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Illegal Civilization

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Illegal Civilization
IndustrySkateboarding, media
FounderMikey Alfred
ProductsClothing, accessories, skateboards, videos
Websiteillegalcivilization.com

Illegal Civilization, also known as IC or Illegal Civ, is an American skateboarding company and movie studio founded in North Hollywood by Mikey Alfred. The brand produces clothing, accessories, skateboards, and videos.[1] Outside of skateboarding, Illegal Civilization produces music videos, documentaries, and original short films.[2]

Illegal Civilization is affiliated with the hip-hop collective Odd Future.[3] They filmed documentaries following the creation of Tyler, the Creator's albums Wolf and Cherry Bomb.[4][5]

Founder Mikey Alfred was a co-producer on Jonah Hill's debut film Mid90s, and the film featured Illegal Civilization skate team members Sunny Suljic, Ryder McLaughlin, Olan Prenatt, Kevin White and Na-Kel Smith.[3]

History

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The company was founded in 2008 by Mikey Alfred and his friends. Initially, they filmed skate videos and handed out t-shirts around North Hollywood. When Alfred was 15, skateboarder and rapper Na-Kel Smith introduced Alfred to Tyler, the Creator, and Alfred became Odd Future's personal videographer. Alfred passed out merchandise and DVDs while on tour with Tyler, the Creator and Frank Ocean, and Illegal Civilization began to gain recognition.[3][6]

In 2016, the skateboard distributor Baker Boys Distribution began distributing Illegal Civilization merchandise.[7]

In 2020, Illegal Civilization released the critically acclaimed Godspeed (2020) skate video directed by Davonte Jolly. After the release of Godspeed, IC turned Alex Midler, Kevin White, and Zach Saraceno pro.[8]

In May 2022, Alex Midler, Kevin White, and Zach Saraceno all quit illegal Civ after not being paid for over a year.[citation needed]

In October 2022, Alfred gathered a group of unfamiliar and young skateboarders who were hardly known and posted a trailer to a new video he had planned titled Hell Week. News about the upcoming video was unknown to the included skateboarders due to Alfred insisting that they were only going street skateboarding and nothing more. A skateboarder named Lando Magik began to post his clips to Instagram. Shortly after, Alfred started to ridicule Magik on the company page for using the clips that he had recorded. Alfred used his equipment to make the recordings possible, so he regarded the material as private property of his own. When Magik asked Aflred to release the footage, Alfred facetiously mentioned a charge of $700 thousand for Magik to gain access to them. This caused controversy within the company and made the other skateboarders leave the group as well. [9]

Filmography

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In 2017, Illegal Civilization released a short film starring Mac Miller.[10] Later that year, they began releasing their original mini-series, Summer of '17, starring Illegal Civilization members alongside cameos from rappers Tyler, the Creator and Aminé.[11]

Feature films

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Short films

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  • Spark of Life (2011)[12]
  • IC1 (2012)[5]
  • Tyler the Creator's Making of Wolf Documentary (2013)[5]
  • IC2 (2014)[13]
  • Tyler the Creator's Cherry Bomb Documentary (2017)[4]
  • IC3 (2018)[14]
  • Godspeed (2020)

Mini-Series

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  • Summer of '17 (2017-2019) - (3 Episodes)

Collaborations

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  • The skate team appeared in Season 4 of the HBO television series, Ballers, in 2017.[15]
  • In August 2018, Illegal Civilization released 3 pairs of shoes in collaboration with Converse.[1]
  • Illegal Civilization released a t-shirt in collaboration with Lil Wayne for the 2018 release of Tha Carter V.[16]
  • The team were featured as cast and crew members in Jonah Hill's feature film Mid90s and released a merchandise collection to promote the film with A24.[17]

References

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  1. ^ a b Chin, Mallory (March 8, 2017). "Illegal Civilization's Mikey Alfred on Working With Frank Ocean, Kanye West and His Apparel Line". HYPEBEAST. Retrieved 2019-03-27.
  2. ^ Toofanian, Rana. "Mikey Alfred & Malcolm Washington, Director/Producers". WestwoodWestwood. Retrieved 2019-03-28.
  3. ^ a b c Ducker, Eric (October 10, 2018). "From skateboarding to Hollywood, Mikey Alfred dreams big". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2019-03-28.
  4. ^ a b Dandridge-lemco, Ben (May 30, 2017). "Watch Tyler, The Creator And Illegal Civilization's Cherry Bomb Documentary". The FADER. Retrieved 2019-03-28.
  5. ^ a b c Starling, Larkin (March 8, 2016). "Illegal Civilization's Mikey Alfred Talks About His Plans To Conquer The Film World". The FADER. Retrieved 2019-03-28.
  6. ^ DeMarco, Nicole; Sunnucks, Jack (March 13, 2019). "Illegal Civilization is more than just an LA skate crew". I-D. Retrieved 2019-03-28.
  7. ^ "Illegal Civilization Joins the BBD family! « Blog « Bakerboys Distribution". bakerboysdist.com. June 15, 2016. Retrieved 2019-03-28.
  8. ^ "Midler, White, & Saraceno Are Now Pro for Illegal Civ ⋆ SKATE NEWSWIRE". SKATE NEWSWIRE. 2020-12-27. Retrieved 2021-05-17.
  9. ^ Castro, A., Michna, I. (1 November 2022). "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH ILLEGAL CIV?".
  10. ^ Carey, Jonathan (June 23, 2017). "Mac Miller Stars In Illegal Civilization Short Film". HotNewHipHop. Retrieved 2019-03-28.
  11. ^ Kochhar, Nazuk (December 7, 2017). "Mikey Alfred tells the story behind Illegal Civilization's new film, Summer of '17". The FADER. Retrieved 2019-03-28.
  12. ^ Jones, Taylor (March 30, 2017). "Meet Mikey Alfred, the filmmaker building a media empire alongside Frank Ocean and Tyler, the Creator". mic.com. Retrieved 2019-03-28.
  13. ^ "IC2 Out Now". TransWorld SKATEboarding. September 2, 2014. Retrieved 2019-03-28.
  14. ^ "IC3 Premiere". TransWorld SKATEboarding. October 8, 2018. Retrieved 2019-03-28.
  15. ^ Hussein, Wandera (September 5, 2018). "Members of Illegal Civilization will appear in three episodes of HBO's Ballers". The FADER. Retrieved 2019-03-28.
  16. ^ Cowen, Trace (September 26, 2018). "Lil Wayne Launches 'Tha Carter V' Limited Merch Collection". Complex. Retrieved 2019-03-28.
  17. ^ DeMarco, Nicole (2019-03-13). "Illegal Civilization is more than just an LA skate crew". i-D. Retrieved 2022-03-13.
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