Malibu’s Most Wanted
Curating the perfect track for a clip is an impossible balancing act.
It’s a lot like getting the music together for a party. Whoever controls the playlist controls the mood, this is a fact. You are a maestro conducting the happiness of an audience that either brought a bottle of natural wine that they said is, “A bit funky, but good!” as they handed it off to you or came crashing in with a blue plastic bag filled with room-temperature tins in hand. If you’re not going to play the cool indie bangers, then you better play the hits, but only if you play them ironically. Or, if you’re going to go the house music route, you better make sure it comes off in more of an “I have lots of friends with different haircuts” way rather than an I-am-financially-broken-by-my-ketamine-addiction way. Similarly, if you’re the guy who insists on talking for more than an actual minute about a, “Chill city pop set,” before making a big show of taking over the aux cord, then the rest of the party should conspire to have you frogmarched out of the party and ideally into the wilderness.
And like a party, if the music isn’t right in an edit, there’s nothing stopping you from just getting out of there. You can always Irish exit like and you can always go ahead and just close your laptop. So, moral: no moral, really. If there’s a message here it’s that everyone’s always paying attention so you better make sure you always have a couple of surefire fucking winners lined up. And here’s where Log Rap comes cross-stepping in.
You don’t have to be particularly fond of the left-of-centre craft scene to have heard about Log Rap. Chances are, even if you’re just Another Surfer On The Internet, then at least one of filmmaker Ryan Cannon's edits has made its way onto a friend’s shared story, your Instagram suggestions, or all of the above. Ryan’s concept is simple: traditional single-fin long boarding soundtracked by rap. It works. In fact, it works very well. Why? Well, and I apologise for getting technical here, both subcultures share stylistic connotations. And then there's the whole reality that there’s really just not that many people out there putting highly-enjoyable rap songs to very-good longboarding, too. It’s a unique, fresh concept that sticks the landing.
Since its inception, Ryan’s channel’s popularity (and vision, really) has only grown exponentially. The views, likes, and all those other numbers that we say shouldn’t matter despite their constant mentioning are all there. He’s also not only worked with some of the best longboard talent in the world, but also toured one of his movies around some of the busiest premieres in the USA, Japan, and more. Oh, and if you want to see what the fuss is with that particular flick, don’t worry, because you can’t. See, Ryan released it only on USB as a callback to the premieres he grew up watching. He even placed the USBs in a VHS cover for added effect. It’s a refreshing approach in our brave new digital world and it has paid off for Ryan with dividends. Because we’re a curious bunch, we rang Ryan up to learn more about his niche approach to surf filmmaking, the need for more physical media, and how a longboarder from New York with a keen ear for good tunes came to be one of the most popular filmmakers out there.
Hey, Ryan! How's it going?
Good, man. Just walking the dog right now.
Nice. So, you've been running Log Rap for a good kick now. It's been even going for, like, six years or something, right?
Yeah, it started around 2017. I think 2019 was when I started doing it as my full-time gig. I would just consistently chip away at it and it kind of started from there. I couldn’t tell what I really wanted to do, I was just into doing videos in high school and then I moved out west for college and it took off from there.
So did it start off as a creative outlet? Like, you had the vision, obviously, but was it more so of a, “Hey, let's just see where this goes?” kind of play?
Yeah, I knew I wanted to make videos with my friends surfing but at that time it felt like all the longboard videos were super serious. I really just wanted to make something fun that could exist more as a brand and less as a personal video project.
And you can really tell when something has quality and effort put into it. Especially since everyone’s bullshit radars are so finely tuned with everything they’re exposed to constantly these days. Was there a particular moment when you realised this was going to be a full-time thing? And went beyond just being a creative outlet
The first two years were really just Instagram edits but going into the summer of 2019 I really wanted to try and expand what we do. That year there was a Duct Tape at the US Open and it was the first one where a good chunk of the invitees were friends and people we filmed with often. I decided to go with my camera and film behind-the-scenes of what it’s like to be at the event. We got a really good reception from the content from that event so when we heard the next Duct Tape would be in New York I knew I wanted to go and do the same because that’s where I grew up. I decided to quit my retail job and just go all in with Log Rap right before that New York event.
I didnt know anyone at Vans at this point so I was really going into the trip with the sole goal of growing the Log Rap brand and getting content I felt they were missing out on. Luckily it all worked out and with the help of some friends from back East – thank you TJ and Jeff – we were able to make my favourite Log Rap behind the scenes vid to date. Devon (Howard) was with WSL at that time and asked if we’d be willing to do the same at the upcoming longboarding championships in Taiwan and that’s when I started to see the path we could take to work with these different brands who wanted more within longboarding.
And I'm sure keeping your personal touch to everything and being conscious of that throughout was important. Especially when you’re being thrown in with those larger brands.
Definitely. I think because I didn't have the original goal of doing content for the brands, it was all about making what I wanted to make for Log Rap. It gave me confidence so when the brands did want to work together it was because they appreciated the personal touch we brought to things. I think because we just went and did it on our own as opposed to just sending an email to someone at Vans about “our vision” it really helped.
Anything’s better than just hitting send and praying that maybe it gets noticed. Maybe it gets dumped in the junk folder or, worse, it just gets straight-up ignored.
And I think that was the biggest thing for us. We just ran it on Log Rap and it was something we were doing for ourselves and if the brands want to get involved, cool. But if not that’s totally fine too.
And it’s good that you had your vision and also grew up longboarding in the New York scene, so you had a unique perspective of what's cool or what you wanted to communicate is cool. Was there any sort of concern though when you were initially putting everything together that it’d come off as a little too niche?
Not really because for the first time the content was more than just longboarding and hip-hop, it was all about the people. I knew that as a fan of longboarding, I wanted to know more about my favourite surfers out of the water so when it came to filming the behind-the-scenes stuff I really just tried to focus on what I would want to see more of.
I’ve noticed the positive effect of those stories being told as well. Like, at the US Open last year there was this energy, and maybe it was because the Duct Tape was there too, but there was this feeling when everyone was out afterwards that the longboard guys and girls were the rockstars. It’s not necessarily a culture shift but that energy was palpable. I was loving it (laughs).
And I think a big part of what you just mentioned had to do with COVID being over too. When things were shut down there was a lot of longboarding content out there for people to consume. So I feel like, when there weren’t these crucial contests or shortboard clips to watch, there was a lot of longboarding going down. That really helped boost a lot of these people and pushed them to get their names out there more. That whole COVID surf boom that everyone talks about is definitely a real thing and it for sure helped grow longboarding.
Yeah, for better and worse (laughs). Lineups are crowded these days…
I think we got lucky with the timing of behind-the-scenes content too because that became more desirable across all forms of entertainment. We were lucky enough to have access to a lot of longboarders that people wanted to know more about.
Right, so fast forward to this most recent year, and you're still staying very true to everything that you initially set out to do. But now you’re adding in more core concepts like exclusive releases and physical-only distribution for your longer projects, like Log Rap Vol. 2. That was just a USB and VHS distribution, yeah? How’d that all come about? Everyone loved that.
I was stoked about the reception on that for sure. Everything sold well and it helped fund all our events. And that was cool too because I didn’t just want to do another 20-minute YouTube video and call it a movie and then that’s it. In fact, I held on to that film for a while. I wasn't exactly sure how I wanted to package and put it out there. And then summer came and it just seemed like the time to do it. That summer was the perfect time to do all that, what with the film premieres only and a physical release.
So, that’s how the USB thing came together. And then from there, it was just about finding somewhere that could get USBs together and then also do packaging that would look like a VHS sleeve holding an old surf movie. But we had to do a lot of it in real-time. Like, we did a premiere then maybe the next three went by and we were like, oh cool, the VHS boxes showed up. It was a good learning process but it was also cool to see those different aspects unfold with each event. And then fast-forward and we were able to go to Japan to show it there at Ron Herman with exclusive Japan-only packaging and shirts and that was the icing on the cake. It was cool because that’s exactly how I pictured all of it and it was great to see that all come to fruition.
How was that whole Japan trip in general? I mean, I only saw photos but it looked like the reception was over-the-top great. There has to be some comfort in knowing that there are people that far away who are watching and enjoying your work.
Yeah, it was so awesome. It was about a month after their COVID restrictions dropped so everyone was super happy to be out at an event socializing again. I think it was also really important that we went out to be at that event because I really wanted to show respect to that surf community. The Japan surf scene has done so much for longboarding and we wouldn’t be here today without them.
I think that was a good move too because, at least for me, by being there and only having the physical release and no real promise of a web drop, it made the premieres feel that much more special. Like, yes, I had seen it already. But it’s not online and I don’t have that instant gratification of being able to go home and rewatch something because I dipped out for a piss or was chatting with friends and distracted. It made me feel like I was a grom again, when I was just getting together with friends to watch something that we would all focus on because who knows when we’d see it again.
For sure, and I think that's definitely a pattern that I want to keep with in the follow-ups. I mean, maybe one day there’ll be a whole VHS box set (laughs). And I’m sure everything will eventually get posted somewhere online. It's going to be hard to avoid because we were literally just giving people the actual file for the movie with the USB (laughs).
But it’s like you said, I’ll have friends who’ll come up to me and be, like, “Oh, I’m stoked to have it and I sent it off to all my different friends who have it now.” And they’re stoked to have it because it’s almost forbidden. Well, not forbidden, but someone still had to get this USB and go through this whole process just to see it. So, the reception was unexpected but the process was intentional.
Yeah, you’re giving this generation the closest thing to the thrill of destroying the family computer because you wanted to download The Bruce Movie off LimeWire. What are you working on next?
So I'm leaving tomorrow for The Duct Tape in Brazil so we’ll have videos from down there. In July is when we're looking to do our next clothing release and we’ll also have a movie made by Cole Walton alongside that. He’s been running around for the past year just filming stuff on a VX and working on a project we want to put that out this summer.
The VX! That’s full, early-2000s vibes. Or I guess that’s also current Palace Skateboards vibes if you set everything soundtracked to some UK House or something. Speaking of music, I have to ask, how meticulous are you with picking the music for everything?
Sometimes it’s just something I’m listening to while filming! But for the most part, I definitely spend way too much time considering. Because, in my head, whenever I go to put something together I always think, “… Is this the right song for this?” And then maybe not so I switch it up a bit (laughs). But for me, it’s so important that the music is on point for everything that we do, because that’s what makes it special.
No doubt. That’s what brought us here together in the first place. Well, thanks for chatting Ryan! Stoked to see what you film out in Brazil.
For sure!
Listen to Log Rap’s rap, below.