Kareem Campbell

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Kareem Campbell (born November 14, 1973 in Harlem, New York) is a professional skateboarder. He is known for his signature trick, the nollie hardflip revert, or "Ghetto Bird".

[edit] Life and career

Kareem first started skating when he was 16 years old. He turned pro at 19. He was first sponsored by World Industries, appearing in their video New World Order in 1993. He continued on the World Industries team until he founded Menace Skateboards. Menace Skateboards was forced to change it's name due to a legal conflict with a brand of jeans also named Menace. The team was then known as All City Skateboards. Then due to another legal conflict with Russell Simmons, they came to an agreement where Kareem still owned the name but he licensed it to Russell Simmons for his license agreement with champs, and then he started City Stars. In addition, he founded the Axion Footwear shoe line. In 1994, Campbell was awarded first place in the first year debut of the Slam City Jam street competition, held in Vancouver, BC.

In 1999, Campbell began his first of string of appearances as the only black playable skater in the top-selling video game franchise ever, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater beginning with the debut game in the series until the 5th, Tony Hawk's Underground. He earned a cameo in the 2003 film "Grind", the film also starred Bam Margera, Adam Brody, Mike Vogel along with various other skaters.

[edit] Personal life

He has two sons, Kareem Jr., Kai Campbell and a daughter, Khloe' Campbell.

As a teenager, Kareem was featured on an episode of America's Funniest Home Videos attempting to boardslide a rail. He missed the rail with the board and ended up hitting his crotch instead.^[1]