MTV honors groundbreaking 'Yo! MTV Raps' as its most influential music series of all time

Jet, April 21, 2008 by Margena A. Christian

It took two decades, but MTV recently admitted "the most influential music television series of all time" was its former show, "Yo! MTV Raps."

And in honor of what would have been the show's 20th anniversary, MTV is using April for a month-long tribute to feature both new and old "Yo! MTV Raps" programming.

The show, created by late filmmaker Ted Demme and Peter Dougherty, was pioneering as MTV's first African-American dominated series.

It wasn't until 1983 when Michael Jackson helped tear down the color barrier at MTV, with hits like Billie Jean and Beat It. Before that, the channel's video playlist was modeled after Top 40 radio and excluded Blacks (JET, Oct. 9, 2006).

When MTV finally started to show more Black videos after Rick James' much-publicized, one-man crusade against the network, MTV took a giant leap into the new frontier of rap music.

In August 1988, MTV aired "Yo! MTV Raps," the first nationally broadcast hip-hop show that helped break rap on a worldwide level.

Pioneering graffiti artist Fred "Fab 5 Freddy" Brathwaite became the original host of the groundbreaking show and shot on location. He also made history as TV's first hip-hop "VJ."

"It was television apartheid over there until I arrived," Fab 5 Freddy told JET in 2006. "MTV made a deep dive into the Black culture by doing the show and taking it to the street corners."

The show first aired only once a week, but was later shown six days a week as its popularity increased. By March 1989 co-hosts Ed Lover and Doctor Dre joined the show. They shot in the studio.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Ed Lover told JET in 2006 that since MTV executives didn't know anything about rap music, they had free reign.

"We had the power of showing whatever we felt like we wanted to show," he said. "That wasn't their area of expertise. But once it became a worldwide phenomenon, then they wanted to take the power away from us."

One major instance was MTV's pulling the 1991 Public Enemy video By the Time I Get to Arizona because it was deemed too violent. Ratings reportedly dropped after that move and eventually the show went back to being aired once a week.

"Videos started being censored and we had to fight them on everything," said Ed Lover. "They didn't want the backlash on corporate sponsorships. It was old stupid stuff."

Eventually the show ended in 1995 though it remained popular. MTV did not respond to calls or e-mails requesting the official reason for the show's cancellation.

"The show ran its course as far as I was concerned," Fab 5 Freddy told JET in 2006. "Some of its impact was waning. MTV started wanting videos edited. It became policy that videos had to conform to a certain standard. You couldn't showcase products because it was looked upon as advertising. We had to blur and take things out. It was just little things."

By Margena A. Christian

JET MAGAZINE