherwise walk down gave me a pass.
So to see these kids out there doing their thing everyday, right across the street from the gangsters posted up in front of my Laundromat on Ocean Ave., it made me smile. I know a couple of these kids, they are protégés of my dudes Chauncy and Stanzo (O.G. Brooklyn Skaters). I’ll say what up and keep it moving. They just know me as that old-ass dude who does graphics for some of the skate companies they ride.
Now, the other night some idiot shot up Parkside Donut, where me and my girl used to order dinner damn near every night before we got our new kitchen set up. We’ll still go there on the late night when we don’t feel like cooking. The dudes that run the joint know us , they know my regular order (Turkey Burger Deluxe w/ hot sauce and mayo , sweet potato pie.). We could have easily been in there Monday night at 8:20 p.m. when all this went down. So, even though I don’t usually watch the local news , this one seemed a little too close to home.
Turns out three local kids were hit. Brian Scott, an 18 year old kid called COSMIK 42 (who by all accounts was NOT the intended target) was killed. Cosmik was an up and coming skater who recently won the Triple A Insurance 200. He was an A student at Satellite High. He had just had a feature in ONE, the online roller-blading magazine. He had big things in store for him. Now he has a memorial on the sidewalk, wilting flowers and dirty teddy bears.

Me,  I’d rather have to step around a thousand kids skating than to have to step over one more of these.

R.I.P.  COSMIK

http://ny1.com/7-brooklyn-news-content/top_stories/107234/coffee-shop-gunman-caught-on-tape

When I went online to find a video of Cosmik skating, I noticed the most recent video he favorited on his you-tube account: COSMIK42 . I love this tune.