If you’ve seen Mid90s, then you know that the story centers around a fictional skate shop called Motor where the main characters hang out. What you might not be aware of is that it’s 100% based on Hot Rod in West Los Angeles, where Jonah Hill spent many of his formative years. Mackenzie Eisenhour takes a look at Hot Rod during the era by talking to several of the shop’s key players including: Matt Solomon, Kevin Horiuhi, Chris Casey, and Mike Damski. They give a good bit of insight into what it was like, and how Hill’s portrayal of the store stacks up against the real thing. And, of course, they all provide their own recollections of Hill from that time, which should answer the burning question of what his real connection to skating is.

Jonah learned from Canale and he would just clown everything like, “Oh that’s already been done. So and so did that so much better.” Except Jonah didn’t have any background at all. But little by little he was there enough and he watched enough videos that he really did start to kind of know. But it was also annoying as fuck because you’d be trying to work and this kid would just talk shit non-stop.

Head over to Transworld to read the entire piece.

Image Via Transworld