“Rap City”: A 35th Anniversary Retrospective
BET’s “Rap City” might’ve debuted after MTV’s “Yo! MTV Raps” became its highest rated program and helped to popularize Rap with White audiences, but “Rap City” forced “Yo!” to step its game up while resulting in an all-time great television rivalry between August 11th, 1989 and August 17th, 1995
MTV’s “Yo! MTV Raps” debuted on August 6th, 1988 as a behind the scenes peek into Run DMC’s Tougher Than Leather Tour with DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Stetsasonic, Public Enemy & EPMD. It was hosted by none other than Fab 5 Freddy, the legendary graf writer/personality who not only lent his voice to the record “Change The Beat” but was also one of the stars of the 1983 Hip-Hop film “Wild Style”. What’s even crazier is Fab 5 Freddy would go on to directly several Rap videos and several of the shows on this tour were hosted by a comedian named Chris Thomas.
While Ted Demme and to a lesser degree Peter Dougherty’s brainchild ultimately became the highest rated program on MTV and introduced Rap to a gang of White kids nationwide with little to no access to it, it was BET’s “Rap City” that pushed the boundaries for how a program showcased and covered the art form and the genre, often by default and due to the fact they only had a fraction of the budget MTV did.
MTV would cast former member of Def Jam Rap group Original Concept, DJ for the Beastie Boys and WBAU radio radio host Doctor Dré alongside Ed Lover to host daily 30 minute episodes of “Yo! MTV Raps” beginning on March 13th, 1989. They used humor and cracked jokes while introducing Rap videos, the problem being they only ended up airing between 4 and 6 videos per episode if you include their antics and allowed for commercial breaks. If you only watched MTV, and this was your entry point to Rap you didn’t know any better, but if you were a Rap fan who was listening to college radio and frequenting record stores on a regular basis you were underwhelmed.
Alvin Jones, better known as The Unseen VJ began working at BET on September 17th, 1984. After attending the New Music Seminar in late July 1988, he encountered a gang of Rap artists who complained that BET never played any Rap videos. Alvin countered that he played them all the time on “Video Vibrations” but the problem was when the show aired, people in different parts of the country simply didn’t see it. Every cable provider had these different times and on the West Coast, a 4 PM EST airing of “Video Vibrations” would come on at 1 PM when people were either at school or at work. It was then that Alvin Jones came up with an idea. The impetus to put it into action? The day MTV debuted “Yo! MTV Raps” was about a week later on August 6th, 1988.
Alvin went to folks at BET and told them he wanted to have a Rap Week on “Video Vibrations” which aired between Monday and Friday. He wanted to promote it, but he faced resistance so there was going to be no announcement. The question was when do we run it? Alvin remembered the critiques he received from artists, record label executives, A&Rs, and Rap fans alike in New York at the New Music Seminar. Most folks simply missed the Rap videos he aired on “Video Vibrations” because they were either at school or at work when the show was on. He had to pick a time when the kids would be home from school and college plus people would be home from work.
Alvin circled the last week of the Summer before Labor Day weekend on the calendar, which was August 29th to September 2nd, 1988. There were a gang of great new videos to choose from as wave after after of excellent Rap albums had been released between Spring and Summer 1988 on major labels. At the time, “Yo! MTV Raps” only aired once a week, Saturday nights for 2 hours. “Video Vibrations” ran for 2 hours daily after Donnie Simpson’s popular “Video Soul”. For those counting at home, that adds up to 10 hours of Rap videos. This was at the height of Public Enemy, EPMD, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Eric B. & Rakim, Run DMC, Doug E. Fresh & The Get Fresh Crew, Big Daddy Kane, Stetsasonic, Salt N’ Pepa, 2 Live Crew, Kool Moe Dee, J.J. Fad, Fat Boys, and Boogie Down Productions’ popularity.
At the time Alvin Jones launched Rap Week on BET’s “Video Vibrations”, the only music publication that ran a top Rap singles and Rap LPs chart was Cash Box and The Source was essentially a Boston based Rap buying guide that printed its first issue and distributed it in Skippy White’s, Spin City & Mattapan Music. While the Tri State Area had “Video Music Box”, we never saw it in Boston but we had CableVision like the Tri State Area did so we had access to Black Entertainment Television. Problem was BET wasn’t available in every market yet but MTV was a basic cable staple. Have I neglected to mention that by September 1988, only about 53% of American households had cable and far fewer even had access to BET?
With no promotion, “Video Vibrations” launches into Rap Week and it is a rousing success. Weeks later, the ratings come in and Alvin presents to the BET brass that week of programming yielded BET’s highest ratings ever. The green light was given to do another Rap Week before the year was up. Following similar logic to the last time, Alvin knew it was obvious when to have the next one, between December 26th and December 30th, 1988 while everyone was home from school during Christmas break leading into New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
After a couple of weeks, Alvin was able to boast that Rap Week generated the highest week of ratings in the history of BET. Alvin ran a third Rap Week in April 1989 during the Easter holiday while “Yo! MTV Raps” was running 30 minute daily shows versus a 2 hour block of videos. Needless to say, those ratings were also astronomical.
With each passing success, more and more skeptics were converted at BET. It also helped that MTV was bringing in huge ratings with “Yo! MTV Raps” by Spring 1989 and “The Arsenio Hall Show” which debuted on January 3rd, 1989 in syndication on FOX stations built its popularity largely on allowing rappers and Rap groups the opportunity to perform in front of a national late night audience and actually get to sit on the couch and be interviewed for a change.
It was rare for a rapper to make it to Donnie Simpson’s couch on “Video Soul”, but now they get the opportunity to “go on Arsenio”. As a result, their singles and albums climbed up the Billboard and Cash Box charts. BET was convinced, we need to have a dedicated Rap show since there’s overwhelming evidence a Rap program would succeed in the television space entering Summer 1989 and we now have a plethora of music videos being sent from every label imaginable. “Rap City” would debut after “Video Vibrations” on August 11th, 1989 hosted by “The Mayor Of Rap City” Chris Thomas.
As “Rap City” launched, BET was advertising its new programming line up for the 1989–90 season with the tagline “We’re Giving You A Choice”. The new weekday music block lineup consisted of “Video Soul”, “Video Vibrations”, “Rap City” then “Video LP”. In addition, they added weekend programming like “Teen Summit”. Why did this new programming line up end up crucial to “Rap City” and its upcoming war against MTV’s juggernaut “Yo! MTV Raps”? I’ll lay it all out for you…
The Saturday night 2 hour episode of “Yo! MTV Raps” was hosted by Fab 5 Freddy, usually on location. He was a respected elder statesman in Hip Hop culture and the Rap world plus he conducted himself like a serious journalist when interviewing his subjects on camera. He was the polar opposite of Ed Lover and Doctor Dré on the daily shows. The level of professionalism was reflected by the budget MTV shelled out to produce their highest rated program and the fact MTV was available in far more homes than BET was. That being the case, how could “Rap City” even hope to compete?
Early on, BET would often have emcees or Rap groups travel to DC to tape an episode on a set with Chris Thomas. Sometimes, Chris would introduce videos without being onscreen. In some instances, he’d do a man on the street approach and interview random Rap fans in the wild. The big advantage “Rap City” had was its length at first, it was a 2 hour daily show. The second advantage was MTV had much stricter guidelines and restrictions for their videos than BET had for “Rap City” so they became a welcome network alternative. The only other option was to have their videos get selected on “The Box” by a fan before they could be seen.
The third advantage–which was insanely under rated–is BET welcomed videos from independent labels and occasionally even unsigned acts. There were a slew of videos you’d see on “Rap City” that didn't have a chance in Hell of ever airing on “Yo! MTV Raps”. Sure BET was notorious for cutting off videos heading into commercial breaks and sometimes getting the artist’s name and song title wrong in that purple and gold font but eventually they’d correct it. It was all good.
B-Boy Chilly T, D. Rock & The Bayou Crew, The Click, E.S.G., Fugitive, Fesu, Choice, amongst many others could find audiences via their videos airing on “Rap City” when they were denied by MTV. I saw Boston acts like TDS Mob, Gang Starr Posse/Posse NFX, Tam Tam, Almighty RSO, Edo. G & Da Bulldogs, and Joint Venture get their videos played on “Rap City” either first or exclusively, Shit, even Vanilla Ice’s “Play That Funky Music” played on “Rap City” back when he was on Wrap/Ichiban before he got signed to SBK, a major label. If you were strictly a “Yo! MTV Raps” viewer reading “The Source” and saw a gang of ads and mentions of artists and singles you were unfamiliar with, that was to be expected. “Rap City” viewers had knowledge of the silent war between the two that began to escalate between 1990 and 1991.
Ed Lover was known for performing the Ed Lover Dance on daily episodes of “Yo! MTV Raps” as Doctor Dré played DJ Mark The 45 King’s iconic instrumental “The 900 Number”. As a shot to them, for over a year straight “Rap City” used to end each episode with a made up short video for “The 900 Number” that I haven’t been able to find anywhere online since it aired on “Rap City” back in the days. It got retired and replaced by Public Enemy’s “Anti-Nigger Machine”. Since MTV used to get big world premieres over BET, they found a way to show up MTV and the fact they isolated their Rap video programming exclusively to “Yo!” blocks.
For example, “Yo! MTV Raps” daily show got the world premiere of A Tribe Called Quest’s “Check The Rhime”. However, the “Check The Rhime” video played later in that same day’s episode of “Rap City”. Then afterwards, the Madelyne Woods show “Video LP” would play “Check The Rhime” again. Later on, they’d close out “Screen Scene” with the new video from A Tribe Called Quest, “Check The Rhime”.
The next day, “Check The Rhime” would be played on “Video Soul” by Sherry Carter, by “Captain” Paul Porter on “Video Vibrations”, then again on “Rap City” whereas it was only going to be played once a day on MTV at the most back then. BET’s strength was in their numbers. This used to piss Ed Lover off as he’d often go into rants about BET at the close of Friday episodes of “Yo! MTV Raps” and a high percentage of his viewership were oblivious to what he was mad about because they never saw BET before in their lives. This only ramped up the Rap video show arms race between “Rap City” and “Yo!”.
“Yo! MTV Raps” began to adopt the format of taping five daily 22 minute episodes with a guest or group then on the fifth taping it became a “Live Fridays” episode where they’d perform in front of a studio audience. “Rap City” couldn’t swing that. BET responded like they usually did, they’d have live Rap performances–live as in live, not taped–on “Video LP” with Madelyne Woods with interviews then Saturday morning on their youth/teen talk show, they’d invite a Rap group to perform live on “Teen Summit” for the audience and often participate in the discussion with young people hosted by Lisa Johnson, later Lisa Johnson Smith. BET was an army, better yet, a navy…
“Rap City” came up with the Hip Hop Pick, the video they thought had a shot to make noise and used it to introduce a Saturday morning hour long countdown show, The Top 10 Rapdown. “Yo!” responded with a weekend Top 30 Rap video countdown show but they picked and chose which videos they’d play since it was an hour show. The on camera talent for “Yo! MTV Raps” eventually included Doctor Dré, Ed Lover, T-Money–also a former member of Def Jam’s Original Concept–and Todd 1. They’d trade jokes, do characters or sometimes act in front of a green screen on a set to entertain viewers whereas BET’s Top 10 Rapdown with the weekly Rap pick was rapid fire videos with a voiceover from Prince Dajour, The Rap Informer introducing them. The bigger and more popular Rap got, the more this battle got intense and sometimes even personal.
You have to remember that “Yo! MTV Raps” was on the block first. Next came BET’s “Rap City” but don’t forget that just as BET debuted the new programming for the 1989–90 season, syndicated FOX stations–which were the ones who carried the super popular “The Arsenio Hall Show”–premiered another Rap video show on September 16th, 1989, “Pump It Up” hosted by Dee Barnes formerly of the Delicious Vinyl Rap duo Body & Soul. “Pump It Up” was also playing videos that MTV didn’t air and they did on location interviews with popular artists and Rap groups as well.
This meant BET can play The UMC’s “Blue Cheese” video all week between different shows but “Yo!” couldn’t. They could invite The UMC’s to tape a week of “Yo!” but they might only play “Blue Cheese” and “One To Grow On” once each that week. BET can play each video multiple times throughout that same week, invite them to “Video LP” to perform live or to “Teen Summit” and they could’ve taped an episode of “Pump It Up” with Dee Barnes that aired Saturday night after they were on “Teen Summit” Saturday morning. On top of that both “Rap City” and “Pump It Up” would be playing Funke Natives’ underground smash video “Urban Contemporary Jeep Music” which “Yo! MTV Raps” wasn’t. Heads noticed these kinds of things.
The walls were closing in for “Yo! MTV Raps” a little. Sure, the jokes, characters, and fun approach were often welcomed but as the audience grew and matured they felt like the daily show is only 22 minutes sans commercial breaks and y’all only show 4 to 6 videos per episode. You can’t waste time playing Papa San’s “Dancehall Good To Me”, No Face’s “Half” or B.W.P’s “Two Minute Brother”. “Rap City” also had an ever evolving and changing crew of hosts as we entered new eras. Chris Thomas and Prime yielded to Prince DaJour who passed the baton to the duo that were at the helm when “Rap City” entered its peak years, Joe Clair and Leslie “Big Lez” Segar.
When my younger brother and I were both attending Boston Latin School, we’d get home from school between 3 and 4 PM and we’d often see the living room TV/VCR had a tape in it programmed to record “Guiding Light”. In our room, we had a TV hooked up to a VCR that only played and rewound VHS tapes. That VHS player was connected to another VCR below it that could copy tapes played from the above VHS player, then record both from the TV and the video game console also hooked up to the TV. We had a Sega Genesis, Turbo Grafx-16, and a SNES we alternated between. We needed to dub the movies we liked that we rented from VideoSmith and record the movies we liked from cable. It helped to have two older adult siblings with good paying jobs and a mom that worked full time while living in a rent controlled apartment.
The first thing we did was turn to MTV which was channel 40 on A then to BET which was channel 28 on A. All you needed to do was press the LAST button on the cable remote to switch between “Video Vibrations” and “Rap City” and “Yo! MTV Raps”. Now you held down the PAUSE and REC buttons simultaneously on the bottom VCR. If you saw an interesting video on either “Yo! MTV Raps”, “Video Vibrations”, or “Rap City” you pressed the PAUSE button so it could record. If the video sucked? You’d just rewind back to wherever the counter was initially and try again. You had to press the button as soon as possible to try to get the whole video. You’d get pissed if BET cut it off at the end because you might have to try again later.
‘Rap City” were often early adopters to groups and emcees like The Coup, Strickly Roots, Black Moon, Bushwhackas, and Mic Geronimo. They played videos for Freestyle Fellowship’s “Bullies Of The Block”, “Hot Potato”, and “Inner City Boundaries”, Shorty Long’s “Shorty’s Doin’ His Own Thing” and Ruggedness Madd Drama’s “For Real” first. This endeared readers of “The Source” and “Rap Pages” to “Rap City”. The first time many heads ever saw the video for Big L’s “Put It On” is when it debuted as the Hip Hop Pick on “Rap City”. We were first introduced to Ja Rule as a member of Cash Money Click through their videos “4 My Click” and “Get The Fortune”.
We knew the words to “Piru Love” and Poison Clan’s “Check Out The Ave” because of “Rap City”. We were introduced to Washington DC’s Section 8 Mob by their 1994 video “No Love” which only aired on “Rap City”. We’d go from Fugees “Nappy Heads” to MC Eiht featuring CMW’s “All For The Money” to Lighter Shade Of Brown’s “Hey DJ” to Boogiemonsters “Recognized Thresholds Of Negative Stress” to Wu Tang Clan “Can It All Be So Simple” to King Just “Warrior’s Drum” to Volume 10 “Pistolgrip Pump”–or the edited version “Pump Pump” to Nice & Smooth “Old To The New” in the span of 30 minutes between commercial breaks. These songs and their videos were burned into our psyches because of the fact we saw them all on “Rap City” while Ed Lover was dressed up as character doing a nerd voice before finally throwing to 69 Boyz “Tootsee Roll”.
The silent war between “Yo! MTV Raps” and “Rap City” played out in several ways. “Rap City” didn’t play a single No Face video until their 1994 single on Interscope produced by Shock G “No Brothas Allowed”. They wouldn’t play Daddy Freddy videos like “The Crown” which was a favorite on “Yo! MTV Raps” but they were first to play the video for “Haul And Pull”, which used the Hip Hop Mix off the single. BET would play different cuts of videos than MTV. The versions of Kurious’ “Uptown Hit” or The Beatnuts’ “Hit Me With That” that aired on “Rap City” weren’t the same ones that you’d see on “Yo! MTV Raps”, provided they even played it at all. Also, BET didn’t blur out logos, which people really hated when MTV did it.
In addition, they’d play videos like Hard 2 Obtain’s “Ghetto Diamond” and Bas Blasta’s “Ain’t Whatcha Do” which “Yo!” didn’t although they played Hard 2 Obtain’s “L.I. Groove” video first. If “Yo! MTV Raps” played the video for “Roll With The Flavor”, “Rap City” played the video for the remix with the verse from Kid Capri. If you didn’t notice or catch all of this, you were probably too young at the time or occupied with far more important things.
I remember growing up and being frustrated when the video version of songs weren’t on the album, only on the maxi-single, cassingle, CD single or the vinyl. You sometimes had multiple remixes on singles and often had video versions that gave Rap fans trust issues they couldn’t even experience from toxic relationships. I mostly attribute experiencing this phenomenon to videos I saw over the years on “Rap City”.
BET experienced exponential growth after 1991 when it first was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. “Rap City” used to have a generic theme song but it soon adopted the instrumental version of Marley Marl’s 1991 remix of King Tee’s “At Your Own Risk”. With every passing year, BET was in more and more homes, both through more Black families becoming cable subscribers and Black Entertainment Television becoming available on more cable providers and in more regions.
By 1995, BET was now in over 47 million homes, up from the 30 million they reached back in 1991. Advertisers were pouring in and more and more cable providers were adding BET to their packages after rounds of federal deregulation of the cable industry allowed providers to double the amount of channels they offered consumers. Between 1993 and 1995 alone, BET’s revenue grew from $73 million to $115 million. 1995 was the year a lot of people nationwide first laid eyes on BET as it was never available to them before, even after requesting from their cable company in years previous. This changed the game significantly, along with several other factors in regards to the war between “Yo!” and “Rap City” which was winding down.
When Alvin Jones first pitched the idea of running a Rap Week on BET’s “Video Soul” in the Summer of 1988, there was resistance and a lack of enthusiasm from people at Black Entertainment Television. They wouldn’t even agree to promote it beforehand. Black radio stations had unwritten policies that they only played Rap at night, if at all. Billboard didn’t add a Hot Rap Singles chart until February 1989, after both the American Music Awards and Grammy Awards finally added a Rap category. Mind you, Rap was going through a Golden Era at the time.
Conversely, by 1995 Rap was wildly popular in the mainstream music space. Black radio wasn’t treating the genre like a red headed stepchild anymore. Sprite was flat out relying on it to sell soda and that bet was paying off handsomely for them. At this time, Rap was going through yet another Golden Era. Classic material was dropping with such frequency and the field yielded such high quality material on a consistent basis that journalists simply couldn’t discern well enough to determine how good an album actually was at the time it was released in “The Source” and “Rap Pages”. It wasn’t until the smoke cleared and years had passed before people could look back and realize how many classic albums received 3 and 3.5 mic ratings after the fact.
MTV was seeing this all occur in real time and made a decision: They no longer needed to isolate Rap videos to “Yo!” blocks and they could just add them directly to the regular rotation. The final episode of “Yo! MTV Raps” would air on August 17th, 1995. This was over two weeks after Raekwon The Chef released “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…” and days after the opening of the documentary “The Show”. The war was finally over. “Rap City” had won.
What this meant is when GZA dropped “Liquid Swords” months later, it was debuting on “Rap City”. On MTV, it entered their regular rotation alongside videos from No Doubt, Smashing Pumpkins, Oasis, Silverchair, Bush, Goo Goo Dolls, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bjork, etc. To MTV, this meant equality, for Rap fans, it meant it got buried. When Major League Baseball integrated, it meant the death of the Negro Leagues. In the case of BET, they reaped all the rewards of “Yo! MTV Raps” ending. The Fugees’ “Fu Gee La” debuted as the Hip Hop Pick on a Saturday Top 10 Rapdown episode of “Rap City”. Wrap your minds around that.
“Rap City” updated its opening sequence. The big clunky purple and gold letters telling you what video you were watching was now replaced by clean white print in a font similar to Courier which is used by typewriters. Big Lez and Joe Clair’s infectious energy and the fact they either knew everyone and each had a passion for the genre and culture resonated with viewers. Joe Clair could rhyme on top of being a comedian and Big Lez was in several of the videos she introduced or choreographed in several of them. Joe Clair jumped into the booth and rhymed years before Big Tigger did, but not everyone was aware of this fact.
“Pump It Up” was long dead. Aside from a few cable access shows, regional programs like “Video Music Box” or “The Box” there was no show to keep “Rap City” honest. The closest competitor didn’t emerge until CableVision added the Canadian music channel MuchMusic to packages. Not only did they offer a 30 minute “Rap City” hosted by Master T but they had a show called “In Da Round” featuring live performances and a block of Canadian Rap and R&B called “MuchVibe”.
It was here that I got to see videos from Choclair, Saukrates, Kardinal Offishal, Mathematik, Frankenstein, Maestro–formerly Maestro Fresh Wes from when BET’s “Rap City” used to play “Let Your Backbone Slide” and “Conductin’ Thangs”–Tara Chase, Swollen Members, Rascalz, Solitair, Thrust, Checkmate, Infinite, Dan-e-o, Mood Ruff, Shades Of Culture, Da Grassroots, and Moka Only. I only saw these songs on vinyl and they never aired on BET. They wouldn’t become a real contender until later on…
Things began to shift after 1997, the rise of underground and independent Rap began to show where “Rap City” was failing heads. Back in the days, the hot indie Rap single that had a video was getting shown on “Rap City” whereas now you had to record it from a cable access Rap show instead. The 12’s you were hunting for in the record store and recording off of late night college radio Rap shows were not represented anymore. You’d catch the rare indie jawn like Natural Resource’s “Negro Leagues Baseball”, Royal Flush’s “Iced Down Medallions”, Killarmy’s “Wu Renegades”, or Mood’s “Karma” here and there but those kinds of videos aired far less frequently now. This used to be one of the hallmarks of “Rap City” in years past.
I was introduced to The Roots by “Rap City” playing their video “Distortion To Static”. I was made aware of Ronny Jordan’s “The Antidote” and Greg Osby’s “3D Lifestyles” albums because I saw the videos for “Get To Grips” and “Gutterman” on “Rap City”–full disclosure, I soon discovered both videos were played on “Video Vibrations” first.
I saw Skate Master Tate, Rebel MC, Unity 2, Urban Dance Squad, Disposable Heroes Of HipHoprasy, Basehead, Dream Warriors, Fonke Socialistiks, Arrested Development, Me Phi Me, etc. videos either on “Video Vibrations” first then “Rap City” or vice versa. I think “Yo! MTV Raps” first played Divine Styler, HanSoul, P.M. Dawn, Us3, MC 900 Ft Jesus, and Stereo MCs. I first saw Jay-Z in The Jaz’ “Hawaiian Sophie” video on “Rap City”. I’d catch videos for obscure mixtape and college radio classics like Many Phazes “I’m Hip”. This level of music discovery and exposure to different styles of Rap over a two hour show was crucial to the development of a young Rap fan.
You were exposed from everything between Spice 1 to Laquan to DJ Quik to Jibri Wise One to Cooly Live to Sylk Smoov to Javier & The Str8jackers while watching an early episode of “Rap City” but between 1997 and 1998, things began to become more uniform and corporate. Also, I was no longer a teenager. I was an adult who was actively scouring websites like Sandbox Automatic, HipHopSite, FatBeats, and UGHH for the newest, most innovative Rap that I could no longer rely on “Rap City” to expose me to new shit anymore. By the time BET switched up the “Rap City” format to “The Basement” between the 1998 and 1999 switchover from Joe Clair and Big Lez as hosts to Big Tigger, it was already what played in the background as I was doing something else.
I was 24 going on 25 between 1999 and 2000. I was no longer the same person who was recording Rap videos off BET. I could fill a 6 hour VHS tape with Rap videos in about 2 months between 1990 and 1996. Between 1997 and 1999, I needed to record videos off MTV’s “120 Minutes”, “Indie Outing” and MuchMusic’s “Rap City”, “In Da Round”, “MuchVibe”, and their countdown shows then throw in random shows or things I recorded off cable to fill up a single tape between 2 to 3 months.
I had a full time job, I was often watching my nephew and niece, I had moved to a new apartment and now I only owned a PlayStation, VCR, and a DVD player. I was in a different stage of life entirely. For this reason, I don’t even care to try to write about any of the now considered iconic “Rap City: The Basement” episodes from the Big Tigger era. I’m not passionate about any of those shows and I’m not going to pretend to be.
I could record Hieroglyphics “You Never Knew”, Company Flow’s “End To End Burners” video and Mountain Brothers’ “Galaxies” video then go a week straight without recording another jawn off “Rap City”. Meanwhile, MuchMusic’s “Rap City” could give me videos like BrassMunk’s “Live Ordeal” or 2 Rude featuring Saukrates & Pharoahe Monch’s “Innovations”. It didn’t matter because I was no longer the audience BET’s “Rap City” was trying to reach anymore. Once the changeover to digital cable came and DSL modems allowed for everyone to be online 24/7, I barely paid attention or even bothered to watch “Rap City” anymore. After BET was sold to Viacom in 2001, it was a wrap.
I wanted to write this piece about what “Rap City” meant to heads because that 3 part docuseries that BET made last year was a soulless, toothless slap in the face to the many long time viewers of what became the best Rap video show ever on television, at least it was for those of us that never saw “Video Music Box”. It didn’t get to the root of what made “Rap City” special. What made “Rap City” unique? What made “Rap City” essential? There are videos I either saw first on “Rap City” or I only saw it on “Rap City” and haven’t seen it since. I will be up at 4 AM, searching YouTube for a video I saw back in 1990 that I know exists only because it used to be shown on “Rap City”. None of that energy was captured in it. They only discussed surface things and they had the wrong guests lined up to talk about the show and its impact on viewers over a full generation in a manner “Rap City” truly deserved.
In conclusion, there was a time “The Source” was the best and most influential Rap publication stateside. Sure, “Rap Pages” existed and didn’t harbor the same level of East coast bias “The Source” tended to exhibit, but it was always considered inferior. With the passage of time and changing staffs, suddenly “The Source”–once regarded as “The Bible Of Hip Hop”–was now considered to be inferior to Hip Hop magazines like “Ego Trip”, “Mass Appeal”, “On The Go”, and “Stress” which all upheld the ideals of the original Source Mind Squad that “The Source” had long abandoned in order to be on every newsstand nationwide.
“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to the men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill, but time and chance happeneth to them all” © Ecclesiastes 9:11
