JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

For Jeffrey Allen Townes, the primary half of 1988 was a whirlwind.

(SOUNDBITE OF DJ JAZZY JEFF & THE FRESH PRINCE SONG, “THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL-AIR”)

SUMMERS: He was 23, and he and Will Smith had simply launched their second album as DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Contemporary Prince. And now they had been on tour with Run-D.M.C.

JEFFREY ALLEN TOWNES: We had been so joyful to go on stage in entrance of 20,000 individuals screaming and cheering and loving this music.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TOWNES: An entire lot of superstars on this stage tonight.

SUMMERS: Someday, a digicam crew confirmed as much as movie them for this experimental new present on a cable channel devoted to music – MTV.

TOWNES: I bear in mind taking pictures that with Run-D.M.C. on Run-D.M.C.’s tour bus. We had been extra excited to hold with them than enthusiastic about this being MTV. You already know, we had no thought. You already know, this might have been the native newspaper.

SUMMERS: Producers prompted them to introduce music movies and voice some transitions.

TOWNES: There was completely no form of a script. It was extraordinarily uncooked.

SUMMERS: Then they went again to the tour and put it out of their minds. Months later, DJ Jazzy Jeff flipped on the TV.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TOWNES: I am DJ Jazzy Jeff.

WILL SMITH: And, yo, I am the Prince.

CLARENCE HOLMES: And I am Prepared Rock C.

TOWNES: Maintain up. Watch this. We wish to let all people know the place it is at. It is proper right here.

CLARENCE HOLMES, WILL SMITH, AND JEFFREY ALLEN TOWNES: “Yo! MTV Raps.”

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

TOWNES: We virtually needed to be reminded that we shot the pilot of that. And you are like, oh, man, that is after we had been on the bus with Run. You already know, that was the precise first present. Like, that was a pivotal second that we did not see at the moment.

SUMMERS: “Yo! MTV Raps” was the primary present on MTV devoted solely to hip-hop. It got here at a vital time within the style’s comparatively younger life. Born out of backstage live performance footage, it could make nationwide stars of rappers whose work had been largely ignored by mainstream media. And it was constructed by a scrappy group within the face of a skeptical company. This week, we’re celebrating 50 years of hip-hop and taking a look at a number of the key moments that helped outline it. At present, the story of “Yo! MTV Raps.”

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SUMMERS: In 1988, MTV had solely been round for seven years. In its early days, rock music dominated. The very first phrases ever heard on MTV on August 1, 1981, had been…

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JOHN LACK: Girls and gents, rock ‘n’ roll.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

DAN CHARNAS: When it began, the programmers for MTV, the individuals who selected what music movies to play, had been all veterans of rock radio from the Seventies. And rock radio within the Seventies had develop into a intentionally racially segregated affair.

SUMMERS: Dan Charnas is a hip-hop journalist and former file govt.

CHARNAS: That is the sample for the primary few years of MTV the place they’re simply not taking part in Black artists. And this isn’t simply MTV not taking part in Black artists. Black artists had been basically ejected from pop radio as properly. Black artists, with a purpose to get on pop radio, needed to overperform on Black radio.

SUMMERS: 1984 noticed a modest breakthrough when the primary rap video aired on MTV.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ROCK BOX”)

RUN-D.M.C.: (Rapping) The women on the partitions, some on the ground with the DJ named Jay with the cuts galore…

CHARNAS: And in order that begins a sample with MTV basically programming one rap video per 12 months for the subsequent three, 4 years. So it was “Rock Field” by Run-D.M.C. in ’84. Then it was “King Of Rock” by Run-D.M.C. in 1985.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “KING OF ROCK”)

RUN-D.M.C.: (Rapping) They known as us and mentioned we’re getting iller. There is no one chiller. It isn’t Michael Jackson, and this isn’t “Thriller”…

CHARNAS: Then it was “Stroll This Approach” by Run-D.M.C. and Aerosmith in 1986. You see the sample right here, proper? It’s a must to do that overly performative rock guitar factor with a purpose to achieve success in MTV.

SUMMERS: By the late ’80s, hip-hop’s rise was tougher to disregard, however MTV executives nonetheless hadn’t greenlit a hip-hop present.

JEN CHANEY: I believe a few of them considered hip-hop as form of a fad, one thing that was only a pattern that was going to come back and go. And clearly, they had been lifeless improper about that.

SUMMERS: Jen Chaney is a TV critic for Vulture. The dearth of curiosity from MTV’s management did not imply hip-hop did not have champions on the community.

CHANEY: There have been two guys who labored at MTV, Peter Doherty and Ted Demme. They had been big hip-hop followers, and so they saved saying, we have to have a present that is nearly hip-hop. They usually simply saved beating the drum about it till lastly somebody’s like, OK, make an episode. Let’s examine the way it goes.

SUMMERS: That episode can be not like something MTV had ever aired earlier than.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, “YO! MTV RAPS”)

JASON WILLIAM MIZELL: Yo, what’s up? I am Jam Grasp Jay. That is Run-D.M.C., and welcome to “Yo! MTV Raps” present.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Yo, we preparing…

SUMMERS: There was no host and no studio. Run-D.M.C. launched the primary video on stage in entrance of 1000’s of followers.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, “YO! MTV RAPS”)

MIZELL: We going to start out the exhibit with Eric B. & Rakim. “Comply with The Chief.”

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Phrase.

MIZELL: Make some noise.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “FOLLOW THE LEADER”)

ERIC B & RAKIM: (Rapping) Rakim’ll say…

SUMMERS: From the tour bus, DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Contemporary Prince launched their very own video. Public Enemy made an look in a while.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

FLAVOR FLAV: My identify is Taste Flav.

CHUCK D: And I am Chuck D, and we would like you to take a look at a number of the new up-and-coming rappers that is able to rock the home.

FLAVOR FLAV: That is proper. Test this out, boy.

(SOUNDBITE OF SALT-N-PEPA SONG, “PUSH IT! (TMW REMIX)”)

SUMMERS: The pilot lastly aired on August 6, 1988, and the scores had been decisive.

CHANEY: The scores level was, like, a 9 or a ten. And to place that into context, a community factor at the moment would have been, like, a 2.0. Like, it was off-the-charts fast excessive curiosity.

SUMMERS: The producers did not look again. They received a number, the graffiti artist and renaissance man Fab 5 Freddy, and made it a weekly present. However they did not lose the experimental type.

MOSES EDINBOROUGH: We had a saying – [expletive] continuity and break all the principles. That was the perspective.

SUMMERS: Moses Edinborough was a director and producer on the present.

EDINBOROUGH: Fab 5 Freddy was the host. He did not wish to be within the studio just like the common MTV DJs. He wished to be on the bottom the place it is taking place, and that was distinctive on the time for tv.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, “YO! MTV RAPS”)

FAB 5 FREDDY: Yeah. Welcome again to “Yo! MTV Raps.” I am nonetheless chilly cooling (ph) in Cali with N.W.A. and my man Eazy-E, and we nonetheless in Compton at a – on the…

EDINBOROUGH: We’d strive our greatest to be simply, like, a fly on the wall. If we went out to the West Coast and frolicked with N.W.A., we weren’t attempting to vary them or have them do something that they would not have already performed. We simply wished to be part of their atmosphere.

SUMMERS: Ultimately, “Yo! MTV Raps” did develop into a every day present in a studio, airing within the afternoons proper as children received off faculty – a televised artery into nationwide teen tradition.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, “YO! MTV RAPS”)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: On “Yo! MTV Raps” reside. You already know what I am saying? You already know what I am saying? We do not do that nowhere else however right here. You already know what I am saying? So test me out although.

TOWNES: When “Yo! MTV” got here out and I went to my household reunion, there was anyone with a haircut identical to mine. There was anyone with sneakers identical to mine.

SUMMERS: That is DJ Jazzy Jeff once more.

TOWNES: Like, that is making the taking part in subject fully even now as a result of you did not have one thing particular in New York that you just could not have in Virginia now. And to me, all of that began with MTV.

SUMMERS: “Yo! MTV Raps” can be on the air for the subsequent seven years till August 1995 after the community had began to deemphasize music movies. For DJ Jazzy Jeff, these years had been essential for the legitimization of hip-hop, the way forward for which had felt so unsure when he’d helped shoot that pilot episode in 1988.

TOWNES: I at all times really feel like that point was a really pivotal second in hip-hop that – it might have fell on both aspect of the coin. And firms had been attempting to determine, do I have to get into the hip-hop enterprise, you understand? Is that this one thing that is even going to be right here within the subsequent three, 4 years? After which I bear in mind once you began to say – you understand what? – I believe we’re OK. I believe we’ll be right here.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SUMMERS: Tomorrow, we’ll proceed our collection celebrating 50 years of hip-hop. We’re headed to Atlanta circa 2003 to see the beginning of lure music.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

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