Growing up all I did was skate, watch skate videos and listen to music. As much fun as all skate videos are to watch, it is the ones with a bangin’ soundtrack that really do it for me. Back in the days of 411 I remember trawling through the website finding out all the songs on each video. I even went as far as printing them all out and compiling it into a book. This may have something to do with my now encyclopedic knowledge of music. I don’t think the record labels realised how much having a track on skate video helped them. Generally, after a video was released, you would go into to your local skate shop and they would be bumping the tunes of a band that was recently on a big video. Most recent example of this would be the playing of ‘Band Of Horses’ after being on the Lakai video ‘Fully Flared’. Go into your local skate shop and see if they aren’t playing this. I bet my balls they have an album on rotation. I thank skate videos for their broad range of music that was opened up to me. I wouldn’t listen to half the music today if it weren’t for skate videos. Here is a list of my personal favourites. I found it incredibly hard to cut down to ten but here goes … Menikmati (Yes, that’s Indonesian for enjoy. And also the titles of one of the best skate videos ever made!)

10. The Beatnuts ‘Watch Out Now’ from Tony Ferguson in The Chocolate Tour
Unfortunately when listening to the first few beats of this song, most people would immediately think of J.Lo and that awful song ‘Jenny From the Block’ that she released in her booty shakin’ days. She completely butchered what was, for me, an absolute classic skate tune. Such a catchy and funky beat. The Beatnuts would become an all time hip hop favourite of mine just because of this song.

* Part not available but click the graphic for the full video!

9. J. Mascis + The Fog’s ‘Ammaring’ from Tosh Townend in Sight Unseen
This song is a bit of a surprise favourite of mine. I had heard of Dinousar Jnr. for years but never really bothered to listen to them. J. Mascis is the front man of probably the most frequently used band in skate videos. I don’t know why I like this song so much as it is quite slow, but damn was it edited well to Tosh’s part it just seemed to fit really nicely with everything from the whining guitars to J. Masicis monotonous tone. It just worked.

8. Amon Tobin’s ‘Sultan Drops’ from Rodrigo TX in Menikmati
Well, where do I start? It is one strange song. It’s got quite a powerful beat to it and I think it worked really well being on the opening part of a video from a team that was heavily advertised and marketed as being a worldwide team. Even though Amon Tobin is not Brazilian like Rodrigo TX he is definitely not your everyday rock band sound and this song is definitely not a very conventional song for a skate video. But with its industrial feel and gritty beat it really suited the footage, most of which was shot on the run down urban surrounds of Sao Paulo. This also introduced me to all kinds of other artists in this genre, whatever the hell you call it? Industrial Beats? But if you like it check out anything from the Ninja Tune label. A seriously amazing label consisting of such beat makers as Coldcut and The Herbaliser.

* Rodrigo TX’s part’s not on YouTube so this is just the song.

7. OutKast’s ‘B.O.B’ from the intro montage in Play
All I can think of when I listen to this song is just frantic images. Such an awesome song to begin the video with and pump everyone up. The song also has a pretty upbeat vibe, so you always found yourself really getting into it. ‘Play’ in my eyes is still the best Australian video ever made; it really raised the bar in terms of putting together an all-Australian skate video.

* Again, part is not on YouTube so this is just the song. But it’s an impressive clip!

6. Andre Nikatina’s ‘Bakin Soda In Minnesota’ from Jeff Lenoce in Baker 2G
Baker 2G in my eyes was one of the best videos of the last ten years, even though I’m not a huge fan of the brand or team, the video was just raw. The soundtrack was fricken amazing as well. I found it hard to pick this one over the rest. But when it comes to Andre Nickatina it’s hard to pass. The dude can rhyme. And apparently he is a pretty tweeked guy.

5. Notorious B.I.G’s ‘Mo Money Mo Problems’ from Ben Harriss & Greg Stewart in Time Skateboards ‘Money’
I think this was one of my first skate videos I ever owned. Time Skateboards was a sick company out of Sydney. Really fresh and clean cut and also for this video I think they had one of the best Australian skate teams of all time. I picked this song only because it is one of my all time favourites. And with Melbourne legends Harriss and Gregsie it was always going to be one of the most stylish and freshest parts in Australian skating.

[dailymotion]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1xdq0_notorious-big-mo-money-mo-problem_music[/dailymotion]

4. The Who’s ‘Baba O’ Riley’ from Jamie Thomas in Misled Youth
Another one of the all time classic videos. Zero always seem to produce ground breaking videos and depending on your age ‘Zero Or Die’, ‘Thrill of it all’ or ‘Misled Youth’ will be one of your all time favourite videos. Yes Jamie Thomas kills it and in no way do I want to take anything away from his skating, but damn does he like to edit his parts to over the top melodramatic songs. Even thought that annoys me, he hit the nail on the head with this one. This song is off its head, I can remember everyone used to think it was called ‘Teenage Wasteland’ because of the repeated lines throughout the song but really it was named Baba O’ Riley after an Indian spiritual master and an American composer. This is a great example of a perfect song for an end part, super dramatic and over five minutes in length.

3. Cymande’s ‘Bra’ from Darrell Stanton in Free Your Mind
I just had to have another song in here from a Transworld video. They were always my favourite videos. And up until a few years ago before companies really started getting serious about making team videos. The Transworld vids would always have at least one ground breaking part. Unfortunately nowadays it seems like a side project to all the team videos being made. Darrell burst onto the scene with this part and I think what made him so appealing was the upbeat vibe he seemed to always carry. This song suits the part to a tee. A stylish black dude on a board from SF perfectly fits the laid back 1970’s funk that was Cymande.

* Again, part is not on YouTube so this is just the song.

2. Gza/Genius’s ‘Publicity’ from Gino Ianucci in The Chocolate Tour
With a beat as smooth as this who better to skate to it than Gino. After this vid came out I would only buy Gino boards. He his hands down one of the best skaters ever. There is just something about his style. As well as this song introducing me to Wu-Tang, it really got me into hip hop. How can it not the song just oozes coolness.

1. Propellarheads’ ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ from Tony Hawk in The End
Having this as number one maybe cliched but shit … For my generation ‘The End’ has got to be the greatest skate video made. It was shot on 16mm for Christ’s sake! And launched the career’s of now skate-god’s McCrank, Berra, Kirchart and Reynolds. Tony Hawk is not my favourite skater (hell, not even close) but damn this was just one of the most amazing parts ever. There was so much talk of the loop and when you saw it for the first time you would just shit yourself. Much like the video, this song is on such a big scale. Yes, it’s over the top but I would categorise it as an epic track, so it’s allowed to be over the top and go for nine minutes. It seems like the soundtrack to an entire movie and with a shoutout to Bond in the title of the song how can it not be cool in every which way possible. I have been waiting for years now for The Propellarheads to release a second album but last I heard, one of the duo was in a psych ward. Why are geniuses always flawed!

* This is the second song from his part.

Honourable Mention
Jackson 5’s ‘I Want You Back’ from Guy Mariano in Video Days
Need I say more? Look at the skater, look at the artist.

* Just the song.

Big L’s ‘Size Em Up’ from Stevie Williams in The Chocolate Tour
Straight up fuckin’ gangster. Big L will forever be one of the best gangster MC’s. And for this to go to Stevie Williams part is truly fitting. Philly Represent!

I hope you have enjoyed reading through my blabber. Thus will be available on the website in the coming weeks and you can feel free to comment – I am keen to hear your thoughts on favourite tunes in skate videos. I started with a list of about 100 from my iTunes and gradually got it down to these last ten, so I bet if I had to do it again I would come up with some different tunes. I have just noticed that there is no song’s from any 411 videos, which is a complete crime, apologies. Enjoy!