When was yo mtv raps on

This show gave the rap genre a platform to be seen and heard by mainstream viewers far and wide. Sign In. TV Series — — 1h. Episode guide. See more at IMDbPro. Episodes 3. Browse episodes. Photos 2. Add image. Top cast Edit. Bushwick Bill Self as Self. Scarface Self as Self. Willie D. Self as Self. Jam Master Jay Self as Self. He was a quiet but very studious and observant guy that was a voracious fan of all kinds of alternative music cultures. I lived on Ludlow; he lived on Orchard.

We would get together on Sundays and nosh. Working with Peter was this guy Ted Demme from Long Island, who grew up loving hip-hop — super, super-hard-core fan. Doug Herzog: Ted and Peter had been big in-house cheerleaders for rap music. And my boss [at the time] was a guy named Lee Masters, now known as Jarl Mohn. Like many people from MTV in those days, he had come from the world of radio. MTV was programmed musically like a hip AOR [album-oriented rock] radio station, which was code for: We play rock music and not Black music.

Even though people will say we always played Prince and this and that, and we did, but not to the extent that we should have. DJ Jazzy Jeff: We had two strikes against us. Hip-hop was the bastard of the music industry for a very long time until someone realized they could make money off of it. Radio in America was primarily segregated. It was a blend, and it was great. It was how it should be.

Herzog: There were a bunch of guys from radio who programmed the videos. I think they looked at rap at first like a fad, like something that was going to be here and gone.

It was like an army. But it was just Run-D. It was a very slow trickle to get videos on MTV. Herzog: Ted and Peter were incredibly passionate about [doing a show]. We were all down on the Lower East Side all the time. It was kind of obvious that there was a scene and it was changing and it would be great to get on it. Herzog: Ted was relentless with everything he did. So when Ted had an idea he was excited about, he would go work the hall.

Fab 5 Freddy proceeded to host on the weekends. Fab 5 Freddy was the first host of Yo! The first-ever Yo! Artists from Yo! Salt-N-Pepa were in the first and last episode of the show.

Guest interviews include Tupac, The Notorious B. The show blazed a trail to bring rap and hip hop into the mainstream. MTV Raps became even more of a cultural staple and was responsible for a number of landmark moments. It, undoubtedly, changed the landscape not just of music television, but of the culture itself.

MTV Raps was the must-see TV show for rap fans, young and old, during its peak as the unofficial home of hip hop. During the Yo! Introducing Shabba Ranks to my audience, being in Jamaica in the ghettos with Shabba and many other artists down there was always dope.

Queen Latifah was somebody I got signed and directed her first two videos, so having her on my show blowing up as a strong, positive female artist, that was dope. I remember doing shows with Dapper Dan in the beginning, covering the fashion aspect of the culture before any hip-hop brand or urban street-wear happened, there was my man Dapper Dan on th and we would pull up in there with him and we would break down how he was making the Louis [Vuitton], the MCM stuff for cats that was street corner pharmacists, as well as top rappers at the time that had that paper.

So those were all kinda standout moments that people had never seen. And non-artists I would mention would be Mel Gibson. MTV Raps brand and the show and if you look at the film, the lineup of this show is basically everybody that was on that last episode, give or take, but hopefully, we can recreate that magic.

Ed Lover: I just felt it was amazing, man. Ed Lover: It came to life with me seeing and sharing my thoughts and views with Charlie Stettler. Everybody is working and everybody is out there getting it, man. MTV Raps was a catalyst for all of this shit — or a lot of it. MTV Raps tour would go around the country and then eventually around the world. And every different region we were in, whoever was hot in that region that was on Yo!

MTV Raps would perform on that show, so you would have no lulls in the show. A post shared by Dres blacksheepdres. We remade the set up to the old set and Ed and Dre and Fab are gonna be all on stage, just like it was the regular show. Think of it coming to a live version of Yo! Ed Lover: Oh yeah, hell yeah. Fab 5 Freddy: It was amazing, man. Some of the most touching stuff that still happens to this day is somebody from a foreign country—like, I just met this chick from Russia who was telling me that people she was related to in other parts of Europe would tape my show and mail my VHS tapes to Russia and like her whole neighborhood, they would come and watch the videos or whatever and got done with the culture that way.

T-Money: I feel blessed and extremely fortunate that the Yo! MTV Rap brand is still carry on a strong name today. We established the brand to people who never had a chance to watch MTV Raps or be a part of that era, so it brings a brand new appreciation of what it had to offer and what it did for hip-hop culture as a whole. It was just pure and we let America into the lives of these hip-hop artists that, before Yo! Obviously, things are so different now, everything is digital.

I think one of the things about the Yo! So we were trying to find people that were going places no one had gone before and gave them a chance to break it down. So for us to now go out and give you a glimpse of what we did for eight years, the magic is basically just smiling and saying look, this is still relevant to people and people still care about it.

Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox. The amazing oral history of Yo!