Meet Tony Hawk Pro DJ, a Guy Who Claims to Be Tony Hawk, Professional DJ

The other day I stumbled across this dude on Twitter called @tonyhawkprodj. His schtick, if you couldn’t see where this is going, is that he pretends to be Tony Hawk, if he’d given up professional skateboarding to be a DJ. He also has a soundcloud featuring his remixes as well as mixes, which he calls “Secret Tapes” because of the secret tapes in Tony Haw Pro Skater. He turned Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville” into a trap song, and used such songs as Drake’s “No New Friends,” Baja Men’s “Who Let the Dogs Out,” and Black Eyed Peas’ “I’ve Got a Feeling” as fodder for sick, T.U. (turnt up) club remixes. Despite the fact that it’s clearly some dude fucking around on the internet, he seems pretty invested in the project, holding his identity close to his chest and never breaking the character of Tony Hawk, Pro DJ. In and of itself, this is admirable.

Why is there someone on the internet pretending to be Tony Hawk if he’d given up being a professional skateboarder for being a professional DJ? I don't know, why is the sky blue? Why don’t fish wear shoes? Why didn’t Noisey think to book Zedd for their South By Southwest showcase? There are just a lot of unanswerable questions in the universe, and I don’t really know why you’re looking at me to answer them. I hit up Tony to find out more information about himself, his DJ career, and the Hawk’s Nest, where he hides all of his exclusive remixes. He also was kind enough to dip into the Hawk's Nest and provide me with "xDARK HORSEx (Tony's Main Stage Mix)," this rare remix of Katy Perry's "Dark Horse," that you can stream below.

Noisey: What's with the Tony Hawk stuff? Are you actually Tony Hawk, professional skateboarder turned DJ?
Tony Hawk Pro DJ:It's the same Tony you know and love. I am a sick DJ and I landed the first 900.

What's the best Tony Hawk game? I like Tony Hawk Underground (THUG) the best.
My new game RIDE is very T.U. It has an actual skateboard controller which brings the game to a whole new level of interactivity. I love playing it on the Wii.

How does one become a successful professional skateboarder and DJ?
I post a lot of tips on my Soundcloud and Twitter accounts to help my fans, so if you pay attention to what I say online you will start to see some results.

What is the DJ equivalent of a 900?
Fakie double rewind of your favorite remix on the Bonnaroo main stage, while retweeting your fans.

What's the Hawk's Nest?
Thats the vault with all of the exclusive remixes. I have a lot of secret weapons in my DJ sets that make the fans go nuts.

What's the most inspirational sentence you can think of?
Put your hands up.

If you could DJ one place on earth at any time period that isn't today, where and when would it be and why?
1999 X-Games after winning the gold medal for landing the first 900.

Vert or street?
I like getting vertical and my studio is located under the half pipe.

What's the most legendary secret tape?
This one.

Tiesto's wikipedia page is 2,000 words longer than Tony Hawk's. What does this mean?
I keep it 900.

What's the coolest place you've ever skateboarded?
The White House.

What kind of music do you like?
My favorite is either chill beats or a turnt up remix. I also have a big rap rock collection.

What's your philosophy with DJing, and also skateboarding?
Both are very similar, you spin the decks and try to land the big trick.

What was it like when Tony Hawk IRL tweeted at you?
I like to mess with my fans so I tweeted at myself from my verified account. It helped my DJ account get retweets and it made the fans go wild.

Drew Millard is a T.U. (Twitter User) - @drewmillard