Kareem Campbell is using his Tony Hawk

Kareem Campbell never left skateboarding behind. The 51-year-old from New York City set up shop in Dallas ten years ago with the 4DWN Project, where he spends his days giving back to the community that set him up for life.

That legacy is being memorialized in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4, a full remake of the classic skateboarding games. But before you load it up and pull off that Ghetto Bird trick with Campbell, catch up with the skater properly with our exclusive interview.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

McKeand: Hey Kareem, where are you based now? You used to skate out of LA, didn’t you?

Kareem Campbell: I’m in Dallas now, yeah. About 10 years now. Me, Mike Crum and Rob Cahill, we got a skate park out here.

What was it like being in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater the first time around? How did that change your life? Was it an overnight change?

Yeah, from the release of the game, it was definitely overnight because of the success of the game, becoming a household name. People that you normally don’t interact with, even gamers and stuff like that, you turn around and it was like, ‘Hey, you’re Kareem.’ It had a huge impact.

It’s kind of wild, right, because back then, the graphics weren’t too good either. Like, your face didn’t look exactly like your face. Now it’s much better. Do you find you get recognized more now video game graphics have evolved?

Yeah, you get recognized more. The industry is even bigger now, you know what I mean? So you really get outside of your typical skateboards. It’s a lot more recognition.

Some things are impossible in real life, but you can pull them off in the game. If you could bring one of those to the real world, what would you choose?

Any of those long, crooked grinds like halfway through the whole course.

Across the wires in the ceiling?

Yeah, you know what I mean? Any of the big roof gaps, the leap of faiths, because I don’t know too many people that’s going to jump two or three stories.

You’ve done charity work within the skating space and the Black community. Do you feel like the game helped raise the profile of the Black skating community?

Yeah, I think it just raised the awareness of skateboarding, you know? I mean, it’s not even just Black, but yeah, it definitely helps in that way. Because now parents are like, you know — think of just like they are with football and basketball and stuff like that, they’re like, ‘Okay, you could get somewhere in it.’ So, yeah, I definitely think it’s helped in the urban community. Normally, mom would be like, ‘You better go find your job. Get off that board and go find your job.’

I bet she was pleased when it worked out for you, though.

My two biggest checks were my shoe checks and my video game checks. That’s when you can buy the house and say, ‘Hey Mom, this is for you.’

What did she want you to do before you became a skater?

Anything that was just sitting behind the computer, and not going out there. But I always wanted to be a computer engineer, so I was always a nerd.

Do you play video games yourself?

Yeah, yeah, I play games. You know? I play, yeah? I play a lot of games, and then I’m getting pretty heavy in the drones and stuff like that.

What games are you playing at the moment?

Uh, pretty much still the new NBA and the demo for Tony Hawk’s, because, you know, you’ve got to be ready for these kids. Trying to get my skills back up.

There have been quite a few skating games lately. Skate is coming out soon as well. There have been a few indie ones. It felt like skateboarding was in its prime in the ’90s, at least from the outside, but do you feel like the scene is seeing a bit of a resurgence?

Oh, yeah, definitely with the Olympics and everything you know, with our history in the Olympics and then the Olympics coming up. It’s definitely resurging. It’s going at a high speed, because it’s like people are now preparing for 2028. Skaters, we don’t ever worry about that, you know, it’s just like another day, another month. So now everything is so based around this next run. It’s going to be even more of a takeover.

Tell me about your skate park in Dallas that you mentioned.

Yeah, it’s called 4DWN. It’s the skate park that we’ve had for 10 years. We just had a celebration about a month ago. We have food reserves. On Wednesday, we do this thing called grill and chill, where everybody can come skate for free. We feed everybody for free. We give away, like, you know, 50-pound boxes of food, you know, and it could be like, up to 50 boxes, 25 boxes on Wednesdays. On Sundays, we do pretty much the same thing, but it’s more of a major scale — we can do 100 to 150 50-pound boxes per family. We have a cold storage, we have a little diner. It’s like a community. We converted it because when COVID hit, we realized that kids weren’t having finances, and at the same time, they were just wanting to get out. So it’s like, we kind of just opened it up during that time, and then people were financially going through issues, and then that’s what’s really got us in the food reservation side of it. We see an issue — how can we help? We basically connected with the correct people to be able to get the 18-wheelers to come by. We pick up all the food. No food goes to waste. So that’s our approach.

It’s you and your friends giving back to the community?

Yeah, it’s full give back. I mean, we have yoga class, we have art class, we have comedy shows, and it’s all based around our community. So it’s like even teaching the kids. They’re like, ‘Hey, if you want to learn how to do graphics, we got graphic artists.’ We have photographers, painting, just every kind of element you know, just to not say, oh, you’re a skateboarder, but you’re a skateboarder that knows how to garden now.

One of the things you’re known for is having a distinct style, right? Influenced by Venice Beach. Do you think the game captures that?

Yeah, it’s more like flowing. I’m we’re more cruising, more flowing, more stylish. Not so 24 aggro, you know? The game captures that.

Do you still play as yourself when you play it?

Got to. Plus, you keep everybody else from being you. My kids used to get mad at me and just keep banging me against the wall.

Is there anything you would change about how you’re portrayed in the game?

No. I mean, it portrayed me exactly for who I am. They let me wear what I want to wear. Let me speak the way I speak. They gave us complete freedom to be who we are, so I wouldn’t change nothing.

How does that process look? Do they just look at your footage, or do you consult on it? Do you do motion capture?

They can easily capture off the footage. And they’ve already had the stock footage over the years, and then you just give them new footage. And then we went into [the studio] a couple times. We did our motion captures, you do your clothing, your wardrobe, and everything is so nice. It’s like we’re all locked in, you know, what music, what kind of vibe you want to have.

That’s really good. It’s a respectful way of doing it. Yeah, so there are a few new skaters in the game, right? Who are your favorite new skaters?

Oh, so if I were gonna go new, that’s gonna be a hard one to say, because I love everybody, that’s the problem. Yeah, it feels like … they’re gonna see this and be like, ‘What about me?’ Tony picked every good skater, every diverse skater. It’s such an insane squad. I’m gonna stay in that neutral ground.

My exposure to skating is just through the video game, right? I don’t really know skate culture that well. I haven’t watched a tournament, I’ve seen “Jackass,” I’ve seen clips, obviously, of skating, and you and the major skaters. But I don’t know that much about the sport. So I was wondering, do you think everything’s been done now, or is there still room for innovation?

So much. A lot of stuff is being learned from this video game, to be very honest. Every contest I go to, every time you pop open your phone, it’s like somebody is stepping up and doing something else. And the more that you’re able to see like, ‘Oh, wow, you could do this.’ Sometimes, it takes that nudge. The things I see nowadays. I’m watching them flip in, flip off, flip back to grind, then flip out. Kids are doing switch nine like it’s no problem. And they’re younger too. So that’s the thing about it. They only got nothing but time, and as they get that, build up their strength and everything else, it’s just like, I don’t know what it’s going to be.

You guys set the records right, so they’re working towards that straight away.

Yeah, and they’re beating us. And they study. Kids are taking it as more of a sport. They’re actually really learning the foundations and the basics and everything else, because it is a good thing, because it’s a good mind balance, because it’s really just you against that board, you know?