I had the privilege of opening up for Summerstage x Salsoul Records x Mobile Mondays at East River Park 2 years ago today. Played an all vinyl set to a crowd of about 2000 people. It was an honor to open up for legends such as Joe Bataan, Instant Funk, the ladies of Skyy, Double Exposure and First Choice.

Summerstage x Salsoul x Mobile Mondays Aug 6th 2014

Classic Reggae & Dancehall was the soundtrack to hookie jams I attended back in the day that were off the hook! The very best from Super Cat, Cutty Ranks, Yellowman, Beanie Man, Shabby Ranks and others.

HOOKIE SET: Classic Reggae & Dancehall PART I

Classic Freestyle mix by Cover Girls, Coro, Lisette Melendez, George Lamond, TKA, Judy Torres and others.

80s & 90s FREESTYLE MIX

In 2000, the Native New Yorker/Brooklynite SNKRjoe began as an ebay seller when he stumbled upon an underground sneaker culture on the internet that discussed traded/sold/bought shoes via message boards such as NikePark and NikeTalk. As a member of NikeTalk under the username JG3451, he saw a demand for sneakers throughout the US that were wildly available in most urban neighborhoods in NYC. He raided the back of sneaker shops and basements from areas like Knickerbocker Avenue in Bushwick, Fulton Street in Downtown Brooklyn, Jamaica Avenue and Colosseum Mall in Jamaica Queens, Junction Blvd in Queens, 125th Street in Harlem, Upstate New York and Fordam Road in the Bronx then resold them online. In a few short weeks in March of 2000, he launched sneakerpimp.com. SNKRjoe then did a meetup to trade for some jordan IV retros with another sneaker reseller, a 16 year old kid named Eric Eways(AirEwayz23). Suprised on how mature he was for his age he then ask him to join sneakerpimp.com. The 2 notorious online sneaker resellers went on to buy and sell every limited edition sneaker that were released in New York, throughout the US and the rest of the world. They did whatever it took to obtain exclusive sneakers. They once paid random kids and adults 5-10 dollars a pair that was purchased for them.....limited Air Force I Rose, Horse and Acorn from the sneaker boutique Alife Rivington Club that was sold as a one per person rule. They also built strong connnections with sneaker agents from Japan, London, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, Canada and Paris which helped sneakerpimp.com expand their trade globally. SNKRjoe then became one of the first sellers in New York to supply Bathing Ape Sneakers (Bapesta) years before their flagship opened in Soho NYC. He also was known to sell NBA Player Exclusive/Samples otherwise known as PEs under the underground sneaker market.

On a rare come up, SNKRjoe and Eways came across an opportunity to purchase multiple pairs of the first Supreme Dunks Low SB (80 pairs to be exact) 3 months before the release date... the Supreme skate shop had not even received their shipment yet. This drew the attention of a reporter from the Wall Street Journal and on August 22nd 2002, SNKRjoe and Eric Eways were featured on the cover of the Wall Street Journal which then lead to an interview and photo shoot with XXL Magazine, King Magazine, Woofing Magazine (Japanese Hip Hop Mag) and Television show appearances such as NY 1, Livin Large (Kadeem Hardison and Carmen Electra) and It's The Shoes with Bobbito Garcia (SNKRjoe appears). Now hip hop's top stylists are in pursuit of the exclusives sneakers that sneakerpimp.com supplied online and SNKRjoe quickly is in high demand in the streets of NY. Now rappers are demanding to meet SNKRjoe and starts his exclusive Sneaker Concierge Service from 7pm - 3am delivering sneakers to street hustlers and celebrities such as Jay Z, Damon Dash, Kareem Biggs, Just Blaze, O'l Dirty Bastard, Beanie Siegel, DJ Clue, DJ Clark Kent, Anthony Hamilton, The Game, Fat Joe, Fabolous, Jada Kiss, DJ Enuff, Video/Movie Director Christopher Robinson, Model Tyson Beckford, Producer Boy Wonder, Cam'ron, Jim Jones, Kenny Burns, R&B Singer Avant, Cassidy, Green Lantern, DJ Kay Slay, LeBron James to name a few. 

Eric Eways then leaves sneakerpimp.com after graduating from High School to concentrate on his college education at Albany State. In 2007, the sneaker market becomes over saturated and the import/export trade dies down. Its much harder to obtain exclusive sneakers because of the growing competition online.  As a member of sneakerplay.com SNKRjoe then started the worlds FIRST online Sneaker Talk show called "CHICKS, KICKS and HIP HOP" via SKYPECAST that lasted a few weeks and never really took off.... the show was a little bit ahead of its time then later spawned other sneaker talk shows. Sneakerpimp.com later becomes a blog and then in 2012 relaunches as The Original SNKR PIMP Tournament where he drafts his long time friend Hec_Rocs. The Original SNKR PIMP Tournament is now a fresh new way for sneaker enthusiasts to compete by strategically using multiple pairs from their collection in an elimination tournament for the Title. In the Summer of 2012 along with the Addicted 2 Sneakers Expo, they held their first sneaker tournament.... the very first of its kind and gave away a Championship belt to the winner. "I know what it feels like to have every sneaker I've ever wanted since middle school and I come to realize its really not that serious, its just SHOES! Sneakers should be worn not worshipped" - SNKRjoe.

"They were the Flight Club of their time and put the sneaker community in the limelight." - Complex magazine on sneakerpimp.com

SNKRjoe

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