Virgil Abloh’s Last Work Is Being Destroyed

Many rap fans know the DJ and beloved designer Virgil Abloh. He was known and loved by many of hip-hops biggest names such as Drake, Kanye West, ASAP Rocky and Pop Smoke, among others.

The designer was known for his work with Off-White along with his major influence on hip-hop music through his work as a DJ. Virgil’s 2 biggest loves were music and fashion. This is what lead to him becoming the lead fashion designer for Louis Vuitton in 2018. Sadly this role would be short lived as Virgil Abloh passed away in November of 2021 from a rare form of cancer called cardiac angiosarcoma.

During his last year of life his brand Off-White teamed up with Surf Ghana and Daily Paper to created the first skatepark in Ghana West Africa called Freedom Skatepark. This was a place where skaters along with creatives of many varieties could come together in their efforts of promoting vibrant music, dance, photography, graffiti art, fashion design and entrepreneurial mentorship programs such as their Skate Girl Meetups every Thursday. This project was overseen by Virgil Abloh up until his passing and the skate paid tribute to Virgil upon opening.

Since its opening the freedom skate park has faced closure due to legal issues regarding land ownership. According to Surf Ghana “Another owner showed up. They stormed the park and built a cement wall, then poured sand through the park to keep all skaters out. It has been like this for almost a full year, leaving these kids with nowhere to skate.” The influencer Guacawole took to instagram to discuss the lack of support from Virgil’s so called friends stating “VA did so much in his time here why can’t anyone do this for him, LV could solve this with pocket change, all his ‘rich’ artist friends put your f***ing money where your mouth is and let it talk, people buying virgil maybach’s, flying air drakes and constantly screaming his name but not even standing up to keep his vision alive.”

This is truly a terrible story for Virgil, In my opinion Virgil would want his work to empower creatives and the world as a whole but it is being destroyed. This also is truly disheartening for the Ghanaians who attended this park to have it stripped away from them is truly heartbreaking.

Recently, friend of Virgil and hip-hop artist Travis Scott stated in an instagram comment “Man What, What We Doing, What We Gotta Do To Get My Brother Park Back Going Please.” Hopefully this a sign of good news in a truly disheartening story.