Raab Himself

I got here when I was five years old, and I met Bam in third grade.

we started doing videos when I was like 11 or 12. Bam got into skating real big when he was eight, and Phil would film him all the time, and so it seemed like after a couple years of Bam skating all the time, he would grab the camera. and he would just be like, yo, let's go do this, aside from skating.

he was getting filmed skating because he was fucking tearing shit up.....


I think we were like 11 years old, started filming just little things, and little things here and there added up until about when I guess we were like 13 or 14 is when he started really getting into filming skits--actually, he did before I got involved, he probably started filming skits when he was 11, and then I started doing a couple things here and there at 13, and then like he was just so psyched on filming so bad, he found a love for skating and a love for filming at the same age. probably when we were like 15 is when we started really getting crazy and going nuts. he was the biggest instigator because I would think like, yeah, maybe i'll do it, and maybe I won't. but he'd just be like, "Come on Raab, do that shit!" and then i'd be like, 'Good fuckin' point--why not?' and we would just go out of hand, 15 years old, going nuts, like crazy, filmng stuff in school, we would do all the craziest shit, I got kicked out of school.....one day, we got suspended for a day, and everybody had taken a test the day before us, so we had to take the test in the next room. and we were sitting in the next room, it was me, Bam, and this girl, and she was just sitting next to us, she was a straight A student, andshe was offended so bad by us in there, saying the stuff we were saying. and Bam rips the biggest fart, so loud that they heard it in the next classroom where we were supposed to be, it was the biggest fart ever! and then I was like, 'Oh my god, dude, what if I take a shit on the teacher's desk?' and he was like, "There's no way you'll do that." and I was like, "Dude, I will, I will!" and he was like, "Yo, do it in the hallway! do it in the hallway!" and I was like, 'dude, that would be so crazy.' and I was like, ah shit, fuck I gotta do it if i'm gonna do it. and I was like, dude, if i'm gonna shit on this teacher's desk, I gotta do this shit out of control, because that day, all the principals got together that day and they were like, "Raab, if you do one more thing--and this was in January--if you do one more thing the rest of the whole entire school year, if you even get a detention, you're out of school." and I was like, my parents were talking to me, damn dude, I can't do anything. that day I go back to class with Bam, and he was like, "I dare you to shit in the middle of the hallway." and I was like, 'Fuck it! dude, do you think i'm really gonna make it the whole year without doing anything wrong? Hell no!' so I took a shit in his coffee cup, threw it all over these lockers. I come runnng back in to class and there's a hunk of shit on my shoe. and he was like, "You didn't do it, you didn't do it." and I was like, "The fuck I didn't." he looks down and he was like, "Eewww, fuckin' eewww!" we look out in the hallway, the lady called up the principal and she was just like, "Ah, yes, somebody defecated on the lockers in the B Wing, and this is really disgusting, we need somebody over here as soon as possible." meanwhile, the janitors come up, we're walking out to go out, and my favorite janitor in the whole world, dude, I was so cool with her, she was so cool, she had to clean the shit off my lockers and fucking sucked. dude, it was awesome, everybody was into it until she was cleaning, and I was like, damn!

it was so fucked.

(why was it fun to do that?)

the whole reason of it was that every teacher used to say how I would never make it anywhere, I would never do anything, i'm an idiot, I'm a moron, and all this shit. they didn't think that i'd do anything with my life. so the reason why I did that was to fuck with them, to get above them. like just in an argyument, they'd lose an argument and be so pissed that they lost an argument to me, and they'd kick me out of class, and send me down to the office and shit. they'd be so mad at me and say that i'm never gonna make it anywhere......

one time we were in health class, and this teacher was leaning on all these girls, and he was rubbing up on them and he's like, "if a guy attacker ever comes up to you and trys to feel you like this," and he rubbed up on the girl. "just kick him in the balls." and right then I raised my hand and I leaned over to Bam and I was like, "hey, if anyone ever felt you like this." (imitates teacher) and the whole class busted out laughing, and the teacher was like, "Raab, get the fuck out of my classroom!" and I was like, shit, I totally just proved him wrong, he was like molesting girls in his classroom.

interview by Ken Switzer
photo by mca