German Nieves

Skaters: German Nieves and Brian Dale
Photography: Mazur

MM: What's up big Germ?
Nothing much. Just chillin'

BD: How long have you been homeless for?
I don't know man, like two months or something. I'm not really homeless, but it seems like I am. I stay at my chick's house everyday. I just never go home. Everyone does it.

BD: Oh really?
MM: I don't.
Man, I don't want to be talking about my chick in this interview.

MM: All right, so tell me, who names their kid German?
Some wild-ass Puerto Rican's I guess. My mom is pretty crazy.

MM: Where you originally from?
Patterson, NJ.

MM: Dirty Jersey, huh? How was it there?
It was dope, I guess. Mad kids be running around causing trouble and stuff.

BD: Tell everyone about cousin Louis.
I don't know if I can tell you about cousin Louis. He's just bad news man. I don't really want to talk about it because if he read this it would hurt his feelings. The boy just ain't right. I mean, I love him, but he just ain't right.

MM: How's skateboarding been treating you?
All right, all right. I got the ultimate hook ups right now. Jeff Pang is hooking me up with some DC Shoes. I got this Plant Earth gig thing going thanks to Travis Howell. Official Skateboards is blessing me with the goods. Autobahn wheels. I got the whole kit and my whole kit is always fresh.

BD: What about New Era?
Yeah man, I want to get on New Era. They need to give a nigga my own brim. I'm trying to come up on the brim set.

BD: What's up with the halo brim?
The halo brim just floats. It's going to be hot.

BD: Whose idea was that?
Man, I know it was your idea.

BD: That's right. Give credit where credit is due.
Big Dale is coming out with the halo brim. It's just going to be floating. It doesn't mess up your hair or anything. No more hat hair. You'll have to keep your shape up extra crispy.

MM: What are you, a hat guy?
Yeah. I haven't really been wearing any hats recently though. I don't know why. But I usually always got a fresh brim. Brain Dale right here gets a new brim like everyday.

BD: Yeah. You don't even wear the one I got you for your birthday. The birthday brim.
I wore the birthday brim mad times. I have been wearing it a lot lately.

BD: You don't take care of it.
What do you mean?

BD: I found it between the couch cushions the other day. It looked like someone sat on it at FDR.
Man, that is the crispiest brim I own right now.

MM: So you two have hat fetishes?
Yeah, but there ain't anything wrong with that. Everyone has got to have a fresh hat. Where I lay my hat is home.

Trick: Ollie into Slant
Photography: Mazur

BD: Do you do the Abercrombie college kit?
What do you mean? Like a ripped up brim and some flip-flops. Some Birkenstocks. Or maybe some air Jesus'. Nah man, that ain't my style.

MM: You come up with all kinds of random words and names for things.
I got to keep it interesting, you know.

MM: Why don't you tell us about some of your trick names? Like, what the hell is a buck-nasty?
A buck-nasty is whatever is hucking and bucking. Like some big shit.

BD: My favorite one is the Dirk Nowitzki?
Oh yeah, the Dirk Nowitzki. (Dirk- No-Wit-Ski). I was really psyched on that one.

MM: What's that one?
A fakie front crook. The Dirk-Nowitzki. The dirk. Dirka dirka jihad.

MM: What other trick names do you got?
I don't know. We came up with a lot. Umm... I don't know. I got to be skating and having fun and then it will just come out.

Trick: Fakie Crooks
Photography: Mazur

MM: What about the switch front big spin in this interview?
Oh that one. I don't know let me think about it. The Big Germ... No, no, that one is the Big Husky. The Busky, but the one in this interview is like a Buck-nasty Busky. Man, I need a cigarette.

MM: Yeah, sorry I chose the no smoking section. Are you a big smoker?
No, not really man.

BD: You are when I got a pack.
Ah, I mean, sometimes I will, but I'm not a big smoker. I just don't want my mom to know I smoke. I told her I don't, but I'm sure she already knows I do.

MM: She'll know after this interview drops.
BD: Give a shout out to your momma.
I want to give a shout out to my mom. Big momma in the house.

MM: So is your family like hardcore Puerto Rican?
Nah, we ain't hardcore Puerto Rican. I mean, we are all Puerto Rican, but we aren't like hardcore about it. I've never even been to Puerto Rico yet. I need to get down there. I can hardly speak any Spanish.

BD: I think the one time I met her was at the Puerto Rican day parade.
Was she there?

Trick: Varial Heel
Photography: Mazur

BD: You mean, you didn't go down there?
I went to the one in Philly. It's the most dangerous day of the year. We's some wild folks.

BD: So what do you go to school for?
Chicks. Nah...

BD: That is some expensive ass.
Yeah, it is an expensive-ass game. I don't get any man. I'm happy. The school I go to is filled with some weird people.

MM: Yeah, a bunch of art fags like you.
No, not me man. I mean, I go to art school, but I ain't a fag.

MM: Do you paint your mommy pretty pictures?
Hey man, I get good grades on my pictures.

BD: Would you consider yourself a sensitive thug?
Man, I ain't a sensitive thug.

BD: What do you call it then? Thart? Thug-art.
Come on man, I don't do any thug art. I don't even really have any art. I just do graphic design stuff. I try to do stuff that will make me a pretty penny and not just look pretty for nothing.

MM: What are you doing for work?
I valet. You know what's it like. Crashing cars and pretending like you own the hot ones. It's cool though. Hopefully I will have my own car one day.

Trick: Switch Big Spin
Photography: Mazur

BD: Tell us about the dude that stole your bike.
Ok, it was like this. I was valeting this car and my bike was across the street locked up. While I was going to park this car and was stopped at a light, this crack-head was walking right in front of me, going across the street, with my bike. Like, it was right in front of the car and I couldn't even do anything about it.

MM: Fuck that. I would have gotten out right there.
Nah, man. I thought it was funny. I had bought the bike off some other crack-head a couple days prior for like ten bucks, so I wasn't really too worried. I just really thought it was funny. It was like an episode of Seinfeld or something.

MM: Are you one of them valeters that give the rest of us a bad name and steal shit?
Nah, not really. I mean, if there is like a lot of change in there I'll do it, but if it is only like a dollar then I won't. It just isn't worth it. I will though if I am hurting for cash. I'll take all that cash.

MM: Man, you do live trife.
Yeah, man. I do live pretty trife. Help me!

BD: Yeah you are, with that pink panther on your t-shirt. You're giving me acid flashbacks with that shirt.
Hey man, its cool though. This is like my favorite shirt.

Trick: Crooks up
Photography: Mazur

BD: Yeah, I know it is. You wear it like eight days a week.
I don't know, it still feels clean. Actually, I sneezed earlier and wiped it off on my sleeve so it isn't really that crispy anymore.

BD: Man, your shirts are going into over time.
MM: What was up with that Myspace photo that has been floating around.
Man, everyone has seen that photo, huh? I woke up one day and was still drunk I guess and... I don't know, my boy took this picture of me where I was looking hurt and he went into Photoshop with it and made me look really hurt. Then he put this line underneath it that said 1-800-SOBER-UP. It is weird though because like mad people have seen it. It's pretty bad. I think I'm going to go home right after this and kick that dudes ass.

MM: So you're getting old now, huh?
Hey man, let's not talk about that. Keep that under the hat.

MM: How old are you?
BD: Dirty thirty, right?
Yeah man, something like that.

BD: Ten more years until you are over the hill.
MM: What kind of car are you going to get when you go though your mid-life crisis?
I'm going to be broke as hell. I'm going to live in my car. It's going to be a hot whip though.

Trick: Quick Ollie to Quicker Kickflip
Photography: Mazur

BD: What's it going to be? An Escort with some Wal-Mart spinners?
I don't know man. It's going to have like chandeliers in it and...

BD: He used to have a teal Honda Civic.
You are always trying to score on me with that shit. It was kinda hot, man. It had rims on it. Them deep dish ones.

BD: What were they? Eleven's total.
Nah man, they were seventeen's. Them things were sitting deep.

BD: Did you keep them clean?
Yeah man, I always kept them dishes real clean. I was flossing on the block.

MM: What happen to it?
I sold it because I couldn't afford to live any more.

BD: How does it feel to be skateboarding's greatest hype man?
Yo, people are missing out on the hypeness.

BD: You are the Flava Flav of skating.
That's right.

BD: You smoke that crack.
No way man. I don't do any drugs. I like to have a drink every once in awhile, but I don't do any drugs.

MM: What's your poison?
What ever I'm feeling that day. I had some Corona last night. Man, this interview is going to make me look like a real scumbag.

BD: So when is the album going to drop?
Yo, the album is about to drop. What about you? When is the biggie white album going to drop?

Trick: Switch Fs Shuv
Photography: Mazur

BD: I got your beats though. We are going to do some Mo-town beats'.
Yeah man, Ghost face is going to be in the remix.

BD: What's you name going to be? Big Germ Holla? The Germaninator?
You're retarded. I'm going to be German-on-the-set-watch-your-back, or MC Buck-nasty.

BD: You need something better then that.
I don't know. How about... Umm... War Hammer Black.

BD: More like War Hammer Brown.
I can bust it in a circle though.

BD: Yeah, every other word is Big Germ what, Big Germ holla.

Interview interrupted by German taking a phone call from his momma

Who was that? Mom?
Yeah, my mom just called to say that she just saw me on A Current Affair. My boy Tombo did some thing and they got a hold of a bunch of footage and it ended up on the show, I guess. My mom was all psyched. She was like, "Oh my god, I was flipping through the channels and saw my baby on there and...". I'm coming up on some A Current Affair coverage. Maury Povich in the building. I got some Maury flow on the Maury show.

MM: Any future plans?
Yeah! Straight butter hits. I don't know. I'm just going to try and get my game up, do well in school, so I can get some nice things. I'm sick of scrapping for everything.

MM: Thanks
I want to thank my momma; Brian Dale and his country-ass; You, Mazur and Focus Magazine; this cup of coffee; Timmy Quinn and Kerry Getz at Nocturnal; Andy Bautista; Bang-bang third street gang, holla at your boy; Everyone at Official Skateboards; Travis Howell at Plant Earth; Roy; Division East; Bryan; KT, I got to bless the god KT; Phil Ladjanski; Eve; Jarrod Micale for filming; Rodney Torres; Tony Montgomery, me and him got some community services together; Ryan Nix; The whole dirt squad; Darcy and the Playpen chicks; The School of Hard Knocks Barbra Shop, so that maybe they hook it up with a free shape up; Robbie Reid; who else?

BD: Do you really know this many people?
Yeah man, I live in the streets. I don't know. I just want to thank everyone that has helped me in the game.

MM: Any words of Wisdom?
Yeah right... Umm, just keep it crispy. Hey, can I ask Dale a question. Are you going to meet your future wife at a NASCAR event?

BD: If at all possible.
Hold on, I got another one. He's been busting on me the whole time. Umm, where did you get that button-up?

BD: Man, you are just struggling for material. I thought you were more quick then that. How long does it take for you to grow a beard? One, two, three hours?
I can't even grow a beard. It's just bad news. What about the Luke-warm crew?

BD: I was just trying to stay out of the limelight.
When am I going to see a 540 on vert without pads?

BD: Next issue... With a fitted.
Ok, one last question. Can I get a cigarette?

BD: No.