Terry Kennedy has come a long way since he first surfaced on the scene some 10 years ago. Now just 25 years-old, Terry continues to keep his plate stacked extra high with ambition, progress and success.

Whether he’s holding down his skate career, rapping with Fly Society or starring in his new reality show (Being Terry Kennedy)…TK keeps things moving with a contagious positivity and superhuman hustle.

CCS recently chatted with Terry about riding for Baker, his TV Show, Supra designs, his tough upbringing and how he literally fought for the good name of skateboarding.

From what I’ve heard, you grew up in a pretty rough part of Long Beach. Can you talk a bit about that? It was a typical situation of inner city. You know, gang violence, drug selling, a lot of negativity and so on and so forth. It embodied gangbanging and everything. So you know, it was pretty tough for me, especially being black and skateboarding and coming through the city like that, it was pretty tough. 

How did people in your neighborhood react to seeing you roll through on a skateboard? They used to call me white boy. I used to get in fistfights; I used to have to fight! Numerous fights. And any time I’d bring my board home there’d be kids in the neighborhood saying certain s#%^ to me. And at that age, like 14 or 15,  I’d just have to fight the dudes, to show them I wasn’t scared of them and that I was gonna skate regardless.

At any point did you feel like giving up on skating just so you could be safe? Honestly, skating gave me such a peace of mind. It accepted me. Like I’ve said, it saved my life more than anything. You know, I ended up getting shot back in the day. If it wasn’t for skating, I’d be dead or I’d be in jail. Skateboarding helped me redirect my life and focus on what I need to do and not what I didn’t need to do.

You’ve come a long way. Now you’re a TV Star…How’s the show coming along? We’ve been getting a lot of good feedback; the ratings have been going higher each episode. I’m excited. I’ve been able to get my story off and allow people to be comfortable with who they are as a person. My story just speaks to every kid that grew up in my situation and to every kid that’s gonna go through the same situation, and every kid that got the same shot that I had. It’s electrifying and it’s a blessing.

From the TV show, to rapping, to even your past acting gigs, do all these undertakings ever interfere with your time to skate? Skateboarding’s always first. Skateboarding’s always first and everything else falls behind it. Skateboarding, that’s my life, that’s what I do…that’s my gospel. That’s where I get to free myself. I give skateboarding all the praise, and I make sure I do that before anything.

As far as Baker goes, you’ve got some serious roots there. I mean you were one of the first dudes on. Yeah man, I know. I’m a vet! That’s so funny, I’m a veteran dude. I’ve been on for 10 years!

That’s some real seniority. Ten years, man. I’m only 25. It started in 2000…actually it’s going on 11 years! What’s so cool is I helped get certain dudes put on. I helped Herman get on, I helped Braydon get on. It’s crazy to see…Spanky, as well. I remember going to Reynolds and being like, “We gotta put these dudes on!” And he was like, “For real T?” I’m like, “Yeah, we need to!” And he’s like, “All right”. And it’s great to see how much they’ve progressed and how they put it down. You know, it’s dope, it’s really dope.

Being one of the older guys on Baker do you feel a responsibility to look out for some of the younger guys who are the same age as you when you were coming up? I make sure I do. I even tell them to pay their taxes. Make sure you’all pay your taxes, make sure you’re focused on skateboarding and allow nothing else to come in the way. Anything you want in life is gonna come from the skateboard. And that’s the knowledge Reynolds gave me when I first got on Baker. He said, “Anything you want in life, Terry, it’s gonna come from the skateboard.” And sure enough. It helped me buy my Grandma a house, it helped me give back to my community, give back to my friends; it helped me get back to myself. It’s crazy.

Why do you think everyone tripped so hard when the TK Society dropped? I would say the materials we used on it. We used like perforated leathers and certain materials that flipped everybody. On top of how the shoe was. The shoe was super thin and light, had a vulc sole on it that was clean. So it looked like a dress up shoe, but it still looked like a skater shoe. I think that’s what made people flip on it. Cause you could still wear it out to a nice event, and in the day still skate in them.

What went into the TK Society, and what were you trying to do with it when you designed it? Oh, man, well first thought was Jordan. I wanted to make something that’s completely outside of skating. I wanted to give people some high-end fashion; fly…I just wanted to take it there. I mean just think about how Michael Jordan’s shoe was when it first came out. They were the flyest s#%^ on earth, like s#!% you never seen before! So I just wanted to do something like that and make a shoe where people were gonna flip. Just add a new twist to the game. I feel that’s what Muska used to do back in the day. Muska would come up with the coolest f#$@in’ shoes. And you’d be like, “Damn!” Like the Rick Howard’s, one of kind, where it looked like a skate shoe, but it looked like something else!

How about the Supra TK Stacks? Oh that was just to get back to the roots. Just to make a price point shoe that skate kids eat up. That was for the core skate kids so they could just chew’em up. Like, Bam! Oh, fifty bucks? Ten different’ colors? Oh, we gonna eat these up!

The Society Mid’s about to drop. What’s are those gonna look like? Dude, that thing is I think the best one yet. It’s so good and clean. You know what’s funny, it’s still got the same silhouette as the Society but the way it’s cut, it reminds me of a Half Cab.

Any future plans, Terry? Right now, skating and music…working on the Fly Society album. Baker and Deathwish are coming out with a video together. I think in a year, so I’m just going to be filming for that.

Skate Photos Courtesy of Supra Footwear. Portrait Courtesy of BET.  

Go to the CCS Shop now for a bunch of TK Signature product…