You're Watching Video Music Box (2021) - full transcript
The untold story of the world's longest running video show, Video Music Box. A hip hop mainstay since 1983, VMB gave a platform to artists like Jay-Z, Nas and Mary J. Blige before they hit it big. Host Ralph McDaniels' archives - amassed over 40 nearly years - reveal the show's importance to numerous big-name musicians, as well as to the kids that grew up watching.
[cars honking]
[Ralph] Video Music Box
is the place to be.
And you can see
they got it going on.
I'm VJ Ralph McDaniels
doing my thing.
[indistinct rapping]
[Ralph] Recorded live from
Miss Jones' birthday party,
Nas and Biggie Smalls
getting wrecked.
[indistinct rapping]
So what happened was somebody--
they was fighting behind me.
-[Ralph] Yeah.
-And stuff flew.
And my boy tried to be smooth
with it in wiping me off.
They say, "Yo, why is he
touching your head like that?"
[indistinct rapping]
[Nas] And me and Big
were starting a crew
called The Goodfellas
at the time.
That-- That's why we said that,
Goodfellas.
When I look
at clips like that,
I'm, like, it's, like,
a miracle that someone knew
that they should
be taping that.
Those are lost moments,
you know?
They could easily be forgotten
moments forever
if nobody had a camera.
But Ralph McDaniels
and Video Music Box
were there, capturing it.
I go back in a time
where there being a chance
to get seen, get noticed,
be heard.
That was big.
This is a story
that needs to be told.
A story that I've always
wanted to tell.
[Gladys] Hey, you know,
everybody is talking
about the good old days, right?
Everybody, the good old days,
the good old days.
Well, let's talk
about the good old days.
Come to think of it
as bad as we think they are,
these will become the good
old days for our children.
[record scratches]
Backstage,
Spitkicker's tour.
Mos Def, what's up, baby?
What's up, Ralph?
Now what were you saying
about Dream?
Shit. I'm on Video Music Box.
-Fuck everything.
-[laughs]
This is a magic moment.
Like fireworks and shit
-should be going off.
-You just arrived.
Oh, man, I'm here.
-Hey, look, man.
-I want give a shoutout.
-Oh, shit!
-Yes! Go! Go!
[upbeat music plays]
Video Music Box
got it going on.
We in here at the Ark.
We got some shoutouts.
-[Tuffy] How old are you?
-I'm 22.
Just got off the plane from LA.
Praise God I made it
without crashing.
It's Greg Nice and Scooter D
And we came to rock a spot
So won't you
take our advice
And turn to the box
-[man] Go, Biggie.
-What?
[indistinct rapping]
Yo, what's up? We're Run-D.M.C.
When we ain't chillin'
in Jamaica Park,
we chillin' out looking
at Video Music Box .
-Word.
-Word.
Yeah, to all the killers
And a hundred dollar billas
What's up? This is 50 Cent
on Video Music Box ,
the number one video show.
Bet, take that. What!
I'm just an addict
addicted to music
Maybe as a habit,
I gotta use it
[Daymond]
Coming home, racing home,
and getting in there and hearing
that opening theme song...
[vocalizing]
[vocalizing]
[vocalizing]
[vocalizing]
[vocalizing]
It's like you look up.
Video Music Box is on.
And then, you know, that's it.
You're shutting down.
[upbeat music plays]
[Ed] Give you a little history
about television in New York.
We didn't always have cable.
There was Channel 2,
Channel 4, Channel 5.
7, 9, 11.
13, educational.
And then for some reason,
it jumped
from 13 to 31.
Nas, why did you do it?
You know you got the mad
fat fluid
When you rhyme,
it's halftime
[Nas] And the U Channel,
whatever that meant,
you go to the other knob
and find these
outer space channels
that don't-- just white noise.
Empty channels.
They were empty channels.
Dance,
get up and get with it
Shante is here
to take care of business
So plug up the mic
and stack the dough, yo
[Roxanne] It's almost like
cracking a safe.
When you finally get that right
little combination, you be like,
"Don't touch it.
So this way
when Video Music Box comes on,
we can see it clear.
I got it made,
I got it made, I got it made
[Tuffy] You'd pick up
the telephone,
"Yo, Video Music Box .
Channel 31 on the UHF dial.
He's playing music videos
right now.
He's playing hip-hop."
We were going crazy.
We were losing our minds.
You was fly once
Now you're losing
all your fronts, yeah
Started off light
On the tip of woolie blunts
But now you get a stripe
Graduated to the pipe
Took a long pull, hype, yeah
You started off,
R. Kelly produced you.
-Mm-hmm.
-And you got out there.
And, I mean, he's produced
a couple of projects this year
but yours was the most
successful outside of his own
-that he's done.
-[Aaliyah chuckles]
And, of course, you know,
there was some controversies
going on,
so I'm gonna cut to the chase
and we're gonna get it off.
I know everybody asks it.
What is the situation
'cause we don't know?
Okay. Well, I'll let you know--
-to let you know-- no.
-[laughter]
But, no, really. I wanna
let everybody know
that it's not true.
I'm Aaliyah, not Aaliyah Kelly.
Video Music Box in the '80s
was must-see TV.
You made an appointment.
You watch Video Music Box .
You watch Ralph's interviews.
LL Cool J. Well, LL
stands for ladies love,
legend in leather,
long and lean,
love of ladies,
last of the red hot lovers.
Looking for little,
level-headed leader.
[Wendy]
And you watch the videos.
And then he gets into parties.
Video Music Box
broadcasting live
from the Peppermint Lounge
in East Orange, New Jersey.
I'm Wendy Williams.
You can see the parties.
...in full effect
[Wendy] And you know where
you wanna be the next week
if you can gain access.
[Shaggy] Mr. Lover lover
Mr. Lover lover. Oh
Mr. Lover lover. Hmm
Sexy mothafucka
[crowd cheering]
She call me Mr. Boombastic
Tell me fantastic
We've been
in the gutters together.
-Exactly.
-It's nice to do all of this.
And now we back up in here.
I did a song called "Big Up".
And that's how I got
the whole idea for "Big Up"
by everybody going
on the mic saying...
Big up. Big up. Easy.
This just came together
like my man, Doug E Fresh.
And all of the beautiful
women out here
who came together just to have
a good time,
celebrate the overweight
lovers' party.
We out.
Actually seeing people
that look like you,
unapologetically hip hop
and, and Black,
it empowered the whole,
you know, culture.
We got the Wu right here,
my man Raekwon up in this piece.
Peace. Peace. What's poppin'?
-Good to see you, brother.
-He had perfect pop.
He's the first uncle.
Everybody thought hip-hop
wasn't really gonna do nothing.
They thought it was just
going to be a phase,
like, "Man, it's over with."
No, Ralph carried it
on his back like Santa.
[Ralph] Heavy D and The Boyz.
I'm rough and tough
and all that stuff
I'll make you dance
and prance
As a rapper, you had to get
your videos on his show.
If you didn't get on there,
you didn't matter.
Sucker you missed
I put feelings aside
I know who I am
My name is Lyte
Is your name Sam?
[Willie] My earliest
memories of hip-hop
are frankly from Ralph McDaniels
and Video Music Box .
And he was playing music
that we couldn't get
our hands on.
I try to explain this to my kids
that we didn't have everything
at our fingertips.
We all knew
there was no coverage
of our rap heroes.
And that if they would
just give us five seconds
of The Fat Boys
on-- on national television,
we were waiting, I was waiting.
Somebody had to start it.
It's like Moses
and the apostles.
Video Music Box
has that impact.
It's that biblical for us,
you know?
These legends that gave birth
to a whole world.
Summer Jam, really,
you need to be like--
to have like the records ready.
It just always kept
its credibility.
[Ralph]
Welcome to Video Music Box .
Today a special show
recorded
at Rahway State Prison.
[Sabrina]
It was always authentic.
Whatever was happening
in the neighborhood
was gonna happen
on Video Music Box.
[Willie] Video Music Box to me
is an underrated piece,
not just of the story of hip-hop
but of the story
of American culture.
Like that, I gotta like that
I need it like that,
I love it like that
I made it like that,
I know it like that
I don't feel like that,
I hide it like that
I'm rockin' like that,
I'm feeling like that
I'll take it like that, yeah
Yo, you're looking at the best
MC in the world.
-You know what I'm saying?
-Yo, what's up?
This is Kool Keith
from the Ultramagnetic MCs.
And I'm with my main protégé.
Money D.
You know what I'm saying?
Yo, this is my man Craig G.
And this is DJ Mister Cee.
He DJs for Big Daddy Kane.
Hello, everybody.
My name is Doug E. Fresh.
-And we are...
-The Get Fresh Crew.
Yo, I'm Teddy Ted.
And I'm Special K
of the Awesome 2.
And we're chilling
with triple number one.
This my man Steady Pace.
And this my man, Masta Ace.
I'm MC Shan,
the crowned prince of rap.
And I'm the royal microphone,
Lord Big Daddy Kane.
And I'm Cutmaster Cool V
and you know I do damage.
And we're rocking
with the box.
When we ain't out
cooking hibachi...
[laughter]
-With Barry Manilow...
-[laughter continues]
And stealing gummi bears from
grocery stores.
You are watching Video Music Box
with Ralph McDaniels
and the VidGrownup.
[laughter]
It basically became a religion,
all jokes aside.
It was something
that we couldn't miss.
You turned Video Music Box on,
you was like,
"This happened Saturday.
That happened Friday. This--"
and then he was there
and they was there.
It was revolutionary.
It was revolutionary.
-You know we didn't have WHT...
-That's right.
Well, Mecca Home Theater
for you--for you guys
-that don't remember that.
-That's right.
And HBO.
You know we had Ralph McDaniels.
That's the only thing we had.
You know, Video Music Box .
The VidKid.
I'm VJ Ralph McDaniels.
And I'm the VidKid.
Right here
where you keep the music at.
-Video...
-Music Box.
[Sway] Ralph McDaniels
and his partner, visionaries.
Man, I guarantee you, they had
no idea where this would lead.
There was something divine
speaking through them.
Yeah. Video Music Box
doing it up,
backstage
at the Spitkicker's tour.
It's going down
like that. My man Black
throwing the place.
What's up, baby?
What's the word?
What's the word, baby?
[Lionel] Video Music Box
started with Ralph.
It was Ralph's idea.
It was Ralph's baby.
[Ralph] Three, two, one.
New York City,
in the place to be.
Hi. I'm your VJ,
Ralph McDaniels.
Tonight, Video Music Box kicks
it live from the South Bronx.
It's the 10th anniversary
of the Disco Fever.
So if you're ready,
let's get busy.
[Nas] State your name, gangster.
[chuckles] Ralph McDaniels,
R-A-L-P-H M-C-D-A-N-I-E-L-S.
I was born in Brooklyn,
Brooklyn Hospital,
in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.
My parents are from the--
one is from the Caribbean,
Trinidad,
and one is from down south,
American Indian.
[singer]
We live in Brooklyn, baby
[Ernie] Brooklyn was rough.
A lot of people talk
about the '60s
as though it was all
hippies and love.
Nah. That never reached
to where we were.
There was no hearts and flowers
and girls with long hair
singing-- no, no.
It was-- It was rough.
[Ed] Totally different
from what it is today.
You know, you had a lot
of heroin back then.
In the projects,
it was pretty intense.
A lot of street life.
[Ralph] My grandmother
and grandfather
owned the house that
we lived in in Brooklyn.
A brownstone.
Everybody that lived
in our house was family.
You know, a cousin lived
on the top floor.
My uncle lived
on the second floor.
You know, everybody had their
own entrance and everything.
But we knew each other.
My mom is born
in the United States.
She's the first generation.
Everybody else
came from Trinidad.
She's like a hard worker.
Trinidadians have 20 jobs,
if you don't know.
I'm a Trinidadian.
I have that in me too.
I have 20 jobs all the time.
My grandmother's house
is also the spot
where if you're coming
from the Caribbean,
you can use our address.
So-- 'cause you had to, "Where
you going?"
You get to the Immigration,
"Well, what's the address
that you're going to?
You need an address."
So all of these people
were coming from Trinidad.
One of them is Geoffrey Holder.
Never had it, never will.
-Why?
-Why?
Why? Good question.
[chuckles]
[upbeat music plays]
[Yvonne] My cousin Geoffrey
came to New York,
and where was he going to stay?
At Uncle Johnny's.
And that was, you know-- he
lived with us for quite a while.
[Geoffrey laughs]
He's in the Bond movie.
He's in-- He's in, you know,
all of these different things.
And it's like Geoffrey's
a big deal, man.
Like he's a painter.
He's a writer, you know?
And he's become
this New York socialite.
And that's, you know,
my mother's cousin.
And I think that
that's where I got
the idea to wanna do TV.
So my dad worked
at the shipyard in Brooklyn,
the Brooklyn Navy Yard,
and he drew the drafts of them,
the schematics of, you know,
of-- of the aircraft carriers.
You know,
those are pretty decent jobs
for Black folks
around that time, you know?
We weren't rich,
but we had enough money
to have something
in the refrigerator
and I had, you know,
some decent sneakers
at the time, you know?
So we were cool.
The Jackson 5.
So let's have
a fine welcome.
[applause]
[Ralph] As a kid I watched--
of course,
everybody watched Ed Sullivan.
That was where
the music was at.
Please, please, please...
[Ralph] I love James Brown.
I love the soul.
I love the way he danced.
And James Brown was considered
like rebellious back then.
You know, like, "Say it loud.
I'm Black and proud."
People were like, "Oh, oh, oh."
And then Dick Clark,
American Bandstand,
I watched that.
People all over the world
are just beginning
to talk about The Beatles.
[Ralph] Dick Clark
was like amazing.
He knew all this information.
I was like this guy is cool
and he's smooth as hell.
[Todd] We saw The Jeffersons.
We saw Good Times.
But we didn't see
too many people that,
that looked like us
on television.
[Ralph] Anytime there was
a, a Black person on a show,
we'd be like,
"Oh, shit. Aretha Franklin
is gonna be on tonight.
Yay." We'd be happy.
[Ed] Stand up
and take a bow there.
-Diana Ross.
-[APPLAUSE]
[Ralph] We saw The Supremes,
a lot of Motown,
The Temptations,
Ellis Haizlip who had
this show called Soul!
which was amazing to me.
[man] Live and in color
from of New York...
[Ralph] But then later on,
I started
to get into Soul Train.
Always in parting,
we're gonna wish you love,
peace, and soul.
[Ralph] Black people was having
a good time on the Soul Train.
I'm like, "What club is--
what club do they go to?
They look mad happy."
'Cause you didn't see it
too often.
There wasn't too many
Black people on TV.
We moved into Queens
when I was 11.
[Yvonne] We wanted a different
environment to raise him
and we felt that
moving to Queens
would be a nice surrounding.
The idea of going to Queens
was that Brooklyn
was kind of crowded.
Let's go to Queens
where we can have
our own home, first of all.
They didn't
have their own home.
Better schools in Queens.
The education
is gonna be better.
The community
is gonna be better.
In the '60s, early '70s,
there was a lot of movement
as African Americans
made more money
or had better jobs.
They were looking
to purchase homes.
[Roxanne]
When it comes to Queens,
you can literally find someone
from everywhere in the world.
And we've always been
very accepting.
[Lance] Queens was nice, man.
It was residential.
It was a neighborhood.
It was a community.
Everybody on the block
knew each other type of thing.
[Ralph] When we get to Queens,
there's not a lot of people
that I see that look like me.
In fact, we're the third
Black family on the block.
In the early 1970s, a few
middle-class Black families
with very much
the same idea in mind
began to move too.
The Whites saw their coming
as a threat.
[Ralph] All right. No big deal.
I'm gonna get on my bike
and I'm gonna ride around
and we're gonna have fun.
So I'm riding
and this White kid,
sitting on his stoop,
and it's him sitting there
with his mother.
And the kid goes,
"Look, Ma. A nigger."
And I looked at him and I--
now, I've never been called
a nigger in my life
up to that point,
and I didn't even know
it was bad.
I just knew that it wasn't good.
We don't want that.
We want to keep
the neighborhood
the way it is.
We love our neighbors.
We're all--
we're very, very close.
So I was like,
"Okay." I kept riding.
Came back to the crib, told mom,
"The kid down the block
called me a nigger."
[indistinct shouting]
We were riding down this block
and, and these white people
started saying,
"Get out of here, niggers."
And my mother looked
at me like,
"We come all the way
from Brooklyn
for a better life."
At that time, I was--
my concern was
did we make the right move
moving here to Queens Village
because now he's exposed
to a different environment
than he was exposed to
when we lived in Bed-Stuy.
I just wanted
a White neighborhood.
No Blacks at all.
[Ralph] We lived here.
There was a Black family.
My friend Dawn and her family
lived over there, and JJ.
Maybe one other Black family
down there.
It was all White people.
Within 10 years,
it was all Black.
White people probably was like,
"Damn, why did
all the White people leave?"
[chuckles]
But that was it.
They was outta here.
-White flight.
-White flight.
There was some people
that you saw
that were blatantly racist.
And then there were other people
that were White people
that were like the connection
was the music.
[upbeat music]
[Ralph] Me and Lionel, we used
to go buy records together.
That's how we started
our relationship as friends.
He'd buy a certain amount.
I'd buy a certain amount.
We'd be like, "Yo, I need
a second copy of that.
You know, you can hold mine."
I was just buying records.
That's all I was doing.
And I see this guy next to me
when you're going to pay for it
and I have a stack of records
literally about this thick.
We've created a DJ group
and it was called
The Brothership Connection.
[upbeat music]
[Fred] New York late '60s,
early '70s
was a hotbed of, of music
like Parliament-Funkadelic
and Sly and the Family Stone,
James Brown.
Then, of course,
you had the music
out of Philadelphia,
The Delfonics.
And then you had
the Latin fave man,
Joe Cuba, Joe Bataan,
you know,
the Jimmy Castor.
So we were very plugged in
with music across the board.
[Ralph] So my Uncle Michael
is my hero.
He's the guy who got me started
in this whole music thing.
And he would buy vinyl,
45s, LPs.
So there were all these cool
clubs he used to go to.
One summer, he said,
"We're going to Riis Beach,"
which is in Brooklyn.
And there was an outside jam
and a basketball tournament
going on.
And you got like pro players
there like Clyde,
Frazier's there,
Earl Monroe is there.
You know, I'm like,
"This is amazing."
But more amazing to me
than that was
there was a guy playing music
and he had crates
of records, speakers,
and turntables, and these amps.
I was just like,
"What is this?"
I heard records
I never heard in my life.
And the crowd is going crazy.
Especially if you play
Love Is the Message.
[upbeat music]
[Ralph] Love Is the Message
by MFSB is like the song
that will never go away.
And back then,
you know, party's poppin'
and then, boom,
comes Love Is the Message
[upbeat music]
[Ralph] And the place goes nuts.
And I'm like,
"That's what I wanna do.
I like that."
I want to make
the people go nuts.
[Lionel] There was a club
in Queens called the Blue Ice
where Ralph started.
And all I could tell you,
like, it was amazing.
It was a little bar,
a corner bar.
It was always crowded,
and, uh, and we were playing,
like, disco, R&B.
[Fred]
Ralph was playing the R&B,
some of the dance records
that were happening,
coming out of the '70s.
And in the '80s,
we had the Furious Five,
Spoonie Gee,
and Donna Summer records.
Whatever was hot,
he was playing it.
[upbeat music]
As a matter of fact,
a lot of the rhymes
that people were doing
in the streets
were off the beats
of these big street bands.
Ralph shined
like nobody else.
I mean, I've just never seen
a guy command a room
the way Ralph commanded
a room.
[Ralph] People always talk
about Studio 54
in that particular time
and I'm like,
"Oh, they were Black discos."
Like there were like--
there was a whole
Black disco scene where like--
like if you like Chic,
Chic came out of that scene.
And those people
weren't going--
they weren't even allowed
to go into Studio 54.
Like, if we went to Studio 54,
we weren't getting in.
Steve Rubell was not
checking us right now.
He was like, "You all
definitely at the wrong club."
[Lionel] And then slowly
but surely rap started
to come into the picture.
Every disco that died
turned into a hip-hop club.
Hip-hop here. No, no!
Don't Close the venue.
We'll take that over.
Set the DJ up.
[Ralph] Russell Simmons and I
became friends
because I was into the music,
playing music.
He was into giving parties.
And Russell had already
went up to The Bronx.
He saw what hip-hop
was all about.
I remember he gave me a record
with somebody rapping on it.
"Yo, Ralphie, play this."
And I was like,
"So why would people
buy this record?"
He said, "What do you mean?"
I said,
"We, we rap in the park
for free every day.
Like why are people
gonna buy these?
They can just come
and hang out with us."
He stood there for a minute,
he looked at me,
and he was like,
"Everybody is not coming
to the park."
And I said, "Oh."
You mean that this is happening
in other parts of the world
or could, could potentially
be happening
in other parts of the world?
I didn't even imagine
that that could happen.
[hip-hop music]
[DJ Chuck] Flash and,
and Bambaataa, and, and Herc--
gotta talk about Herc.
Can't leave him out.
Herc's the godfather.
But everybody
had their own little crews.
So the MC was on the mic.
The MC was really the one
who got the party hyped.
Everybody starts
going to, to this dance
called the freestyle.
In The Bronx,
they called it breakdancing.
In Brooklyn,
they called it freestyling.
So that became the new thing.
Then everybody started
wanting turntables
at that point,
but everybody couldn't
afford turntables
until we had the '77 blackout.
[siren blaring]
[DJ Scratch]
Once the blackout happened,
my brothers came home
with turntables,
speakers, you name it,
and we had our DJ equipment.
The b-boy was the kid who may
not have had shoestrings.
They may have had
some fly slip-on sneakers.
Some may have gloves on
for like a spin and--
it's like a crew,
Rock Steady and all these guys.
[hip-hop music]
[DJ Chuck] Back then, like
I said, it was territorial.
The streets was buzzing.
The home of hip-hop
was in The Bronx.
And, um, and then
it moved around
to, you know,
other parts of the city,
Queens, Long Island.
And then it branched on.
Listen, if you're--
if you're a hip-hop guy,
the majority of the guys
that engaged in this music
at that time are criminals,
of the criminal nature.
It's just the tough era.
[hip-hop music]
You know, we were sort
of like influencers of that era.
When rap really started
to become popular,
we were kind of, like,
the supporters and sponsors.
Back then, you know,
we was rich, you know?
[Shadi] Why were you guys rich?
From that street
entrepreneurship, you know?
And so one thing about us,
we're not braggadocious.
We don't kind of glorify
our past history,
but, you know,
for folks that's viewing,
I would say just Google us.
[Fat Joe] A big misconception
is that hip-hop
was always nice guy music.
You know,
every block party I went to
ended up with violence.
Somebody got robbed,
they turned off the music,
or some shots in the air.
[Ralph] The Feurtados,
they weren't flashy at all.
They weren't--you know,
there was some people that,
you know, they had
all the flash, fly gear.
They was regular dudes,
but they were everywhere.
-[Nas] Serious business.
-Serious business.
[upbeat music]
[Ralph] By the time I got
to my first year of college,
they had
this internship program.
One was communications.
I said, "I'll take that.
What does that mean?"
"Oh, you might get a job
at a-- a TV station."
"Oh, sounds exciting.
Yeah, I'm down for that."
And so my first internship
was at this company
called Manhattan Cable TV.
It was on 23rd Street
and I would go there
two or three times a week.
And there was
all these little monitors.
And my job was every hour,
there's a microphone there
and you say,
"Hi. You're watching
Manhattan Cable
and it's 6:00 PM,"
or, "You're watching
Manhattan Cable
and it's 2:30 AM."
And I was like, "I talk?
Ooh. Nice.
Nice. I get to talk on a mic."
And there were shows
like The Robin Byrd Show.
If Santa can't come down
your chimney,
you just may be able to see me.
[Ralph] It was like porn.
And I was like,
"Yo, this is dope."
[Coca] And what you do is,
you light up your hash pipe
and get it going.
Al Goldstein.
Fuck you, Carlyle Hotel.
[Ralph] Oh, man. This is crazy.
We don't have this
on my regular TV.
[upbeat music]
[Ralph] It was enlightening
because I realized
there were other things going
on outside of Queens,
'cause I was in Manhattan
every day.
I'm in 23rd Street.
I'm getting
on a train, getting off.
I'm looking
at different people.
People come
from different places.
They look different.
They-- They act different.
You know,
and I'm at the age where I'm--
I'm-- I'm-- I'm able to get it.
[upbeat music]
[Ralph] Channel 31
was my third internship.
A bunch of Black folks
are now starting to get hired
at networks, ABC, NBC, CBS.
Oh, I met Ralph,
back in the early '80s.
We was just two young brothers
trying to figure out how--
after graduating from college,
how we was gonna get a job
in this TV industry.
One day,
these tapes came in from a--
and it said Sony
or something on it.
I said,
"Yo, Ed, let's put this in.
Let's see what we got here."
Ed puts in it.
And it's all of these groups
performing in a soundstage.
Now, I'm starting to see MTV .
But I realize that
they don't play any Black music
other than Michael Jackson.
I was like, "Why don't
we just play this on TV?"
Ralph would sit down
and write a little script
of what he was gonna be saying.
And basically it started out
where we had the videos...
And we put it together,
and like,
like we were making
a mixtape, really.
That's what we thought we was
doing. But it was for video.
So it was really a, a video
mixtape in the beginning.
I was like, "Boom box,
music, video.
We're gonna call it
Video Music Box ."
And everybody looked
at me like, "You sure?"
I'm like...
"Sure it's not
Music Video Box?"
"Nah, son.
It's Video Music Box ."
And that's it.
It's a big boom box
and it shows videos."
And that's what we're gonna do.
And that's when
Video Music Box was born.
[hip-hop music]
[man] Hello, Video Music Box .
We keep it on the block,
the house, yo.
[Ralph] Yo, kid,
it's about that time.
-Whose time?
-Box time.
Lionel didn't wanna do
the video thing either.
Half of Video Music Box.
He didn't want to be on screen
or nothing like that.
[laughs]
He brought me in to, uh, kind
of check out what was going on.
When I went to the station WNYC,
it was on Channel 31,
that was the first time
that I ever was in a TV studio.
I saw the monitors,
the waveform monitors,
cameras, and I was hooked.
I was like, "Wow."
Lionel was getting ready to go
to the service.
He didn't figure--
he was trying to figure out
what to do with his life.
And I'm like,
"Yo, you might wanna mess
around with this TV thing.
It's kind of like deejaying,
but it's video."
Everything
was like deejaying to me.
[Nas] It's crazy where hip-hop,
you can say
it started with a DJ.
-Yeah.
-[Nas] And video shows
for hip-hop started
with a DJ too.
-So it's, it's attached.
-Yeah.
[Nas] And the way the show ran
-was like records.
-Right.
You know, Video Music Box
brings you the best
and the latest first.
Here's Talking Heads,
"Once in a Lifetime."
And you may find yourself
living in a shotgun shack
Basically, he was playing
music videos
and he was doing a voiceover.
[Ralph]
I never wanted to be on camera.
I didn't wanna be a celebrity.
I didn't wanna do none of that.
I just want it to be my voice.
[hip-hop music plays]
It's gonna be, like,
a video radio show.
[indistinct chatter]
[indistinct chatters]
What's up, man?
Nice to meet you.
Hi, Video Music Box.
[indistinct chatters]
How you doing, Music Box? I'm
with Salt-N-Peppa.
This is Salt and this is Peppa.
You got Sandy D
right here.
We used to hold the mic
like this.
So we hold the mic out and--
to the artists we would talk to.
So you never saw the person.
You just saw the microphone
and the artist, like,
saying whatever.
Yo, The Afros are gonna tell us
what the next video
is gonna be on Video Music Box,
show what they wanna see.
Believe that, baby.
[Lionel] I was like, "Well,
why don't we get in the shot
with them and hold the mic
and stuff like that."
And the camera person was like,
"One, two, three."
And Ralph said...
Video Music Box in full effect.
I'm VJ Ralph McDaniels...
And I was like, "Uh."
I just, like, froze.
I had no idea what to say.
I pulled out the sunglasses,
put them on my face.
I said, "All right.
Let's do it again."
He goes,
"I'm VJ Ralph McDaniels."
And I said,
"And I'm the VidKid."
And I went like this.
And I said, "Word."
That's right. Keep on rocking
with the Box with yours truly,
VJ Ralph McDaniels.
-And, of course...
-The VidKid.
And that caught on.
And that's how
VJ Ralph McDaniels
and the VidKid was born.
[DMC] Ralph on camera
comes across like your brother
or your uncle, Uncle Ralph.
He didn't come across like
a, uh, a media personality.
The term uncle mean
another level
where you're elder to them,
but they look at you
as you're cool,
you're hip,
you impact it with them.
But you have a respect.
And I start calling Ralph that
because I saw how people
was taking to Ralph.
Ralph was the one who took uncle
and made it mean something.
Ralph became
Uncle Ralph for real.
And he deserved that
because that was a title
of endearment, for sure,
and respect.
I like to say what's up
and peace to Uncle Ralph first.
- Video Music Box.
-Uncle Ralph.
Uncle Ralph...
everybody love y'all.
[Ralph]
From our reggae spectacular,
he is Moja Nya
with Rise Up.
[indistinct singing]
[Ralph] There were certain
videos that we played
that you didn't see
anywhere else.
[Fat Joe] We were exposed
to other cultures.
Ralph used to play
the Caribbean stuff,
the-- the-- the reggae stuff
before we even knew Jamaicans.
[DJ Scratch]
I would see Jimi Hendrix,
Madonna, Run-DMC.
We saw Whodini.
Of course, we know
what they look like
but we never seen them like in,
in-- in physical form performing
and stuff like that.
[Diddy] You gots Tha Chill,
Big Daddy Kane, and Rob Base.
[singer] It takes two
to make a thing go right
[Diddy] I remember
just being in my room,
going back and forth,
trying to learn
the choreography.
The first artist
I saw on the Box
was probably the Force MDs,
Force MCs,
Roxanne Shante, UTFO...
[singer] Gizmo's scratching
Milk Dee's rhyming
Milk is chillin',
Giz is chillin'
[Tuffy] Milk and Giz
all day, MC Lyte.
It was just amazing to watch
all these new artists.
There wasn't enough
hip-hop videos,
so I had to fill up the time.
I was on six days a week.
- Say...
- Tell me what you want...
[Ralph] We would say, "Okay,
let's play Hall & Oates
because that's some funky soul,
White boy shit,
but we love it," you know?
We-- We-- We loved that
right there.
"Or let's play Bernard Wright,
Who Do You Love."
Who do you love?
Girl I'm in love with you
Are you for sure?
Sure as the sky is blue
So all of these things
was coming into my head
as I was putting
the show together.
And I think we gathered that
from being DJs.
[upbeat music plays]
Are you ready
to go 'cause...
The streets dictated
to what we were doing.
The streets would tell you if
you're playing something wack
on the radio
or on the television,
"Yo, that shit is wack, son.
What you doing?"
[Ralph] So one day,
I'm on the train
and these dudes are, like,
grilling me on the train.
Like, like, you could easily
get jumped
on a train like quick.
So I'm like, this is going to be
a problem, you know?
And as I'm about to get off
the train,
the dude goes,
"You're the dude on that show
that played the videos?"
And I'm like, "Yeah."
"Yo, we like that shit."
And I'm like, "Damn, man.
We sat here for 10 stops.
Like, I thought
it was about to go down--
why you ain't say that
10 stops ago?"
And so that's when I knew
that the streets
was checking for me.
[hip-hop music plays]
[Lord Black] Big gettin' wide
Gettin' money up in honies
Not funny, you're my sonny
Or your honey
- We're getting large
- On Video Music Box
- With Ralph McDaniels
- And the VidKid
[Todd] Ralph stayed
steadfast his commitment
that this is
what he is going to do.
Because once you are visionary,
you can see things
that you really don't realize
that's in your psyche
until it manifests.
That this is gonna be something
that's gonna not only set
the world on fire
but it's gonna get people
who look like me
a fair opportunity
to get into the world
and make some money.
Video Music Box doing it right.
Got my man Funkmaster Flex
in the house.
[Roxanne] I remember
when everybody was dying
to get on
Video-- Video Music Box.
Like if you heard
it was gonna be filming
somewhere at a club,
everybody went to go.
They'd look for
that bright light
and wanna get right over there.
Why? Because you knew
everybody's gonna know
you was at the party.
Now, the same effects happen
to people who don't want
people to know that they
was in the motherfucking party.
That's what he brought to
even the darkest times
of hip-hop.
He brought that bright light.
And now you see me jiggy,
you puzzled
He ain't sellin'
no records, is he?
That nigga gotta hustle
[Jay-Z] It's super important,
you know, for us to be seen in,
in a light by someone who
truly understands us,
you know,
'cause once we're in the room,
then we-- you know,
we're gonna-- we're gonna--
we're gonna navigate that
and do what we have to do.
[Nas] Hey, man.
This is Ralph McDaniels.
And everybody's on pins
and needles
for what you're about
to introduce next.
And this is--
and we didn't know,
we just have to sit here
and wait,
and then you would introduce us
to new videos.
[Ralph]
...with Kool G Rap & DJ Polo
and the all-stars
from Cold Chillin'.
[Nas] And then you would do
all the shoutouts which--
you brought--
you brought the radio to TV.
-Yeah.
-[Nas] You start to get--
I don't think anybody else
did shoutouts.
No. No.
I wanna give a shoutout
to all my family
and all my true friends.
Love you, Janet.
I'd like to give a shoutout
to my daughter, Ratisha.
Big shoutout to my moms,
my girl, my son,
my nephew, my brother...
Yeah!
Everything originates
from the hood.
The shoutout, it's all of that.
Happy birthday, Jennifer.
I love you.
[Michael] Yo!
Shoutout to every nigga
that came from the projects
that's behind the wall
in Rikers, we love you.
Whatever that is, that resonates
and moves through the city.
And it touches down and lands.
I wanna give a shoutout
to the Bronzeville
south side posse.
Yo, I'd like to give a shoutout
to everybody's girl.
It's priceless.
[indistinct]
...working out of
Rikers Island.
Yo, my name Monique.
I'm from AC.
I'd like to give a shoutout
to everybody at Rutgers
and New Brunswick!
Yo, I wanna give a shoutout
to lockdown brothers, word up.
Sea-cacus, Yards-ville.
Motherfuckin' Northern State.
All that good stuff.
[Mike Tyson] That's our world.
Sometime when you get
a shoutout from my--
my husband in C76
or whatever it may be,
or he might be upstate,
somebody in Green Haven,
Comstock,
that makes them feel good,
makes them feel like
someone's thinking about them,
especially if they're--
they doing time.
Say peace to my cousin, Jazzy,
back in A Town. PA.
I'd like to give a shoutout
to my daughter, Janika,
my moms, my pops,
and the 40 Crew.
Everybody in Flatbush, yo. In
the house.
Video Music Box
shoutout is your moment,
is your moment in the sun.
...Akeem, Ameen,
my boyfriend, Hale.
Growing up and being able to see
images of myself,
especially on Video Music Box
was a blessing,
'cause you didn't see
too many kids
who looked like me.
I'm, like, really not too much
of a partier anyway,
so, you know, it was the Box
was perfect for me
so I could just watch it,
you know, say,
from the comfort of the home
and just be like,
"Okay, yeah."
Feel like I'm there.
I'm in the middle
of thousands of people sometimes
with the camera.
They grabbing at the camera.
They--everybody was just trying
to get on film and...
-Lot of classy people in here.
-I'm feeling it.
-All right. I'm feeling it.
-I'm feeling--
I'm feeling you out,
for truth.
So you're just standing here,
making a fashion statement,
interrupting the flow
of the party.
[Ray] It was just an exciting
part of what we did,
which is the core
of Video Music Box.
"Let's go to France,
Egypt where we came from!"
Crazy Sam was doing this thing
called the Uptown Comedy Club.
Went up there,
I ain't hear no comedy.
And then finally, Crazy Sam
came out and he just talked.
And people would laugh.
I wanna give a shout out
to my man,
you know who you are.
I like when y'all
say that shit,
"And you know who you are,
nigga.
All six of y'all." [laughs]
And he did these characters,
Billy Strong Boy,
and this lady,
the Spanish lady on the bench
who talks about everybody.
[yawns]
[Lionel] He was a character.
Best way I can describe him
is like,
what Flava Flav is to Chuck D
and Public Enemy, you know?
And-- And that was something
interesting too,
for the fans, you know,
they liked it.
He became his own personality
and he developed on that show.
I come from a family
of religious gangsters.
I mean, I buy crabs for, like,
a whole city block.
You got crabs, you got lobster,
you got everything out there.
Welcome to Nervous Thursdays.
Where everything is nervous.
[Ralph] Started out
as alternative videos,
and he was so hot
that he was like,
"Why are you giving me
the wack videos?"
[chuckles] He was like,
"Ralph, I need the good videos."
Welcome. I am here
with my home boys.
And we're all chilling.
We would send him
out with a-- with a camera,
and he'd just come back
with the craziest shit ever.
Oh, I don't like the wind
It's strong, it's going...
[Ralph] He was a nutcase.
This lady right here.
She's so short.
Don't get me upset or nervous.
Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Tim Dog.
Tim Dog's in the house.
[laughter]
Hello.
[group] We're Five Star
and you can see our video
"All Falls Down"
on Video Music Box .
[Ralph] Video Music Box
continues with a hot one
from Billy Ocean
"Mystery Lady".
[Billy Ocean's
"Mystery Lady" playing]
Na, na, na, na, na, na
[Evelyn] I actually met Ralph
on a blind date.
I don't think
he'll remember this,
but he came, like,
with a teddy bear.
[chuckles] And we met,
and then my cousin left,
and he left--
they left us by ourselves.
And then the rest is history,
Thirty-five years here together.
[Ralph] Three, two, one.
No, this is not-- ugh.
Three.
-[man] Rolling.
-Three, two, one.
No, this is not MTV,
it's Video Music Box.
A great program
with positive informa-- sorry.
No, I'm gonna do
something else here, hold up.
I'll tell you when to start then
I'm just gonna turn to you so.
Go.
We take the beat to the street
with the top 40 sounds
of Madonna,
New Kids on the Block,
and Bruce Springsteen.
Let's do another one.
It was just in the midst
of the beginning
of Video Music Box,
so he prepared me for it.
[Lionel] Red,
how'd you like the party?
Yeeeeeaa, what's up?
You know what?
This is a spectacular party.
I enjoyed it very much,
and, you know, I hope things
keep on going strong.
And you guys,
y'all are the best.
[Ralph]
Video Music Box continues
with Boogie Down Productions
featuring KRS-One.
To let us into your skin
Why?
'Cause then you'll begin...
-Yeah.
- ...To master
Rhymin', rhymin', rhymin'
Criminal minded,
you've been blinded
Lookin', for a style
like mine
You can't find it
They are the audience,
I am the lyricist
Sometimes the suckers
on the side gotta hear this
Page, a rage
and I'm not in a cage
Free as a bird
to fly up out on stage...
[Professor] Oh, man.
The live performances
on Video Music Box
were like a treat.
Yo. The Jazzy Jeff
and Fresh Prince
early joint at
uh, Union Square.
Music, and make parents
and children
All sit down and they both
be willing to...
[Professor]
These are memorable moments
for like New York
hip-hop dudes.
Yo! What's up?
I'm The Fresh Prince.
And this is a brand new group
coming out of Philly
called 2 Too Many.
And here's their video.
-[group] Where's the party?
-Y'all took too long.
All right. Go ahead,
do it again. Take seven.
[shouts]
Yo! What's up?
I'm The Fresh Prince.
And there's a brand new group
coming out of Philly called...
...2 Too Many.
I don't like that.
-[laughs]
-I don't like that.
[Ralph] We didn't make no money
off of the TV show
because we was non-commercial.
It was a non-commercial station.
If it became money, it would
turn into something else
that I wouldn't have
control over.
And I liked the idea
that I could play
what I wanted to play
and not have to worry about it.
I said, "We'll, make money
somewhere else."
The only way we made money
was doing the parties.
I love New York. This is the--
I mean, no place parties
like New York, baby.
I'm ripped for real.
[Ralph]
These promoters was out here.
And we're seeing--
we were doing the math like,
you know, "Wait a minute,
they charged $20.
It was a thousand people
in that was $20,000.
Oh, let's do that,
we could do that."
And so we started
doing the parties.
All right, y'all ready
for Tribe Called Quest,
New York City?
Put your hands together.
[Wendy] I did go to the parties
that Ralph promoted
and they'd always be packed.
[cheering]
Right now is about New York.
And that's what we--you know,
we all about New York right now.
You could see
the Wu Tang Clan over there.
[rapping indistinctly]
Tribe Called Quest over there...
Well, can I get a level
on the bass and on the treble
Footin up and down
like a UNLV Rebel
The answer be amongst us cause
we rarely dig acoustics
Can't be too much flackin',
not too much packin'
You must container that at
least to dip your hand in rap
Foxy Brown getting ready
to warm up over there.
[crowd cheering]
[Wendy] And a few White people
were in there,
like, you could feel them
trying to steal
our flavor again.
You could feel it.
Black comedy is blowing up.
You know, what I'm saying
it's blowing up, word up.
Def Jam.
We got the power,
we got Uptown Comedy.
You know what I'm saying?
And there was a lot
of Black comics out there
that's just as good as me, man.
We need places to work out.
Please look out for us, man.
Check us out
and support Black comedy.
And I got Beast
over here hiding.
Beast found this man for me
'cause it was hectic
to get to them.
[Sam] Beast was, uh,
the head of our security.
And, um, we had a team
called the Gorilla Force.
And it was a no nonsense crew.
So artists would come,
we were able to get
A-list artists
to come even to Brooklyn.
Ooh, la, la, la
It's the natural law
that the refugees bring
Ooh, la, la, la, la, la, la,
la, la la, la, lah
- Sweet thing
- Yeah, yeah
- Yeah, yeah
- Yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, in saloons
we drink Boone's
And battle goons
till high noon
[indistinct rapping]
[Beast] So when you see
like the Fugees and Lauryn Hill
and Wyclef perform,
again, it's breathtaking
because, remember,
you were in a neighborhood
that people don't expect
nothing to come out
of a neighborhood like this.
We never had any casualties.
People had a great time
and a great experience.
Oh, yeah, Video Music ...
[Fat Joe]
This is the guy on TV.
Like, how many times
do you see the guy from TV,
let alone the number one show?
Video Music Box,
Pete Rock, CL Smooth.
And he's in your neighborhood
hosting the party.
We're in the inner city.
We're poor as hell.
We're watching TV.
This is the guy.
Guess what, he's in the spot
down the block.
-[indistinct screaming]
-We going.
[Ralph] You know there's some
old people sitting out there
watching going,
"How can that young man now
wear that thing
around his neck like that?"
[laughing]
He's just fulfilling his dreams.
That's all, you know.
[Wendy] Video Music Box
definitely was very,
very influential
in terms of fashion as well.
[Havoc] You'll see
a certain artist,
you'd be like "Yo,
what's that hat right there?
Oh, I wanna get that hat.
You know,
I wanna get that jacket."
[Wendy] We saw everything
from the jewelry
to, you know,
Ghostface in his robes
to, you know, Mary
with her hair pulled out
of the top of her hat.
And we were all doing that.
Well, hip-hop started
on independent labels,
you had all these local hits.
It went from that
to more serious deals
with better labels,
it became more normal
to see the artists
that you were buying,
put out videos
with those albums.
Now, we know
there's no reason
these records can't reach
the masses anymore.
[Ralph] Up the block from me
were these guys
named Full Force.
And Full Force was a group
that came out early days.
And they knew
where I lived so,
they would come and knock
on my door in my house,
I'm like, "How did you guys
even get in the building?"
And I'm like, "All right.
What's about to happen?"
And so, "Did you get our video,
Ralph?"
And I'm like,
"No, your record company
is not giving it to me
because they want me
to pay for it."
"We'll fix that".
The next week, the woman
from the record company
calls me, "Hi, Ralph,
I'm gonna send you
all the videos
that we have out."
And that's how
my relationship got better
with the labels
and as well with the artists,
because now, we were working
hand in hand with each other.
[crowd cheering]
[man] Ah, yeah.
When I say "Can I kick it?"
I want everybody to say
"Yes, you can!"
One, two, three, go.
- It's like that, y'all
- What!
It's like that, y'all
It's like that, y'all
It's like that, y'all
It's like that, y'all
It's like that, y'all
Come on, come on
- Can I kick it?
-[crowd] Yes, you can!
- Can I kick it?
-[crowd] Yes, you can!
- Can I kick it?
-[crowd] Yes, you can!
- Can I kick it?
-[crowd] Yes, you can!
Can I kick it?
[Ralph] This is
the Video Music Box collection,
You know, this is where
we keep everything.
This is what we used
at TV stations back in the days.
And this is how I did
Video Music Box
most in the '80s, that's...
classic Ralph
with the-- with the high--
with the high-top
talking to the legendary
Dizzy Gillespie.
What influence
did Charlie Parker have on you?
The greatest influence.
The biggest influence
on my playing.
[Ralph] And how do you feel
about the music business now,
in general right now?
In comparison to before
when you first started?
Well, there's
much more respect.
They respect it
as an art form now.
[Ralph] How, what
were the feelings back then
when you first started?
Nigger music.
It's not hot tracks
or U68
It's a video show
that we think is great
- Fresh...
- Fresh out of the pack...
- From eight to nine...
- Video Music Box
It will blow your mind
[Ralph] Good evening and welcome
to Video Music Box.
Tonight, Fresh Fest 85.
Taped live
at the Nassau Coliseum.
[DMC]
It was the Fresh Fest tour
that put us
in the big coliseums
and once again,
Ralph was the only camera
in the room.
[Chuck Chillout] Him filming
the Fresh Fest
in Nassau Coliseum.
Run-DMC,
18,000 people.
It was crazy.
Everybody in the world
was there.
[Ralph] I think that's
the first press conference
-I ever went to in my life.
-[reporter] Run-DMC, you guys
got anything to say
to the...?
[Ralph] And we get there
and we see
all the different cameramen.
I mean, like,
national networks.
And we just set our cameras
down right there.
We just fit in,
like that's the thing
that Russell and Run-DMC did,
they brought every new first,
a press conference you know,
a press pass to be backstage,
[electronic music]
[Ralph] The Fresh Fest
was amazing.
Come on, clap your hands.
Come on, clap.
[Chuck Chillout]
Kurtis Blow, Fat Boys,
Whodini,
they had these break dancers.
Chad and Jermaine Dupri
were breakdancers.
This is my brother Dynasty...
We had a good time.
[Chuck Chillout] They was like,
probably 10, 11 back then.
But that tour went shit,
like, 40 some cities.
[upbeat electronic plays
on speaker]
[DJ Scratch] Grandmaster Flash
is on the turntables.
This is actually
the first time I seen him.
Like I see him
on the album covers
but I never seen him DJ.
And he had a dude next to him,
he was going like this.
While Flash was cutting
and scratching.
That was epic to me.
[DJ] From Hollis Queens,
Jam Master Jay
and Run-DMC!
[Ralph] After I saw
the Fresh Fest. I was like,
"Oh, White people are into this
hip-hop thing heavy."
Because I went to Fresh Fest
in Long Island.
And it was mixed.
And everybody knows
the lyrics the same way.
[crowd singing]
"Oh, this is crossover.
This-- This-- This has--
no, there's no color
on this anymore.
This is just rap.
This is just hip-hop."
So, went to MTV.
I said, "I got to get
Video Music Box on,
it's time
for a hip-hop show."
[groans]
"You don't understand, Ralph.
Middle America's
not ready for no hip-hop."
And I said,
"What are you talking about?
I just came from--
let me show you the footage
of Fresh Fest.
Let me show you this."
White kids are singing, Asian,
Latino, Black.
We all together.
[upbeat music]
And they said
"Nah, you don't understand.
That's in New York.
That's not how
the rest of the country works."
I don't know about that.
These dudes is on tour, bro.
They're going on--
ain't just in New York,
they're doing these shows,
they're touring."
"Nah. Not ready.
I don't want to scare nobody."
And I was like,
"I think you're wrong."
-[rapper] Yo!
-[Evelyn] A year later,
they came out with Yo! MTV Raps.
[Tuffy] Their blueprint
was Video Music Box.
Video Music Box
was the essential show
for hip-hop on television.
A lot people want artists
to live up
to a certain standard,
you know, like,
be role models
and all that kind of stuff.
I'm sure, that's put on you
all the time.
Yeah. But it's kinda hard,
I mean...
[Diddy] It was-- It was never
a competition
with MTV
with Video Music Box
because Video Music Box
was its own thing.
[crowd cheering]
You know,
just the love of the art,
and it was still important
and needed,
the job wasn't done,
You want to know
the star status
When I walk in the studio
Mic's there, tracks spare,
and I'm ready to do me some
[Diddy] You know, new artists
needed to be put on,
people that don't get the chance
even before YouTube.
You know what I'm saying?
To really get a light
shined on them.
We're getting ready
to steam roller,
so here we go with Ice-T
and High Rollers on Yo! MTV.
[DMC] The difference
is Video Music Box
was us showing us,
and MTV was them showing us.
That's the bottom line
difference.
That's a different vibe
sitting there watching it.
So I'm not worried about it,
you know.
I'm like, "Nah, we good."
So finally,
now, they're getting speed.
I can see
they getting comfortable
with they doing what they do,
they getting better
at Yo! MTV Raps.
So I'm watching it, and I said,
"Okay, we got to go deep, deep,
deep to the underground."
And we start pulling out
all these underground artists,
guys that nobody's heard of,
Jay-Z.
[indistinct rapping]
When I first got
my little interview,
I was happy as hell.
It was like a,
you know, a badge
to get that Ralph interview.
I know you got new thing
going on with a new label.
-Yeah.
-Production's growing, huh?
Yeah, yeah. We doing
the same thing as these cats.
That's why I came down,
you know,
I mean, represent them.
They did a priority thing,
we doing that too
Roc-A-Fella Records
on their priority also,
you know?
G Rap.
To be a billionaire
takes hard work for years
Some nights I shed a tear
while I said my prayers
[Ralph] The most incredible
hip-hop artist to me ever.
You know, we're looking
for that dope shit
that's in the clubs,
that's in the street
that we hear in the cars.
Luke...
Doo Doo Brown
Doo Doo Brown
Doo Doo Brown
Doo Doo Brown
Doo Doo Brown
Doo Doo Brown
Doo Doo Brown
Doo Doo Brown
[Ralph]
You know Miami bass music.
Nobody's playing Miami bass
in New York.
[Luther]
Nobody was playing our videos.
Oh, it's too much ass.
Oh, too many crotch shots.
Well, Ralph was not playing
the same videos
that MTV was playing.
Straight outta Compton!
Crazy motherfucker
named Ice Cube
From the gang called Niggaz
With Attitudes
[Ralph] Like, by '88,
we're playing N.W.A.
Nobody--
who the hell is N.W.A.
and why are you playing that
in New York?
So we're-- we're going
after hardcore music
that's for the ghetto.
All night-a
All right-a
All night-a
Ay, sing with it. Ay!
Oh! Give it up. [laughs]
[Luther]
What people don't realize
is because it's a show,
they really made me--
it really made New York
my number one selling market.
I don't really play
no keyboards and instruments.
My man,
I'll hum him song things.
He'll come with ideas,
we work together,
we make hits together,
we make money together.
The first video
that I begged Ralph to play
from Bad Boy was Craig Mack
"Flava In Ya Ear".
Just like Uniblab,
robotic kicking flab
My flavor bidder badder
chitter-chatter
Madder than the Mad Hatter
[Diddy] You know, on that day,
it broke the video.
And that video
and that piece of art
was so impactful
that it launched Bad Boy.
[Khalid] Have you forgotten
that once we were brought here,
we were robbed of our name?
[Nas] Why did you care
so much about community?
Because, you know,
it was violence
going on in our community.
Here it is. Bam!
In your face goddamn
This is the dope jam
Crack tore the neighborhood
to shreds.
[Shaggy] A lot of gun violence.
You know, it was--
it was tough times and times,
You know I mean.
Some of us,
we sold the drug
and some of us
was victim to the drug.
But the drug
made you do things for $5
that you wouldn't do for 500.
So because Ralph
had complete editorial control,
in between the videos,
he could drop some knowledge.
You know we're here to talk
about-- we're gonna have,
you know, like a conversation,
on what I think
is probably one
of the major problems
is young Black men
killing themselves off.
And, uh, I wanna first
talk to you Guru
about the, uh, the video
that you have out,
it's called "Just to Get A Rep".
And this is how
the story goes
Brothers are amused
by others brother's reps
But the thing they know best
is where the gun is kept
Young brothers are just, like,
everybody's frontin'
on each other. Everybody--
like, it's a lack
of self-esteem.
And to gain esteem,
they want to take something
from the next man.
Bring him down so,
to gain more respect,
to gain a rep.
I believe it was Ralph
that came up
-with Word.
-[Ralph] Word.
That's what they were saying
on the street.
That's what we was saying,
"Word?"
Behind that slang,
came information.
If I'm real sad,
I just cry about it.
Just get it all out,
you know, my system.
I think crying is a good way
to get a lot of things out.
[Sabrina]
So we-- we-- we would drop
in stopping teen pregnancy.
It was important for me
to get information across
in the show like edutainment.
You know, it was like,
we can educate you
at the same time
as entertain you.
He also was the voice
of kind of reason
and bringing
to you social issues,
very-- not as speaking down
to you,
speaking with you
and just kind of sharing
with you what's going on.
And I think
he's probably the only person
we trusted
about what's going on.
It's Uncle Ralph.
He was Uncle Ralph,
he was bringing it to you.
[indistinct rapping]
[indistinct rapping]
[Ray] I would say
that 10% for me
of Video Music Box
at the time was artists.
The other 90%,
we were in the community
or doing an event.
I live in Brooklyn, people from
outside Brooklyn say,
"Our Brooklyn niggas is wild.
Them niggas is just crazy."
-Now, we ain't wild.
-Why is that?
Because every time
something bad happened,
they put it on the news.
But when something happens in
other places, they don't
bring it out like that.
[Bryan] Video Music Box
is based on family.
It might've really
come from my parents.
You know,
they were really active
in community-based issues.
Families is-- is bigger--
is a bigger word
than business to him.
Well, I think, um,
the security is good.
I think everybody feel
more safe
and they need to just
leave those guns home
and, you know, just chill.
Get their education
so they can get there
and make something
out of their self.
[Professor X] Via survival,
you have become a victim.
A war victim.
They're not even being respected
under the guidelines of wartime.
[Ralph] So we would go
to Rikers Island all the time.
You know, we had relationships
with corrections,
and they would let us come in
because the inmates watched
Video Music Box all the time.
They would-- uh,
the correction officers
that I knew would be like, "Yo,
when Video Music Box
comes on,
no stabbings, no nothing.
Nothing's going on."
Soon as it's over,
it's back to business.
Everything's crazy again.
[]
[news reporter] Prosecutors say
they were part of a gang
of about 30 youths,
so we're on a wilding attack
in Central Park last April.
[Ralph] Korey Wise,
when this thing comes out
about these guys
the Central Park Five,
you got some five Black kids
and you got one White woman
and it's just--
you can't win.
These Black kids
are gonna lose,
it's not gonna-- it's not gonna
work out for them.
Later on in life,
I'm watching this tape
of Korey Wise talk
and he's in-- he says
"I was in, um Rikers Island
and watched Video Music Box."
So I'm like,
"What did he just say?"
After I found myself,
uh, becoming incarcerated,
that's when I found
myself embracing--
embrace the Video Music Box.
Video Music Box, it just--
it just--
it spoke to my soul.
I guess it helped raised me.
[man] "Video Music Box
would like to thank the staff
at Rahway State Prison
for allowing us
to come in and do this story."
[Ralph] Rahway prison
used to write me.
The guys used to write me
all the time.
And then they got
a record deal.
And-- And traditionally,
over the years,
people have come out
of Rahway with record deals.
With a charge
and our system locked
When you don't wanna live
[Ralph] And they had a record
deal when I was a kid.
I used to listen
to their records.
It would say "Recorded
in Rahway State Prison."
We call this the house of pain.
Because prison
is about suffering,
it's about living
in pain 24 hours a day.
[Ralph] And it was the real
deal. These was lifers.
Like, these was cats
that they wasn't getting out
no time soon.
[somber music playing]
[Hakeem] Yeah,
the Rahway presentation
was particularly searing,
because it was sort
of an indication
without being lectured to,
you probably wanna avoid
going down this path.
Because this is a circumstance
that you may find yourself in,
if things
go the wrong direction.
I'm trying to make babies,
I'm trying to raise babies
with a strong mother
and a strong father figure,
and I can't do that
when you're behind bars.
-Go ahead.
-So respect.
But I need you here, too.
So, maybe you recognize
the fact that I need you,
if you know what I'm saying?
To build our young
and create that army.
If we don't make it
this generation
but the next generation will.
We tried to find a balance
in presenting
Video Music Box over the years.
You know, we can get
as hood as you wanna get,
we can give you some knowledge
in between there, you know,
and we can have some fun.
However, you wanna mix it up.
I mean, Ralph,
we come from an era
where it was really a dream
to get on at this time.
-Yeah.
-You know?
You know, to become
and maybe get some love
from Rey, get some love
from you, you know.
That was a part
of the dream, right?
-That's right.
-Just to make it that far
and just have a record
in the neighborhood,
who would've thought
it'd be a major
business conglomerate
like it is today.
[hip-hop music playing]
[reporter] Rap has arrived!
The music and the culture
has been absorbed
into many parts
of mainstream America.
Rap music and hip-hop culture
have gone from being
an inner city
homeboy lifestyle
to a popular music.
Craved even by suburbia.
[reporter] At this school,
the kids learn the four Rs,
reading, writing,
'rithmetic, and rap.
Most of the expressions here
make quite a bit of sense.
Fat cables for example
means big gold chains.
Full moon,
that's a large back side.
[Steele] I think
the corporations started
to see the change,
the prospect of making
a lot more money
and being in more control.
You saw the money grabbing
and-- and the opportunity
for individuals
like myself, uh,
coming from these areas.
Uh, the-- the lane
started to kinda get
a little bit more narrow.
[Daymond]
Everything in the world
has some hip-hop tied to it,
and corporations
are making
an absolute killing off of it.
Once the inner city got you,
then the outer city
wanna get involved,
the Whites, whatever, the other
people that's living outside.
They say, "What the hell
are all those niggas doing?"
It's gotta be something.
Let's get involved.
That's the money
we can make out of this.
All these black motherfuckers
jumping around and shit.
How can we make some money
out of that?
And I am Cash Money,
the number-one stunna.
I'm the Birdman Jr.
Weezy, baby.
I mean, hip hop
in the '90s,
we got rich.
[laughs]
-[upbeat music playing]
-[indistinct singing]
[Diddy] We started
to know our worth.
You know what I'm saying?
So, you know, you--
you started to have people
that actually, you know,
became millionaires.
I'm a capitalist
and I'm about making money,
but definitely, uh,
when a corporation comes in,
that's when
the manipulation comes in.
And I'm happy for everybody
getting money,
but it corrupts the system.
[indistinct rapping]
You know, my era came in
with a sense of-of,
"We're not going
to work for you.
We're going to own
our own shit,"
[indistinct rapping]
And we had to figure it out
because there was a lot
of trickery in these contracts
and a lot of shit like that.
-[hip-hop music playing]
-Yo, show time, let's go!
What?
[DJ repeating beat on vinyl]
[DJ Scratch] When you
first start, you know
you're doing it
because you love it.
It's something new.
You're trying something,
and then it became
something epic.
Ralph McDaniels
went from becoming,
you know, somebody
that was doing this shit.
It was a great idea.
And then, now he's an activist
for the culture.
-[rap music playing]
-[indistinct rapping]
[Nas] Everybody deserves a shot.
He gave people that chance.
He gave people that shot.
That was part
of the building blocks
to get us to where
we needed to go.
Video Music Box,
all right.
We're here,
I'm in 125th Street.
Broad Money about to drop
this Tuesday.
I'm taking it's kinda like--
you know,
to the subways today,
that's kinda crazy right now.
Oh, yeah. You know
what I'm saying,
[clears throat]
ain't no artist get on the train
since MC Lyte,
you know what I mean?
-So...
-MOP up in the place!
It's going down like that.
[Billy] I can't find
someone else
outside of our immediate family
that's in the business
that supported MOP
as much as Ralph McDaniels
and Video Music Box.
- How about some hardcore?
- Yeah, we like it raw!
- How about some hardcore?
- Yeah, we like it raw!
- How about some hardcore?
- Yeah, we like it raw!
[Billy] You never would think
that your video
is coming up next,
and he's gonna
actually say your name,
and he's gonna be excited
about your song.
[Lil Fame] He didn't care.
He's just doing a video.
The whole neighborhood
is hyped.
-Uh-huh.
-So we basically did
the video
for the neighborhood.
[hip-hop playing]
[Ralph] The reason why
we started making videos
is because I said sometimes,
"I don't like the videos
that we get that we play
on Video Music Box."
Sometimes it just doesn't work.
I always want the video
to take it to the next level.
So, your movement
can only be, like, right here,
you come back this block.
[Ralph] Me and Lionel
was sitting down one day
and we came up
with an idea of a name
of a company
called Classic Concept.
Then, we started,
like, really producing
and shooting our own stuff.
[record scratches]
Well, my name is Roxanne,
and don't ya know
-[Nas] Roxanne's Revenge.
-[Ralph] Roxanne's Revenge.
Right. That's the first
hip hop video we ever made.
We shot it in Queens,
Queens and Brooklyn. Yeah.
And I remember Ralph,
you know, doing his directing,
and Lionel Martin,
and he was like "Yeah."
And I was like,
"Oh, these are professionals
with three cameras.
This is great."
We weren't really in it
for the money.
[gentle hip-hop music playing]
[Beast] Ralph's
perspective is like,
let me get to know you.
What do you like,
let me hang around
your neighborhood.
Let me see how you eat,
how you move,
-how you walk.
-Ralph did everything.
MC Ren, we had
MC Rail, Steady B.
We shot music videos
for all these artists
and we made them matter.
I grew up on the crime side
The New York Times side
[Ralph] You know RZA
was like, "Yo,
I got a song that's called
C.R.E.A.M.
I want you to do it."
And I said, okay
and I-- I listened to it,
I was like wooh.
Cash rules
everything around me
C.R.E.A.M., get the money
Dollar dollar bill, y'all
[Raekwon] I'm telling him
things, like, yo,
catch the trees.
Catch the rocks.
-Yeah.
-He was just like, "Say less,
-I got it under control."
-He did what he had to do.
He made that shit
match the song.
-Yeah.
-[Nas] When I was starting,
you gave me my visuals
to show me to the world.
Sparkle like a diamond,
sneak a Uzi on the island
In my army jacket linin'
Hit the Earth
like a comet, invasion!
Nas is like
the Afrocentric Asian:
half-man, half-amazin'...
[Ralph] I saw us
as a renaissance
of young Black filmmakers.
[Nas] The buddha
monk's in your trunk
Turn the bass up
not stories by Aesop
Place your loot up,
parties I shoot up
Man, Ralph played
a-- a big part
in Nas' rise because he did
the press kit for Illuminati.
[reporter] The 20 year old
Nas is a product
of one of
the largest and toughest
housing projects
in New York City.
Queensbridge Houses,
AKA The Bridge.
It's full of crime,
full of all this crack, drugs,
all of that.
Just like every other ghetto.
[Raplh] You know what's funny?
Is, like, when we did your EPK,
-I don't know if you realize...
-[Nas] That was huge for me.
Right. Right.
[Nas] I don't know if I ever saw
one of those done...
-Right. Did not. Not on TV.
-[Nas] ...for anybody else. Nah.
Because nobody
played them on TV.
They just used
to give him to the...
you know, TV stations.
-"Oh, this is Nas...
-Yeah.
[Ralph] ...the new artist."
They'd look at it,
"Oh, this is cool,"
but they never put it on TV.
-Right.
-[Ralph] I was like,
"I'm gonna play it
on the TV."
Before even Sony even said it.
[Nas] You know, we was in--
we was like this,
it was like, "Oh, shit, bro.
We're, uh--
We're about to be--
Yo, we made it."
[Ralph] He has a lot of style,
you know what I'm saying?
He-- not only lyric-wise,
you know like, his person.
I don't even know
if you remember,
when they got me on the phone
with you, and I was like,
"Well, what's your idea? What do
you want it to look like?"
And you said,
"Just like Video Music Box,
like what you normally do."
So, I said, "Oh, okay.
We could do that." And that
was all I needed to know.
So, I said, "We gon' do that,
we might as well play it."
I'm a product of hip hop,
you know what I'm saying?
I'm a product from--
of the old school
and the newest of the new.
Ralph had his eyes
on everything that was moving,
so he knew who I was
even though I wasn't
anybody at that time.
But it's Ralph,
so he knows what's going on.
Thank God. [laughs]
It was simple back then right?
Some of the things
that you see here,
I guess, are some of your items.
I don't know if you have
everything here today
but just give us the idea
or the audience an idea
of some of the other items
you might have
or the items in general.
Well, for-- as for right now,
we, uh-- we're testing
the New York market...
I tracked Ralph down
all the way into Virginia.
l saw him and I gave him
a couple of shirts.
Then, he did
this interview with us,
and he was the one
who, kind of, anointed us
right there and said,
"Check them out.
Good clothes.
And, you know, you need
to know who they are."
The phone the next day
was ringing off the hook.
Ralph started to put out
something called Fat Fashions.
A fashion show.
I didn't have any money.
He said, "No problem.
-You can just show in the show."
-[Ralph] Please give it up
for Team FUBU.
[Daymond] So,
when I approached NLL
or I approached anybody else,
Ralph had already basically
whispered in their ear
due to me airing.
He opened the door
for those artists
to believe in me,
and I don't care
what artists they are today,
they owe a large part
of their career to Ralph.
[dramatic music playing]
[Ralph] In 1998, or before 1998,
Giuliani decides
that he was gonna get rid
of some of the assets
the city had.
And one of them became
the city TV station, NYCTV.
Video Music Box. Ruff Ryders,
this is how it's going down.
My man, DMX, in the place,
it's a beautiful thing man
to see you, man.
-Once again, congratulations.
-Yeah.
Thank you very much to all.
[stammers]
And I don't think
they really understand
how beautiful it is.
You know what I'm saying?
'Cause for me, being a dawg,
lock down,
you know what I'm saying?
Watching you on the Box,
you know what I'm saying?
And now,
being a part of this?
I knew--
I just did what I had
to do. You know what I mean?
And, and I'm glad
to be here, man.
I am the streets.
I will be the force
of the streets till I die.
You have a fan out here.
-Thank you very much.
-For real.
Video Music Box.
You know what I'm saying?
You know I'm with it,
the branch, whatever...
[Evelyn] Channel 31
was the biggest outlet we had.
Everyone got to see
Video Music Box on channel 31.
So when they decided
to sell it,
it was a big loss for us...
I gotta stand right here, man.
Sixteen years, I had been
doing Video Music Box.
Can you get this
in the background?
So, when that day ended,
and we got all our tapes,
and we went,
put them in storage,
did whatever we did.
Video Music Box doing it
behind the scenes and...
And I went home
and I had nothing to do.
Oh, this is real,
like it's really not happening
no more, like.
And, you know, we were still
doing music videos
but Video Music Box was me.
[Lionel] I remember Ralph
was very upset
because it was like, now it's--
I got to start from scratch.
All the relationships
I developed,
all of this stuff
and everything like that.
[tape rewinds]
And now you got to start
all over again,
on a political side
as far as getting himself in.
It was like an empty hole.
I was like, "Okay.
What can I do?
Should I go to MTV again?"
I go to BET.
Maybe there's another
channel that's out here
that would take our show.
You know how like
you right here,
you was-- you was hot.
It wasn't like we did anything
wrong, like we fell off.
We was hot when we fell off
that channel.
-Come on, man.
-[crowd chanting]
[Ralph] And I was like,
"Damn, dudes is going
to be playing me when I come up
and start trying to get
a job over here.
They're gonna handle me."
My pride got in the way.
Like, no, I ain't
asking nobody for that.
We're gonna wait it out.
And I just waited it out,
and waited it out,
and waited it out.
It wasn't Ralph's fault
that the channel
was closing down.
He had nothing to do with that.
So, he was like,
"Okay, it's happening".
This is Ralph, Ralph was like,
"All right, no problem.
We're gonna figure it out."
And I remember
crazy Sam calling me.
What you think
the next move is?
I said, what the fuck you
mean what the next move is?
Hey, Ralph, you want me
to go in the streets
and promote
this shit everywhere,
every record label,
every fuckin' place
that moves, barbershops?
He said, "Nah,
I'm gonna lay back,"
I said, "What are you
gonna lay back for?"
I wasn't even going out.
I didn't even want
to talk to nobody.
I was like,
no, I gotta figure this out,
I gotta figure it out.
Don't talk to me.
And crazy Sam's,
"Yo, come on, nigga,
come outside. Come outside."
And I was like, "Fuck it."
So, let's see
what's going on.
And we're gonna proceed on,
all right?
But it didn't keep
Ralph from not taking
his show elsewhere.
It took a lot to search,
but he never gave up,
and he made sure
that he found an outlet
for Video Music Box.
And it was
this other station,
which was like channel 31.
It was channel 25...
He went down for a little while.
But then when he popped
back up again,
it was just like he never left.
I'm that same
brother, you know,
Untouchables, hunny-sixth.
I'm with Uncle Ralph
on Video Music Box.
[rap music playing
on speaker]
[rapping indistinctly]
You know who this lady is?
She goes by name
of Keyshia Cole.
You know, I prepare
for the worst and wish
for the best, you know?
[indistinct singing]
Can you introduce
yourselves, real quick?
-I'm Beyonce.
-I'm Kelly.
-Hello, I'm Michelle.
-And we're Destiny's Child.
It's getting hard for me
And I don't wanna leave
[indistinct rapping]
[Ralph] I said
you're the only guy
that I haven't seen
before live.
And when,
when you got on stage I said,
"This is incredible, man."
That'll be the same day
I give the game back
You know the next question
dog "Yo, where Dame at?"
This track the Indian dance
to bring our reign back
[Ralph]
Yo, go to the studio right now.
I got the legendary
cats out of Houston, Texas.
They go by the name
of the Geto Boyz. Check it out.
When these people's mind stop
playing tricks on them.
-You got that right.
-[laughs]
Every time you're think
you notice something, you know
no matter what your endeavor,
it is that you do.
I hated going on radio.
I hated the radio.
We played the same music over,
and over, and over again.
We're doing
the-- the radio show right now
for my people out there
that's listening.
But at the same time,
I got my video cameras
in here for my video show.
Yeah, coast-to-coast
hip hop countdown.
Your uncle Ralph--
DJ Ralph McDaniels.
Westside connection
in the building.
[cheering]
[Ralph] You needed rotation.
And people only listen
for a certain amount of time.
They wanna hear hit records,
and that whole concept.
I understood
what they were saying,
but I felt like people
still wanted more variety.
And we could throw
in and make the playlist
a little bit bigger,
and they go, "Nope.
It's only these songs
and that's it."
[dramatic music playing]
And I just felt
like I was trapped
in that space.
That's when the-- the whole
hip hop world shifted.
[man] Pioneering music retailer,
Tower Records,
one of several chains
closing its doors nationwide.
The internet destroyed,
the computer destroyed
the music business to me,
I think--
[man] The main culprit
in the decline of the brick
and mortar record store,
online music.
I watched how it destroyed first
of all the recording studios,
a lot of them all went out
of business,
ain't too many left.
The quality of music
got horrible,
you know what I mean?
The record stores dwindled,
and the people that I knew
that was getting those
six figure jobs lost their jobs.
There's a new artist
every time you turn on
your phone and you really
can't get into anyone.
Okay. So, we'll put up
some information,
uh, as well as online
information, so people--
'Cause everybody is online
right now. The game--
the game
changed a little bit, right?
Yeah, yeah, for sure. A lot.
Well, it-- it changed
because now,
we are part of the entertainment
exploitive monster.
In my day, I had to give
out flyers that said,
"Hey, I'm Fat Joe,"
at the train station.
I'm on the thug,
but never the drugs though
When all the kids said
that they hated me, Fat Joe
At night, we would
put up paste posters, glue.
I would go to the clubs
and give the DJ the vinyl.
It was just a real process
to really promote yourself
and get out there.
Now, you just press send
and it's in the air,
and whoever likes it likes it.
In one way, the internet
is a fantasy for a lot of us
because we get worldwide
recognition in minutes.
So, yes,
there's some bad that came out
of the internet into hip hop,
but there's some damn good
that came out of it
and went into hip hop.
Man, The Boogie Down Bronx
is in the house.
Brooklyn's in the house,
Queens is in the house.
We got it going on.
It gave Video Music Box
a different life because
Video Music Box has what,
30,000 hours of footage.
[cheering]
Video Music Box ,
I won't say it lost
its audience.
Its audience shifted...
Yup, come on.
It's Video Music Box.
We out here at Webster Hall
right now, for the launch party.
It's really, really,
really packed, turned up here...
[screaming]
We're in punk Brooklyn!
Brooklyn!
We're from the Bronx.
-Cali!
-Commack, Long Island.
Victor from Jersey!
[indistinct rapping]
[Lance] Ralph was dedicated
and focused on his goals
and his main objectives.
That's where the love
of what I'm doing,
not knowing where it's gonna go
played a major role.
Yeah, Video Music Box
backstage, Summer Jam '06.
I mean,
this is real exclusive.
And I mean, for, like,
six weeks we've been talking
about how this guy
was coming to New York,
and then he did it tonight.
-Jamie Foxx, come on, man.
-Oh, man, I had a blast.
You know, ultimately,
it's a family business
and we just like love
to contribute to it
and see it grow and prosper.
And I think,
when we talk about family,
we're talking
about the fans as well,
because they've been on this
ride with us the whole time.
[Biggie] Check it out
[man] ATL make some
motherfucking noise
B-I-G-G-I-E
AKA B-I-G
Get it, Biggie
[Hakeem]
It's the 20th anniversary
of Christopher Wallace's
passing,
and I said I'm going
to the floor of the house
and I'm going to give
a tribute to Biggie Smalls.
It was all a dream.
I used to read Word Up!
magazine.
Salt-N-Pepa
and Heavy D up in the limousine.
I think in many ways,
you know, hip hop's journey
has been the journey of
the African American community
over the last 50 years.
And as a result,
I think, you know,
the journey of this country,
because the African-American
community
is so intimately connected.
And President Obama's
rise and his election,
his cultural fluency,
his engagement with artists,
it was just an indication
for me as to how deeply
his election had penetrated
into the streets.
Because of what it represented,
not just in the suites.
But who would've ever thought,
whereas Christopher Wallace
said,
"You never thought that hip
hop would take it this far."
Now I'm in the limelight
'cause I rhyme tight
Time to get paid
Blow up like the World Trade
I like to give a shoutout
to my fellow nominees.
Shoutout
to a very special visitor.
Shoutout to team USA...
[Hakeem] And again,
it's how hip hop brings
to you parts
of, you know, civic life
in ways that you may not
have even had any understanding.
With that, I just have two
more words to say...
"Obama out."
[Daymond John] I think
that for the first time,
kids of all colors
revolted within the system.
I think because they understood
that this was a true
president of the people,
this was a hip hop president.
It's undeniable that
hip hop culture changed the lens
for a lot of people in this
country of who we look at,
who we see, who we listen to,
and to understand the cultures,
to understand the challenges,
to understand the triumphs,
and the heartbreak.
And to me Video Music Box
and Ralph McDaniels
were pioneers in, sort of,
planting this seed
of hip hop culture
that is so ubiquitous now.
[laughs]
We're back in Coney Island.
This is Brooklyn
right here.
[man] Boss shit,
your Lordship
Niggas talkin' yachts
since I'm on shit
I used to run the block,
now I'm corporate
Hoppin' out, you know
it's Son when the doors lift
Whole squad hide the burners
Mets hats in the sky like...
[indistinct chatters]
Put your face on the TV screen.
Put your ear on the speaker.
He gonna tell you what it is.
I love my brother
right here, yo.
Peace and love.
If you love hip hop music,
if you love R&B music,
make some noise up
in the piece right now.
[cheers and applause]
I grew up in,
uh, projects
in Brooklyn
and we didn't have outlets
where we really got to see
our own community perform
or have videos.
And Ralph McDaniels Video
Music Box provided that for us
and let us know
that we have the opportunity
to go out there
and do these same things.
[indistinct rapping]
He made us take
a look at our superheroes.
-Yeah.
-And really understand
who they are,
and what they bring to us,
and with what they was bringing
to us was knowledge, wisdom,
you know what I mean?
Understanding,
everything, just--
-The culture.
-It's an honor.
This is Killah Chuck,
right here.
I think Chuck got
a couple of bars, too.
He might have
some bars for us.
Ralph knows this,
the history of hip hop
started in the Bronx,
now it's all over
the whole world!
[cheering]
[DJ Chuck Chillout]
He's got the Mary J Blige
when she started.
Heavy D when he started.
LL Cool J when he started.
The number one rap song,
Video Music Box .
[DJ Chuck Chillout] He was there
when they were nobodies.
[chuckles] So, he--
so, he ate, drank
and slept it, still to this day.
I started
working at the library maybe
like five years ago,
as a Hip Hop Coordinator
and I wanted to see, like,
hip hop in institutions.
In Queens,
there's 65 different libraries.
-Right.
-And I was like,
if we can get
in these communities
and do something,
and put hip hop in there
just like they have
other cultures,
that would be kinda dope.
[Kev] We have events
in the libraries
where we actually bring in
some of the people
that were involved in hip hop,
and not just musically,
people that are writing books,
documentaries, and we show
that to the kids there.
So, in the last five years, I've
done over three hundred programs
with all types
of different people here.
We still keep our core
of what we've been doing,
because it's been working
since 1983.
We also have evolved
with things.
We're on social media.
New York's number one
video show, Video Music Box.
I'm DJ Ralph McDaniels.
Yeah. I gonna have Money Love.
She's gonna check in with us.
My girl from across the river.
First of all,
thank you for taking the time.
I know
you was on the radio today.
Oh, please, that's nothing, man.
Like, you're just--
who can say no to you?
The hardest working man
in hip hop.
Like, who can say no?
Like--
We're in the Smithsonian.
In Washington, DC,
where our mic is in the museum.
So, it's like an artifact.
[Ralph] I think that
young people need to see
this is all part of us
and this is where we came from.
That's amazing, man.
I love what you're doing,
Ralph, like,
this is what it's all about.
The next generation,
them having a better chance.
We have Video
Music Box Collection,
which is the digitizing
of videos of artists
from when they first began
that have been
in our basement
for so many years.
Man, Brooklyn.
Oh, yeah. Sup?
Okay.
Coming in our woods
Say rhymes that I invent
I'm about to recollect,
and inject
And knock you
out your socks
This is full
classic concept
Video Music Box
We're trying to put them
in schools and colleges.
They can see, "Okay,
this was what was happening
in the '80s."
or "This was happening
in the '90s."
Man, I would love to see
a Video Music Box
educational curriculum
that's been placed
in different junior colleges,
colleges, or high schools.
When I started Revolt,
I had called,
you know,
Ralph to tell him, you know,
thank you for just being
such an inspiration.
I wanted to be Video Music Box.
I want to be unapologetically
Black, do whatever we wanna do,
say whatever we wanna say,
be whoever we wanna be.
-[indistinct rapping]
-Oh, yeah. Yeah.
But it started
with Video Music Box .
[Ralph] The Ave has always
been important, you know,
because that's where
we got our gear.
You know, Shirt Kings
was down there.
[Nas] Yes.
The Shirt Kings,
the mighty Shirt Kings.
Um, Eddie Gold Caps.
-Yes.
-Barbershop.
-Uh, Benny the Jeweler.
-[Ralph] Yup.
You know what
the beauty of Ralph is,
Ralph doesn't demand respect.
He commands respect.
And that's truly respect.
Love, man.
Everybody grew up
on you, Ralph.
I know.
One of the things
that brought us together,
honestly, was hip hop.
We're right here
at the Coliseum.
Jamaica Coliseum.
You know,
hip hop was the culture
that allowed us a space
to communicate with each other
without being
extremely judgmental.
[indistinct chatters]
[Ralph] What store is it?
Which one?
I'll be back.
We'll come back.
-We'll come back.
-Yeah.
-This is a vibe, though.
-Right.
I'm Mike Tyson.
I'm kicking everybody's ass.
I'm the world's greatest.
But I wouldn't be who I am now.
It will be a little
different without hip hop.
Different cultures.
This is what--
-[woman] What's up, Nas?
-Hey.
--everything is all about.
And I love the fact that we are
able to reach these heights.
Now, we're looking beyond that.
You know, how you feel
about the effects
of these systems
that kept us from the money.
And create systems that's gonna
bring us to the money
because we're gonna need
that money
to build our communities.
-Yes, sir.
-[man] Peace to The God.
-Peace, peace.
-I love you...
And I think hip hop
culture has been incredible
in contributing
to the Black community.
Ralph McDaniels,
Video Music Box ,
this is what it's all about.
We're with the people
right here on Jamaica Avenue,
Queens, New York.
You dig me?
Turn around
and see the people, man.
-All right.
-[man] Oh, wait, wait,
-[indistinct chatters]
-Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like, like Uncle Ralph's joint.
Shout out...
You wanna give some shout outs?
[laughing]
I give a shout out to my mom.
I wanna give
a shout out little thing.
Shout out to...
Yo, shout out my first wife,
shout out my second wife.
I wanna shout out--
All you beautiful people
out there.
Oh, shout out everybody
from hip hop in Queens.
-I wanna give a shout out--
-Well, let me give a shout out.
Fredro used to cut my hair.
And the pioneers of hip hop
that made this possible.
Shout out to Kool Herc.
Yeah, yeah.
I wanna give
a shout out to Lauryn Hill.
I'm in the gym.
-I wanna give a shout out--
-[laughs] Shout out
I give a shout out to my family
that have been supportive of me
since day one.
I'm the nut that'd be standing
on the side of the stage...
Lauryn, I love you.
I'm sorry.
Did I make a confession?
-Um, okay. Yes, I did.
-All to Brooklyn.
My partners in FUBU.
Big shout out to my moms.
-LL.
-Buy my first turned tables.
-The Rock.
-And for keeping me
off the street.
-Onyx and Mr. Cheeks--
-Alala.
Alala. What's up, Alala?
Shout out to Ralph McDaniels.
Word, and the Vid Kid.
And the whole squad. Crazy Sam.
My man Tuffy.
All-- All the whole crew
that helped Video Music Box
And us down
all these years, man.
All right.
I'm sorry about the baby shower.
For what's-her-name, 'cause
I didn't give her the 10,000.
'Cause I don't think no baby
should get $10,000
for baby shower.
Unless he's my own baby.
To my husband.
To my mom.
To the fans
that have devoted themselves
to Video Music Box.
I wanna give
a shout out to my dad.
You are awesome.
I love you and
I'm forever proud of you.
I wanna give a shout out
to you, Ralph.
-Love.
-A shout out to Ralph.
Thank you for pushing
the culture forward
and preserving the culture, man.
To my husband Ralph McDaniels.
You have done an amazing,
amazing job.
I'm going to spiritually say it,
it's for me,
and I want to give
a shout out to Biz Markie.
We love you, Biz.
Forever.
Alicia Keys.
Um, God, I'm so proud of you.
Shout out to Alicia Keys.
Okay. Shout out
to her crazy husband
for giving us DMX and all
the other shit that he did.
And the new thing
that they doing
with the DJ thing
and all that shit is awesome.
And Marky D, of course,
and Spider D, and all the D's.
Big shout out to my wife.
You know, she holds me down.
You know, this is not easy,
this is a family business.
This is what we do.
Video Music Box for Life.
Thank you, honey.
Mwah. Love you.
I wanna give out
a shout out to Ralph.
Thank you for everything
you've done for me.
And for the hip hop community,
for the culture.
For New York City,
for the world.
Um, thank you, man.
[Ralph] Video Music Box
is the place to be.
And you can see
they got it going on.
I'm VJ Ralph McDaniels
doing my thing.
[indistinct rapping]
[Ralph] Recorded live from
Miss Jones' birthday party,
Nas and Biggie Smalls
getting wrecked.
[indistinct rapping]
So what happened was somebody--
they was fighting behind me.
-[Ralph] Yeah.
-And stuff flew.
And my boy tried to be smooth
with it in wiping me off.
They say, "Yo, why is he
touching your head like that?"
[indistinct rapping]
[Nas] And me and Big
were starting a crew
called The Goodfellas
at the time.
That-- That's why we said that,
Goodfellas.
When I look
at clips like that,
I'm, like, it's, like,
a miracle that someone knew
that they should
be taping that.
Those are lost moments,
you know?
They could easily be forgotten
moments forever
if nobody had a camera.
But Ralph McDaniels
and Video Music Box
were there, capturing it.
I go back in a time
where there being a chance
to get seen, get noticed,
be heard.
That was big.
This is a story
that needs to be told.
A story that I've always
wanted to tell.
[Gladys] Hey, you know,
everybody is talking
about the good old days, right?
Everybody, the good old days,
the good old days.
Well, let's talk
about the good old days.
Come to think of it
as bad as we think they are,
these will become the good
old days for our children.
[record scratches]
Backstage,
Spitkicker's tour.
Mos Def, what's up, baby?
What's up, Ralph?
Now what were you saying
about Dream?
Shit. I'm on Video Music Box.
-Fuck everything.
-[laughs]
This is a magic moment.
Like fireworks and shit
-should be going off.
-You just arrived.
Oh, man, I'm here.
-Hey, look, man.
-I want give a shoutout.
-Oh, shit!
-Yes! Go! Go!
[upbeat music plays]
Video Music Box
got it going on.
We in here at the Ark.
We got some shoutouts.
-[Tuffy] How old are you?
-I'm 22.
Just got off the plane from LA.
Praise God I made it
without crashing.
It's Greg Nice and Scooter D
And we came to rock a spot
So won't you
take our advice
And turn to the box
-[man] Go, Biggie.
-What?
[indistinct rapping]
Yo, what's up? We're Run-D.M.C.
When we ain't chillin'
in Jamaica Park,
we chillin' out looking
at Video Music Box .
-Word.
-Word.
Yeah, to all the killers
And a hundred dollar billas
What's up? This is 50 Cent
on Video Music Box ,
the number one video show.
Bet, take that. What!
I'm just an addict
addicted to music
Maybe as a habit,
I gotta use it
[Daymond]
Coming home, racing home,
and getting in there and hearing
that opening theme song...
[vocalizing]
[vocalizing]
[vocalizing]
[vocalizing]
[vocalizing]
It's like you look up.
Video Music Box is on.
And then, you know, that's it.
You're shutting down.
[upbeat music plays]
[Ed] Give you a little history
about television in New York.
We didn't always have cable.
There was Channel 2,
Channel 4, Channel 5.
7, 9, 11.
13, educational.
And then for some reason,
it jumped
from 13 to 31.
Nas, why did you do it?
You know you got the mad
fat fluid
When you rhyme,
it's halftime
[Nas] And the U Channel,
whatever that meant,
you go to the other knob
and find these
outer space channels
that don't-- just white noise.
Empty channels.
They were empty channels.
Dance,
get up and get with it
Shante is here
to take care of business
So plug up the mic
and stack the dough, yo
[Roxanne] It's almost like
cracking a safe.
When you finally get that right
little combination, you be like,
"Don't touch it.
So this way
when Video Music Box comes on,
we can see it clear.
I got it made,
I got it made, I got it made
[Tuffy] You'd pick up
the telephone,
"Yo, Video Music Box .
Channel 31 on the UHF dial.
He's playing music videos
right now.
He's playing hip-hop."
We were going crazy.
We were losing our minds.
You was fly once
Now you're losing
all your fronts, yeah
Started off light
On the tip of woolie blunts
But now you get a stripe
Graduated to the pipe
Took a long pull, hype, yeah
You started off,
R. Kelly produced you.
-Mm-hmm.
-And you got out there.
And, I mean, he's produced
a couple of projects this year
but yours was the most
successful outside of his own
-that he's done.
-[Aaliyah chuckles]
And, of course, you know,
there was some controversies
going on,
so I'm gonna cut to the chase
and we're gonna get it off.
I know everybody asks it.
What is the situation
'cause we don't know?
Okay. Well, I'll let you know--
-to let you know-- no.
-[laughter]
But, no, really. I wanna
let everybody know
that it's not true.
I'm Aaliyah, not Aaliyah Kelly.
Video Music Box in the '80s
was must-see TV.
You made an appointment.
You watch Video Music Box .
You watch Ralph's interviews.
LL Cool J. Well, LL
stands for ladies love,
legend in leather,
long and lean,
love of ladies,
last of the red hot lovers.
Looking for little,
level-headed leader.
[Wendy]
And you watch the videos.
And then he gets into parties.
Video Music Box
broadcasting live
from the Peppermint Lounge
in East Orange, New Jersey.
I'm Wendy Williams.
You can see the parties.
...in full effect
[Wendy] And you know where
you wanna be the next week
if you can gain access.
[Shaggy] Mr. Lover lover
Mr. Lover lover. Oh
Mr. Lover lover. Hmm
Sexy mothafucka
[crowd cheering]
She call me Mr. Boombastic
Tell me fantastic
We've been
in the gutters together.
-Exactly.
-It's nice to do all of this.
And now we back up in here.
I did a song called "Big Up".
And that's how I got
the whole idea for "Big Up"
by everybody going
on the mic saying...
Big up. Big up. Easy.
This just came together
like my man, Doug E Fresh.
And all of the beautiful
women out here
who came together just to have
a good time,
celebrate the overweight
lovers' party.
We out.
Actually seeing people
that look like you,
unapologetically hip hop
and, and Black,
it empowered the whole,
you know, culture.
We got the Wu right here,
my man Raekwon up in this piece.
Peace. Peace. What's poppin'?
-Good to see you, brother.
-He had perfect pop.
He's the first uncle.
Everybody thought hip-hop
wasn't really gonna do nothing.
They thought it was just
going to be a phase,
like, "Man, it's over with."
No, Ralph carried it
on his back like Santa.
[Ralph] Heavy D and The Boyz.
I'm rough and tough
and all that stuff
I'll make you dance
and prance
As a rapper, you had to get
your videos on his show.
If you didn't get on there,
you didn't matter.
Sucker you missed
I put feelings aside
I know who I am
My name is Lyte
Is your name Sam?
[Willie] My earliest
memories of hip-hop
are frankly from Ralph McDaniels
and Video Music Box .
And he was playing music
that we couldn't get
our hands on.
I try to explain this to my kids
that we didn't have everything
at our fingertips.
We all knew
there was no coverage
of our rap heroes.
And that if they would
just give us five seconds
of The Fat Boys
on-- on national television,
we were waiting, I was waiting.
Somebody had to start it.
It's like Moses
and the apostles.
Video Music Box
has that impact.
It's that biblical for us,
you know?
These legends that gave birth
to a whole world.
Summer Jam, really,
you need to be like--
to have like the records ready.
It just always kept
its credibility.
[Ralph]
Welcome to Video Music Box .
Today a special show
recorded
at Rahway State Prison.
[Sabrina]
It was always authentic.
Whatever was happening
in the neighborhood
was gonna happen
on Video Music Box.
[Willie] Video Music Box to me
is an underrated piece,
not just of the story of hip-hop
but of the story
of American culture.
Like that, I gotta like that
I need it like that,
I love it like that
I made it like that,
I know it like that
I don't feel like that,
I hide it like that
I'm rockin' like that,
I'm feeling like that
I'll take it like that, yeah
Yo, you're looking at the best
MC in the world.
-You know what I'm saying?
-Yo, what's up?
This is Kool Keith
from the Ultramagnetic MCs.
And I'm with my main protégé.
Money D.
You know what I'm saying?
Yo, this is my man Craig G.
And this is DJ Mister Cee.
He DJs for Big Daddy Kane.
Hello, everybody.
My name is Doug E. Fresh.
-And we are...
-The Get Fresh Crew.
Yo, I'm Teddy Ted.
And I'm Special K
of the Awesome 2.
And we're chilling
with triple number one.
This my man Steady Pace.
And this my man, Masta Ace.
I'm MC Shan,
the crowned prince of rap.
And I'm the royal microphone,
Lord Big Daddy Kane.
And I'm Cutmaster Cool V
and you know I do damage.
And we're rocking
with the box.
When we ain't out
cooking hibachi...
[laughter]
-With Barry Manilow...
-[laughter continues]
And stealing gummi bears from
grocery stores.
You are watching Video Music Box
with Ralph McDaniels
and the VidGrownup.
[laughter]
It basically became a religion,
all jokes aside.
It was something
that we couldn't miss.
You turned Video Music Box on,
you was like,
"This happened Saturday.
That happened Friday. This--"
and then he was there
and they was there.
It was revolutionary.
It was revolutionary.
-You know we didn't have WHT...
-That's right.
Well, Mecca Home Theater
for you--for you guys
-that don't remember that.
-That's right.
And HBO.
You know we had Ralph McDaniels.
That's the only thing we had.
You know, Video Music Box .
The VidKid.
I'm VJ Ralph McDaniels.
And I'm the VidKid.
Right here
where you keep the music at.
-Video...
-Music Box.
[Sway] Ralph McDaniels
and his partner, visionaries.
Man, I guarantee you, they had
no idea where this would lead.
There was something divine
speaking through them.
Yeah. Video Music Box
doing it up,
backstage
at the Spitkicker's tour.
It's going down
like that. My man Black
throwing the place.
What's up, baby?
What's the word?
What's the word, baby?
[Lionel] Video Music Box
started with Ralph.
It was Ralph's idea.
It was Ralph's baby.
[Ralph] Three, two, one.
New York City,
in the place to be.
Hi. I'm your VJ,
Ralph McDaniels.
Tonight, Video Music Box kicks
it live from the South Bronx.
It's the 10th anniversary
of the Disco Fever.
So if you're ready,
let's get busy.
[Nas] State your name, gangster.
[chuckles] Ralph McDaniels,
R-A-L-P-H M-C-D-A-N-I-E-L-S.
I was born in Brooklyn,
Brooklyn Hospital,
in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.
My parents are from the--
one is from the Caribbean,
Trinidad,
and one is from down south,
American Indian.
[singer]
We live in Brooklyn, baby
[Ernie] Brooklyn was rough.
A lot of people talk
about the '60s
as though it was all
hippies and love.
Nah. That never reached
to where we were.
There was no hearts and flowers
and girls with long hair
singing-- no, no.
It was-- It was rough.
[Ed] Totally different
from what it is today.
You know, you had a lot
of heroin back then.
In the projects,
it was pretty intense.
A lot of street life.
[Ralph] My grandmother
and grandfather
owned the house that
we lived in in Brooklyn.
A brownstone.
Everybody that lived
in our house was family.
You know, a cousin lived
on the top floor.
My uncle lived
on the second floor.
You know, everybody had their
own entrance and everything.
But we knew each other.
My mom is born
in the United States.
She's the first generation.
Everybody else
came from Trinidad.
She's like a hard worker.
Trinidadians have 20 jobs,
if you don't know.
I'm a Trinidadian.
I have that in me too.
I have 20 jobs all the time.
My grandmother's house
is also the spot
where if you're coming
from the Caribbean,
you can use our address.
So-- 'cause you had to, "Where
you going?"
You get to the Immigration,
"Well, what's the address
that you're going to?
You need an address."
So all of these people
were coming from Trinidad.
One of them is Geoffrey Holder.
Never had it, never will.
-Why?
-Why?
Why? Good question.
[chuckles]
[upbeat music plays]
[Yvonne] My cousin Geoffrey
came to New York,
and where was he going to stay?
At Uncle Johnny's.
And that was, you know-- he
lived with us for quite a while.
[Geoffrey laughs]
He's in the Bond movie.
He's in-- He's in, you know,
all of these different things.
And it's like Geoffrey's
a big deal, man.
Like he's a painter.
He's a writer, you know?
And he's become
this New York socialite.
And that's, you know,
my mother's cousin.
And I think that
that's where I got
the idea to wanna do TV.
So my dad worked
at the shipyard in Brooklyn,
the Brooklyn Navy Yard,
and he drew the drafts of them,
the schematics of, you know,
of-- of the aircraft carriers.
You know,
those are pretty decent jobs
for Black folks
around that time, you know?
We weren't rich,
but we had enough money
to have something
in the refrigerator
and I had, you know,
some decent sneakers
at the time, you know?
So we were cool.
The Jackson 5.
So let's have
a fine welcome.
[applause]
[Ralph] As a kid I watched--
of course,
everybody watched Ed Sullivan.
That was where
the music was at.
Please, please, please...
[Ralph] I love James Brown.
I love the soul.
I love the way he danced.
And James Brown was considered
like rebellious back then.
You know, like, "Say it loud.
I'm Black and proud."
People were like, "Oh, oh, oh."
And then Dick Clark,
American Bandstand,
I watched that.
People all over the world
are just beginning
to talk about The Beatles.
[Ralph] Dick Clark
was like amazing.
He knew all this information.
I was like this guy is cool
and he's smooth as hell.
[Todd] We saw The Jeffersons.
We saw Good Times.
But we didn't see
too many people that,
that looked like us
on television.
[Ralph] Anytime there was
a, a Black person on a show,
we'd be like,
"Oh, shit. Aretha Franklin
is gonna be on tonight.
Yay." We'd be happy.
[Ed] Stand up
and take a bow there.
-Diana Ross.
-[APPLAUSE]
[Ralph] We saw The Supremes,
a lot of Motown,
The Temptations,
Ellis Haizlip who had
this show called Soul!
which was amazing to me.
[man] Live and in color
from of New York...
[Ralph] But then later on,
I started
to get into Soul Train.
Always in parting,
we're gonna wish you love,
peace, and soul.
[Ralph] Black people was having
a good time on the Soul Train.
I'm like, "What club is--
what club do they go to?
They look mad happy."
'Cause you didn't see it
too often.
There wasn't too many
Black people on TV.
We moved into Queens
when I was 11.
[Yvonne] We wanted a different
environment to raise him
and we felt that
moving to Queens
would be a nice surrounding.
The idea of going to Queens
was that Brooklyn
was kind of crowded.
Let's go to Queens
where we can have
our own home, first of all.
They didn't
have their own home.
Better schools in Queens.
The education
is gonna be better.
The community
is gonna be better.
In the '60s, early '70s,
there was a lot of movement
as African Americans
made more money
or had better jobs.
They were looking
to purchase homes.
[Roxanne]
When it comes to Queens,
you can literally find someone
from everywhere in the world.
And we've always been
very accepting.
[Lance] Queens was nice, man.
It was residential.
It was a neighborhood.
It was a community.
Everybody on the block
knew each other type of thing.
[Ralph] When we get to Queens,
there's not a lot of people
that I see that look like me.
In fact, we're the third
Black family on the block.
In the early 1970s, a few
middle-class Black families
with very much
the same idea in mind
began to move too.
The Whites saw their coming
as a threat.
[Ralph] All right. No big deal.
I'm gonna get on my bike
and I'm gonna ride around
and we're gonna have fun.
So I'm riding
and this White kid,
sitting on his stoop,
and it's him sitting there
with his mother.
And the kid goes,
"Look, Ma. A nigger."
And I looked at him and I--
now, I've never been called
a nigger in my life
up to that point,
and I didn't even know
it was bad.
I just knew that it wasn't good.
We don't want that.
We want to keep
the neighborhood
the way it is.
We love our neighbors.
We're all--
we're very, very close.
So I was like,
"Okay." I kept riding.
Came back to the crib, told mom,
"The kid down the block
called me a nigger."
[indistinct shouting]
We were riding down this block
and, and these white people
started saying,
"Get out of here, niggers."
And my mother looked
at me like,
"We come all the way
from Brooklyn
for a better life."
At that time, I was--
my concern was
did we make the right move
moving here to Queens Village
because now he's exposed
to a different environment
than he was exposed to
when we lived in Bed-Stuy.
I just wanted
a White neighborhood.
No Blacks at all.
[Ralph] We lived here.
There was a Black family.
My friend Dawn and her family
lived over there, and JJ.
Maybe one other Black family
down there.
It was all White people.
Within 10 years,
it was all Black.
White people probably was like,
"Damn, why did
all the White people leave?"
[chuckles]
But that was it.
They was outta here.
-White flight.
-White flight.
There was some people
that you saw
that were blatantly racist.
And then there were other people
that were White people
that were like the connection
was the music.
[upbeat music]
[Ralph] Me and Lionel, we used
to go buy records together.
That's how we started
our relationship as friends.
He'd buy a certain amount.
I'd buy a certain amount.
We'd be like, "Yo, I need
a second copy of that.
You know, you can hold mine."
I was just buying records.
That's all I was doing.
And I see this guy next to me
when you're going to pay for it
and I have a stack of records
literally about this thick.
We've created a DJ group
and it was called
The Brothership Connection.
[upbeat music]
[Fred] New York late '60s,
early '70s
was a hotbed of, of music
like Parliament-Funkadelic
and Sly and the Family Stone,
James Brown.
Then, of course,
you had the music
out of Philadelphia,
The Delfonics.
And then you had
the Latin fave man,
Joe Cuba, Joe Bataan,
you know,
the Jimmy Castor.
So we were very plugged in
with music across the board.
[Ralph] So my Uncle Michael
is my hero.
He's the guy who got me started
in this whole music thing.
And he would buy vinyl,
45s, LPs.
So there were all these cool
clubs he used to go to.
One summer, he said,
"We're going to Riis Beach,"
which is in Brooklyn.
And there was an outside jam
and a basketball tournament
going on.
And you got like pro players
there like Clyde,
Frazier's there,
Earl Monroe is there.
You know, I'm like,
"This is amazing."
But more amazing to me
than that was
there was a guy playing music
and he had crates
of records, speakers,
and turntables, and these amps.
I was just like,
"What is this?"
I heard records
I never heard in my life.
And the crowd is going crazy.
Especially if you play
Love Is the Message.
[upbeat music]
[Ralph] Love Is the Message
by MFSB is like the song
that will never go away.
And back then,
you know, party's poppin'
and then, boom,
comes Love Is the Message
[upbeat music]
[Ralph] And the place goes nuts.
And I'm like,
"That's what I wanna do.
I like that."
I want to make
the people go nuts.
[Lionel] There was a club
in Queens called the Blue Ice
where Ralph started.
And all I could tell you,
like, it was amazing.
It was a little bar,
a corner bar.
It was always crowded,
and, uh, and we were playing,
like, disco, R&B.
[Fred]
Ralph was playing the R&B,
some of the dance records
that were happening,
coming out of the '70s.
And in the '80s,
we had the Furious Five,
Spoonie Gee,
and Donna Summer records.
Whatever was hot,
he was playing it.
[upbeat music]
As a matter of fact,
a lot of the rhymes
that people were doing
in the streets
were off the beats
of these big street bands.
Ralph shined
like nobody else.
I mean, I've just never seen
a guy command a room
the way Ralph commanded
a room.
[Ralph] People always talk
about Studio 54
in that particular time
and I'm like,
"Oh, they were Black discos."
Like there were like--
there was a whole
Black disco scene where like--
like if you like Chic,
Chic came out of that scene.
And those people
weren't going--
they weren't even allowed
to go into Studio 54.
Like, if we went to Studio 54,
we weren't getting in.
Steve Rubell was not
checking us right now.
He was like, "You all
definitely at the wrong club."
[Lionel] And then slowly
but surely rap started
to come into the picture.
Every disco that died
turned into a hip-hop club.
Hip-hop here. No, no!
Don't Close the venue.
We'll take that over.
Set the DJ up.
[Ralph] Russell Simmons and I
became friends
because I was into the music,
playing music.
He was into giving parties.
And Russell had already
went up to The Bronx.
He saw what hip-hop
was all about.
I remember he gave me a record
with somebody rapping on it.
"Yo, Ralphie, play this."
And I was like,
"So why would people
buy this record?"
He said, "What do you mean?"
I said,
"We, we rap in the park
for free every day.
Like why are people
gonna buy these?
They can just come
and hang out with us."
He stood there for a minute,
he looked at me,
and he was like,
"Everybody is not coming
to the park."
And I said, "Oh."
You mean that this is happening
in other parts of the world
or could, could potentially
be happening
in other parts of the world?
I didn't even imagine
that that could happen.
[hip-hop music]
[DJ Chuck] Flash and,
and Bambaataa, and, and Herc--
gotta talk about Herc.
Can't leave him out.
Herc's the godfather.
But everybody
had their own little crews.
So the MC was on the mic.
The MC was really the one
who got the party hyped.
Everybody starts
going to, to this dance
called the freestyle.
In The Bronx,
they called it breakdancing.
In Brooklyn,
they called it freestyling.
So that became the new thing.
Then everybody started
wanting turntables
at that point,
but everybody couldn't
afford turntables
until we had the '77 blackout.
[siren blaring]
[DJ Scratch]
Once the blackout happened,
my brothers came home
with turntables,
speakers, you name it,
and we had our DJ equipment.
The b-boy was the kid who may
not have had shoestrings.
They may have had
some fly slip-on sneakers.
Some may have gloves on
for like a spin and--
it's like a crew,
Rock Steady and all these guys.
[hip-hop music]
[DJ Chuck] Back then, like
I said, it was territorial.
The streets was buzzing.
The home of hip-hop
was in The Bronx.
And, um, and then
it moved around
to, you know,
other parts of the city,
Queens, Long Island.
And then it branched on.
Listen, if you're--
if you're a hip-hop guy,
the majority of the guys
that engaged in this music
at that time are criminals,
of the criminal nature.
It's just the tough era.
[hip-hop music]
You know, we were sort
of like influencers of that era.
When rap really started
to become popular,
we were kind of, like,
the supporters and sponsors.
Back then, you know,
we was rich, you know?
[Shadi] Why were you guys rich?
From that street
entrepreneurship, you know?
And so one thing about us,
we're not braggadocious.
We don't kind of glorify
our past history,
but, you know,
for folks that's viewing,
I would say just Google us.
[Fat Joe] A big misconception
is that hip-hop
was always nice guy music.
You know,
every block party I went to
ended up with violence.
Somebody got robbed,
they turned off the music,
or some shots in the air.
[Ralph] The Feurtados,
they weren't flashy at all.
They weren't--you know,
there was some people that,
you know, they had
all the flash, fly gear.
They was regular dudes,
but they were everywhere.
-[Nas] Serious business.
-Serious business.
[upbeat music]
[Ralph] By the time I got
to my first year of college,
they had
this internship program.
One was communications.
I said, "I'll take that.
What does that mean?"
"Oh, you might get a job
at a-- a TV station."
"Oh, sounds exciting.
Yeah, I'm down for that."
And so my first internship
was at this company
called Manhattan Cable TV.
It was on 23rd Street
and I would go there
two or three times a week.
And there was
all these little monitors.
And my job was every hour,
there's a microphone there
and you say,
"Hi. You're watching
Manhattan Cable
and it's 6:00 PM,"
or, "You're watching
Manhattan Cable
and it's 2:30 AM."
And I was like, "I talk?
Ooh. Nice.
Nice. I get to talk on a mic."
And there were shows
like The Robin Byrd Show.
If Santa can't come down
your chimney,
you just may be able to see me.
[Ralph] It was like porn.
And I was like,
"Yo, this is dope."
[Coca] And what you do is,
you light up your hash pipe
and get it going.
Al Goldstein.
Fuck you, Carlyle Hotel.
[Ralph] Oh, man. This is crazy.
We don't have this
on my regular TV.
[upbeat music]
[Ralph] It was enlightening
because I realized
there were other things going
on outside of Queens,
'cause I was in Manhattan
every day.
I'm in 23rd Street.
I'm getting
on a train, getting off.
I'm looking
at different people.
People come
from different places.
They look different.
They-- They act different.
You know,
and I'm at the age where I'm--
I'm-- I'm-- I'm able to get it.
[upbeat music]
[Ralph] Channel 31
was my third internship.
A bunch of Black folks
are now starting to get hired
at networks, ABC, NBC, CBS.
Oh, I met Ralph,
back in the early '80s.
We was just two young brothers
trying to figure out how--
after graduating from college,
how we was gonna get a job
in this TV industry.
One day,
these tapes came in from a--
and it said Sony
or something on it.
I said,
"Yo, Ed, let's put this in.
Let's see what we got here."
Ed puts in it.
And it's all of these groups
performing in a soundstage.
Now, I'm starting to see MTV .
But I realize that
they don't play any Black music
other than Michael Jackson.
I was like, "Why don't
we just play this on TV?"
Ralph would sit down
and write a little script
of what he was gonna be saying.
And basically it started out
where we had the videos...
And we put it together,
and like,
like we were making
a mixtape, really.
That's what we thought we was
doing. But it was for video.
So it was really a, a video
mixtape in the beginning.
I was like, "Boom box,
music, video.
We're gonna call it
Video Music Box ."
And everybody looked
at me like, "You sure?"
I'm like...
"Sure it's not
Music Video Box?"
"Nah, son.
It's Video Music Box ."
And that's it.
It's a big boom box
and it shows videos."
And that's what we're gonna do.
And that's when
Video Music Box was born.
[hip-hop music]
[man] Hello, Video Music Box .
We keep it on the block,
the house, yo.
[Ralph] Yo, kid,
it's about that time.
-Whose time?
-Box time.
Lionel didn't wanna do
the video thing either.
Half of Video Music Box.
He didn't want to be on screen
or nothing like that.
[laughs]
He brought me in to, uh, kind
of check out what was going on.
When I went to the station WNYC,
it was on Channel 31,
that was the first time
that I ever was in a TV studio.
I saw the monitors,
the waveform monitors,
cameras, and I was hooked.
I was like, "Wow."
Lionel was getting ready to go
to the service.
He didn't figure--
he was trying to figure out
what to do with his life.
And I'm like,
"Yo, you might wanna mess
around with this TV thing.
It's kind of like deejaying,
but it's video."
Everything
was like deejaying to me.
[Nas] It's crazy where hip-hop,
you can say
it started with a DJ.
-Yeah.
-[Nas] And video shows
for hip-hop started
with a DJ too.
-So it's, it's attached.
-Yeah.
[Nas] And the way the show ran
-was like records.
-Right.
You know, Video Music Box
brings you the best
and the latest first.
Here's Talking Heads,
"Once in a Lifetime."
And you may find yourself
living in a shotgun shack
Basically, he was playing
music videos
and he was doing a voiceover.
[Ralph]
I never wanted to be on camera.
I didn't wanna be a celebrity.
I didn't wanna do none of that.
I just want it to be my voice.
[hip-hop music plays]
It's gonna be, like,
a video radio show.
[indistinct chatter]
[indistinct chatters]
What's up, man?
Nice to meet you.
Hi, Video Music Box.
[indistinct chatters]
How you doing, Music Box? I'm
with Salt-N-Peppa.
This is Salt and this is Peppa.
You got Sandy D
right here.
We used to hold the mic
like this.
So we hold the mic out and--
to the artists we would talk to.
So you never saw the person.
You just saw the microphone
and the artist, like,
saying whatever.
Yo, The Afros are gonna tell us
what the next video
is gonna be on Video Music Box,
show what they wanna see.
Believe that, baby.
[Lionel] I was like, "Well,
why don't we get in the shot
with them and hold the mic
and stuff like that."
And the camera person was like,
"One, two, three."
And Ralph said...
Video Music Box in full effect.
I'm VJ Ralph McDaniels...
And I was like, "Uh."
I just, like, froze.
I had no idea what to say.
I pulled out the sunglasses,
put them on my face.
I said, "All right.
Let's do it again."
He goes,
"I'm VJ Ralph McDaniels."
And I said,
"And I'm the VidKid."
And I went like this.
And I said, "Word."
That's right. Keep on rocking
with the Box with yours truly,
VJ Ralph McDaniels.
-And, of course...
-The VidKid.
And that caught on.
And that's how
VJ Ralph McDaniels
and the VidKid was born.
[DMC] Ralph on camera
comes across like your brother
or your uncle, Uncle Ralph.
He didn't come across like
a, uh, a media personality.
The term uncle mean
another level
where you're elder to them,
but they look at you
as you're cool,
you're hip,
you impact it with them.
But you have a respect.
And I start calling Ralph that
because I saw how people
was taking to Ralph.
Ralph was the one who took uncle
and made it mean something.
Ralph became
Uncle Ralph for real.
And he deserved that
because that was a title
of endearment, for sure,
and respect.
I like to say what's up
and peace to Uncle Ralph first.
- Video Music Box.
-Uncle Ralph.
Uncle Ralph...
everybody love y'all.
[Ralph]
From our reggae spectacular,
he is Moja Nya
with Rise Up.
[indistinct singing]
[Ralph] There were certain
videos that we played
that you didn't see
anywhere else.
[Fat Joe] We were exposed
to other cultures.
Ralph used to play
the Caribbean stuff,
the-- the-- the reggae stuff
before we even knew Jamaicans.
[DJ Scratch]
I would see Jimi Hendrix,
Madonna, Run-DMC.
We saw Whodini.
Of course, we know
what they look like
but we never seen them like in,
in-- in physical form performing
and stuff like that.
[Diddy] You gots Tha Chill,
Big Daddy Kane, and Rob Base.
[singer] It takes two
to make a thing go right
[Diddy] I remember
just being in my room,
going back and forth,
trying to learn
the choreography.
The first artist
I saw on the Box
was probably the Force MDs,
Force MCs,
Roxanne Shante, UTFO...
[singer] Gizmo's scratching
Milk Dee's rhyming
Milk is chillin',
Giz is chillin'
[Tuffy] Milk and Giz
all day, MC Lyte.
It was just amazing to watch
all these new artists.
There wasn't enough
hip-hop videos,
so I had to fill up the time.
I was on six days a week.
- Say...
- Tell me what you want...
[Ralph] We would say, "Okay,
let's play Hall & Oates
because that's some funky soul,
White boy shit,
but we love it," you know?
We-- We-- We loved that
right there.
"Or let's play Bernard Wright,
Who Do You Love."
Who do you love?
Girl I'm in love with you
Are you for sure?
Sure as the sky is blue
So all of these things
was coming into my head
as I was putting
the show together.
And I think we gathered that
from being DJs.
[upbeat music plays]
Are you ready
to go 'cause...
The streets dictated
to what we were doing.
The streets would tell you if
you're playing something wack
on the radio
or on the television,
"Yo, that shit is wack, son.
What you doing?"
[Ralph] So one day,
I'm on the train
and these dudes are, like,
grilling me on the train.
Like, like, you could easily
get jumped
on a train like quick.
So I'm like, this is going to be
a problem, you know?
And as I'm about to get off
the train,
the dude goes,
"You're the dude on that show
that played the videos?"
And I'm like, "Yeah."
"Yo, we like that shit."
And I'm like, "Damn, man.
We sat here for 10 stops.
Like, I thought
it was about to go down--
why you ain't say that
10 stops ago?"
And so that's when I knew
that the streets
was checking for me.
[hip-hop music plays]
[Lord Black] Big gettin' wide
Gettin' money up in honies
Not funny, you're my sonny
Or your honey
- We're getting large
- On Video Music Box
- With Ralph McDaniels
- And the VidKid
[Todd] Ralph stayed
steadfast his commitment
that this is
what he is going to do.
Because once you are visionary,
you can see things
that you really don't realize
that's in your psyche
until it manifests.
That this is gonna be something
that's gonna not only set
the world on fire
but it's gonna get people
who look like me
a fair opportunity
to get into the world
and make some money.
Video Music Box doing it right.
Got my man Funkmaster Flex
in the house.
[Roxanne] I remember
when everybody was dying
to get on
Video-- Video Music Box.
Like if you heard
it was gonna be filming
somewhere at a club,
everybody went to go.
They'd look for
that bright light
and wanna get right over there.
Why? Because you knew
everybody's gonna know
you was at the party.
Now, the same effects happen
to people who don't want
people to know that they
was in the motherfucking party.
That's what he brought to
even the darkest times
of hip-hop.
He brought that bright light.
And now you see me jiggy,
you puzzled
He ain't sellin'
no records, is he?
That nigga gotta hustle
[Jay-Z] It's super important,
you know, for us to be seen in,
in a light by someone who
truly understands us,
you know,
'cause once we're in the room,
then we-- you know,
we're gonna-- we're gonna--
we're gonna navigate that
and do what we have to do.
[Nas] Hey, man.
This is Ralph McDaniels.
And everybody's on pins
and needles
for what you're about
to introduce next.
And this is--
and we didn't know,
we just have to sit here
and wait,
and then you would introduce us
to new videos.
[Ralph]
...with Kool G Rap & DJ Polo
and the all-stars
from Cold Chillin'.
[Nas] And then you would do
all the shoutouts which--
you brought--
you brought the radio to TV.
-Yeah.
-[Nas] You start to get--
I don't think anybody else
did shoutouts.
No. No.
I wanna give a shoutout
to all my family
and all my true friends.
Love you, Janet.
I'd like to give a shoutout
to my daughter, Ratisha.
Big shoutout to my moms,
my girl, my son,
my nephew, my brother...
Yeah!
Everything originates
from the hood.
The shoutout, it's all of that.
Happy birthday, Jennifer.
I love you.
[Michael] Yo!
Shoutout to every nigga
that came from the projects
that's behind the wall
in Rikers, we love you.
Whatever that is, that resonates
and moves through the city.
And it touches down and lands.
I wanna give a shoutout
to the Bronzeville
south side posse.
Yo, I'd like to give a shoutout
to everybody's girl.
It's priceless.
[indistinct]
...working out of
Rikers Island.
Yo, my name Monique.
I'm from AC.
I'd like to give a shoutout
to everybody at Rutgers
and New Brunswick!
Yo, I wanna give a shoutout
to lockdown brothers, word up.
Sea-cacus, Yards-ville.
Motherfuckin' Northern State.
All that good stuff.
[Mike Tyson] That's our world.
Sometime when you get
a shoutout from my--
my husband in C76
or whatever it may be,
or he might be upstate,
somebody in Green Haven,
Comstock,
that makes them feel good,
makes them feel like
someone's thinking about them,
especially if they're--
they doing time.
Say peace to my cousin, Jazzy,
back in A Town. PA.
I'd like to give a shoutout
to my daughter, Janika,
my moms, my pops,
and the 40 Crew.
Everybody in Flatbush, yo. In
the house.
Video Music Box
shoutout is your moment,
is your moment in the sun.
...Akeem, Ameen,
my boyfriend, Hale.
Growing up and being able to see
images of myself,
especially on Video Music Box
was a blessing,
'cause you didn't see
too many kids
who looked like me.
I'm, like, really not too much
of a partier anyway,
so, you know, it was the Box
was perfect for me
so I could just watch it,
you know, say,
from the comfort of the home
and just be like,
"Okay, yeah."
Feel like I'm there.
I'm in the middle
of thousands of people sometimes
with the camera.
They grabbing at the camera.
They--everybody was just trying
to get on film and...
-Lot of classy people in here.
-I'm feeling it.
-All right. I'm feeling it.
-I'm feeling--
I'm feeling you out,
for truth.
So you're just standing here,
making a fashion statement,
interrupting the flow
of the party.
[Ray] It was just an exciting
part of what we did,
which is the core
of Video Music Box.
"Let's go to France,
Egypt where we came from!"
Crazy Sam was doing this thing
called the Uptown Comedy Club.
Went up there,
I ain't hear no comedy.
And then finally, Crazy Sam
came out and he just talked.
And people would laugh.
I wanna give a shout out
to my man,
you know who you are.
I like when y'all
say that shit,
"And you know who you are,
nigga.
All six of y'all." [laughs]
And he did these characters,
Billy Strong Boy,
and this lady,
the Spanish lady on the bench
who talks about everybody.
[yawns]
[Lionel] He was a character.
Best way I can describe him
is like,
what Flava Flav is to Chuck D
and Public Enemy, you know?
And-- And that was something
interesting too,
for the fans, you know,
they liked it.
He became his own personality
and he developed on that show.
I come from a family
of religious gangsters.
I mean, I buy crabs for, like,
a whole city block.
You got crabs, you got lobster,
you got everything out there.
Welcome to Nervous Thursdays.
Where everything is nervous.
[Ralph] Started out
as alternative videos,
and he was so hot
that he was like,
"Why are you giving me
the wack videos?"
[chuckles] He was like,
"Ralph, I need the good videos."
Welcome. I am here
with my home boys.
And we're all chilling.
We would send him
out with a-- with a camera,
and he'd just come back
with the craziest shit ever.
Oh, I don't like the wind
It's strong, it's going...
[Ralph] He was a nutcase.
This lady right here.
She's so short.
Don't get me upset or nervous.
Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Tim Dog.
Tim Dog's in the house.
[laughter]
Hello.
[group] We're Five Star
and you can see our video
"All Falls Down"
on Video Music Box .
[Ralph] Video Music Box
continues with a hot one
from Billy Ocean
"Mystery Lady".
[Billy Ocean's
"Mystery Lady" playing]
Na, na, na, na, na, na
[Evelyn] I actually met Ralph
on a blind date.
I don't think
he'll remember this,
but he came, like,
with a teddy bear.
[chuckles] And we met,
and then my cousin left,
and he left--
they left us by ourselves.
And then the rest is history,
Thirty-five years here together.
[Ralph] Three, two, one.
No, this is not-- ugh.
Three.
-[man] Rolling.
-Three, two, one.
No, this is not MTV,
it's Video Music Box.
A great program
with positive informa-- sorry.
No, I'm gonna do
something else here, hold up.
I'll tell you when to start then
I'm just gonna turn to you so.
Go.
We take the beat to the street
with the top 40 sounds
of Madonna,
New Kids on the Block,
and Bruce Springsteen.
Let's do another one.
It was just in the midst
of the beginning
of Video Music Box,
so he prepared me for it.
[Lionel] Red,
how'd you like the party?
Yeeeeeaa, what's up?
You know what?
This is a spectacular party.
I enjoyed it very much,
and, you know, I hope things
keep on going strong.
And you guys,
y'all are the best.
[Ralph]
Video Music Box continues
with Boogie Down Productions
featuring KRS-One.
To let us into your skin
Why?
'Cause then you'll begin...
-Yeah.
- ...To master
Rhymin', rhymin', rhymin'
Criminal minded,
you've been blinded
Lookin', for a style
like mine
You can't find it
They are the audience,
I am the lyricist
Sometimes the suckers
on the side gotta hear this
Page, a rage
and I'm not in a cage
Free as a bird
to fly up out on stage...
[Professor] Oh, man.
The live performances
on Video Music Box
were like a treat.
Yo. The Jazzy Jeff
and Fresh Prince
early joint at
uh, Union Square.
Music, and make parents
and children
All sit down and they both
be willing to...
[Professor]
These are memorable moments
for like New York
hip-hop dudes.
Yo! What's up?
I'm The Fresh Prince.
And this is a brand new group
coming out of Philly
called 2 Too Many.
And here's their video.
-[group] Where's the party?
-Y'all took too long.
All right. Go ahead,
do it again. Take seven.
[shouts]
Yo! What's up?
I'm The Fresh Prince.
And there's a brand new group
coming out of Philly called...
...2 Too Many.
I don't like that.
-[laughs]
-I don't like that.
[Ralph] We didn't make no money
off of the TV show
because we was non-commercial.
It was a non-commercial station.
If it became money, it would
turn into something else
that I wouldn't have
control over.
And I liked the idea
that I could play
what I wanted to play
and not have to worry about it.
I said, "We'll, make money
somewhere else."
The only way we made money
was doing the parties.
I love New York. This is the--
I mean, no place parties
like New York, baby.
I'm ripped for real.
[Ralph]
These promoters was out here.
And we're seeing--
we were doing the math like,
you know, "Wait a minute,
they charged $20.
It was a thousand people
in that was $20,000.
Oh, let's do that,
we could do that."
And so we started
doing the parties.
All right, y'all ready
for Tribe Called Quest,
New York City?
Put your hands together.
[Wendy] I did go to the parties
that Ralph promoted
and they'd always be packed.
[cheering]
Right now is about New York.
And that's what we--you know,
we all about New York right now.
You could see
the Wu Tang Clan over there.
[rapping indistinctly]
Tribe Called Quest over there...
Well, can I get a level
on the bass and on the treble
Footin up and down
like a UNLV Rebel
The answer be amongst us cause
we rarely dig acoustics
Can't be too much flackin',
not too much packin'
You must container that at
least to dip your hand in rap
Foxy Brown getting ready
to warm up over there.
[crowd cheering]
[Wendy] And a few White people
were in there,
like, you could feel them
trying to steal
our flavor again.
You could feel it.
Black comedy is blowing up.
You know, what I'm saying
it's blowing up, word up.
Def Jam.
We got the power,
we got Uptown Comedy.
You know what I'm saying?
And there was a lot
of Black comics out there
that's just as good as me, man.
We need places to work out.
Please look out for us, man.
Check us out
and support Black comedy.
And I got Beast
over here hiding.
Beast found this man for me
'cause it was hectic
to get to them.
[Sam] Beast was, uh,
the head of our security.
And, um, we had a team
called the Gorilla Force.
And it was a no nonsense crew.
So artists would come,
we were able to get
A-list artists
to come even to Brooklyn.
Ooh, la, la, la
It's the natural law
that the refugees bring
Ooh, la, la, la, la, la, la,
la, la la, la, lah
- Sweet thing
- Yeah, yeah
- Yeah, yeah
- Yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, in saloons
we drink Boone's
And battle goons
till high noon
[indistinct rapping]
[Beast] So when you see
like the Fugees and Lauryn Hill
and Wyclef perform,
again, it's breathtaking
because, remember,
you were in a neighborhood
that people don't expect
nothing to come out
of a neighborhood like this.
We never had any casualties.
People had a great time
and a great experience.
Oh, yeah, Video Music ...
[Fat Joe]
This is the guy on TV.
Like, how many times
do you see the guy from TV,
let alone the number one show?
Video Music Box,
Pete Rock, CL Smooth.
And he's in your neighborhood
hosting the party.
We're in the inner city.
We're poor as hell.
We're watching TV.
This is the guy.
Guess what, he's in the spot
down the block.
-[indistinct screaming]
-We going.
[Ralph] You know there's some
old people sitting out there
watching going,
"How can that young man now
wear that thing
around his neck like that?"
[laughing]
He's just fulfilling his dreams.
That's all, you know.
[Wendy] Video Music Box
definitely was very,
very influential
in terms of fashion as well.
[Havoc] You'll see
a certain artist,
you'd be like "Yo,
what's that hat right there?
Oh, I wanna get that hat.
You know,
I wanna get that jacket."
[Wendy] We saw everything
from the jewelry
to, you know,
Ghostface in his robes
to, you know, Mary
with her hair pulled out
of the top of her hat.
And we were all doing that.
Well, hip-hop started
on independent labels,
you had all these local hits.
It went from that
to more serious deals
with better labels,
it became more normal
to see the artists
that you were buying,
put out videos
with those albums.
Now, we know
there's no reason
these records can't reach
the masses anymore.
[Ralph] Up the block from me
were these guys
named Full Force.
And Full Force was a group
that came out early days.
And they knew
where I lived so,
they would come and knock
on my door in my house,
I'm like, "How did you guys
even get in the building?"
And I'm like, "All right.
What's about to happen?"
And so, "Did you get our video,
Ralph?"
And I'm like,
"No, your record company
is not giving it to me
because they want me
to pay for it."
"We'll fix that".
The next week, the woman
from the record company
calls me, "Hi, Ralph,
I'm gonna send you
all the videos
that we have out."
And that's how
my relationship got better
with the labels
and as well with the artists,
because now, we were working
hand in hand with each other.
[crowd cheering]
[man] Ah, yeah.
When I say "Can I kick it?"
I want everybody to say
"Yes, you can!"
One, two, three, go.
- It's like that, y'all
- What!
It's like that, y'all
It's like that, y'all
It's like that, y'all
It's like that, y'all
It's like that, y'all
Come on, come on
- Can I kick it?
-[crowd] Yes, you can!
- Can I kick it?
-[crowd] Yes, you can!
- Can I kick it?
-[crowd] Yes, you can!
- Can I kick it?
-[crowd] Yes, you can!
Can I kick it?
[Ralph] This is
the Video Music Box collection,
You know, this is where
we keep everything.
This is what we used
at TV stations back in the days.
And this is how I did
Video Music Box
most in the '80s, that's...
classic Ralph
with the-- with the high--
with the high-top
talking to the legendary
Dizzy Gillespie.
What influence
did Charlie Parker have on you?
The greatest influence.
The biggest influence
on my playing.
[Ralph] And how do you feel
about the music business now,
in general right now?
In comparison to before
when you first started?
Well, there's
much more respect.
They respect it
as an art form now.
[Ralph] How, what
were the feelings back then
when you first started?
Nigger music.
It's not hot tracks
or U68
It's a video show
that we think is great
- Fresh...
- Fresh out of the pack...
- From eight to nine...
- Video Music Box
It will blow your mind
[Ralph] Good evening and welcome
to Video Music Box.
Tonight, Fresh Fest 85.
Taped live
at the Nassau Coliseum.
[DMC]
It was the Fresh Fest tour
that put us
in the big coliseums
and once again,
Ralph was the only camera
in the room.
[Chuck Chillout] Him filming
the Fresh Fest
in Nassau Coliseum.
Run-DMC,
18,000 people.
It was crazy.
Everybody in the world
was there.
[Ralph] I think that's
the first press conference
-I ever went to in my life.
-[reporter] Run-DMC, you guys
got anything to say
to the...?
[Ralph] And we get there
and we see
all the different cameramen.
I mean, like,
national networks.
And we just set our cameras
down right there.
We just fit in,
like that's the thing
that Russell and Run-DMC did,
they brought every new first,
a press conference you know,
a press pass to be backstage,
[electronic music]
[Ralph] The Fresh Fest
was amazing.
Come on, clap your hands.
Come on, clap.
[Chuck Chillout]
Kurtis Blow, Fat Boys,
Whodini,
they had these break dancers.
Chad and Jermaine Dupri
were breakdancers.
This is my brother Dynasty...
We had a good time.
[Chuck Chillout] They was like,
probably 10, 11 back then.
But that tour went shit,
like, 40 some cities.
[upbeat electronic plays
on speaker]
[DJ Scratch] Grandmaster Flash
is on the turntables.
This is actually
the first time I seen him.
Like I see him
on the album covers
but I never seen him DJ.
And he had a dude next to him,
he was going like this.
While Flash was cutting
and scratching.
That was epic to me.
[DJ] From Hollis Queens,
Jam Master Jay
and Run-DMC!
[Ralph] After I saw
the Fresh Fest. I was like,
"Oh, White people are into this
hip-hop thing heavy."
Because I went to Fresh Fest
in Long Island.
And it was mixed.
And everybody knows
the lyrics the same way.
[crowd singing]
"Oh, this is crossover.
This-- This-- This has--
no, there's no color
on this anymore.
This is just rap.
This is just hip-hop."
So, went to MTV.
I said, "I got to get
Video Music Box on,
it's time
for a hip-hop show."
[groans]
"You don't understand, Ralph.
Middle America's
not ready for no hip-hop."
And I said,
"What are you talking about?
I just came from--
let me show you the footage
of Fresh Fest.
Let me show you this."
White kids are singing, Asian,
Latino, Black.
We all together.
[upbeat music]
And they said
"Nah, you don't understand.
That's in New York.
That's not how
the rest of the country works."
I don't know about that.
These dudes is on tour, bro.
They're going on--
ain't just in New York,
they're doing these shows,
they're touring."
"Nah. Not ready.
I don't want to scare nobody."
And I was like,
"I think you're wrong."
-[rapper] Yo!
-[Evelyn] A year later,
they came out with Yo! MTV Raps.
[Tuffy] Their blueprint
was Video Music Box.
Video Music Box
was the essential show
for hip-hop on television.
A lot people want artists
to live up
to a certain standard,
you know, like,
be role models
and all that kind of stuff.
I'm sure, that's put on you
all the time.
Yeah. But it's kinda hard,
I mean...
[Diddy] It was-- It was never
a competition
with MTV
with Video Music Box
because Video Music Box
was its own thing.
[crowd cheering]
You know,
just the love of the art,
and it was still important
and needed,
the job wasn't done,
You want to know
the star status
When I walk in the studio
Mic's there, tracks spare,
and I'm ready to do me some
[Diddy] You know, new artists
needed to be put on,
people that don't get the chance
even before YouTube.
You know what I'm saying?
To really get a light
shined on them.
We're getting ready
to steam roller,
so here we go with Ice-T
and High Rollers on Yo! MTV.
[DMC] The difference
is Video Music Box
was us showing us,
and MTV was them showing us.
That's the bottom line
difference.
That's a different vibe
sitting there watching it.
So I'm not worried about it,
you know.
I'm like, "Nah, we good."
So finally,
now, they're getting speed.
I can see
they getting comfortable
with they doing what they do,
they getting better
at Yo! MTV Raps.
So I'm watching it, and I said,
"Okay, we got to go deep, deep,
deep to the underground."
And we start pulling out
all these underground artists,
guys that nobody's heard of,
Jay-Z.
[indistinct rapping]
When I first got
my little interview,
I was happy as hell.
It was like a,
you know, a badge
to get that Ralph interview.
I know you got new thing
going on with a new label.
-Yeah.
-Production's growing, huh?
Yeah, yeah. We doing
the same thing as these cats.
That's why I came down,
you know,
I mean, represent them.
They did a priority thing,
we doing that too
Roc-A-Fella Records
on their priority also,
you know?
G Rap.
To be a billionaire
takes hard work for years
Some nights I shed a tear
while I said my prayers
[Ralph] The most incredible
hip-hop artist to me ever.
You know, we're looking
for that dope shit
that's in the clubs,
that's in the street
that we hear in the cars.
Luke...
Doo Doo Brown
Doo Doo Brown
Doo Doo Brown
Doo Doo Brown
Doo Doo Brown
Doo Doo Brown
Doo Doo Brown
Doo Doo Brown
[Ralph]
You know Miami bass music.
Nobody's playing Miami bass
in New York.
[Luther]
Nobody was playing our videos.
Oh, it's too much ass.
Oh, too many crotch shots.
Well, Ralph was not playing
the same videos
that MTV was playing.
Straight outta Compton!
Crazy motherfucker
named Ice Cube
From the gang called Niggaz
With Attitudes
[Ralph] Like, by '88,
we're playing N.W.A.
Nobody--
who the hell is N.W.A.
and why are you playing that
in New York?
So we're-- we're going
after hardcore music
that's for the ghetto.
All night-a
All right-a
All night-a
Ay, sing with it. Ay!
Oh! Give it up. [laughs]
[Luther]
What people don't realize
is because it's a show,
they really made me--
it really made New York
my number one selling market.
I don't really play
no keyboards and instruments.
My man,
I'll hum him song things.
He'll come with ideas,
we work together,
we make hits together,
we make money together.
The first video
that I begged Ralph to play
from Bad Boy was Craig Mack
"Flava In Ya Ear".
Just like Uniblab,
robotic kicking flab
My flavor bidder badder
chitter-chatter
Madder than the Mad Hatter
[Diddy] You know, on that day,
it broke the video.
And that video
and that piece of art
was so impactful
that it launched Bad Boy.
[Khalid] Have you forgotten
that once we were brought here,
we were robbed of our name?
[Nas] Why did you care
so much about community?
Because, you know,
it was violence
going on in our community.
Here it is. Bam!
In your face goddamn
This is the dope jam
Crack tore the neighborhood
to shreds.
[Shaggy] A lot of gun violence.
You know, it was--
it was tough times and times,
You know I mean.
Some of us,
we sold the drug
and some of us
was victim to the drug.
But the drug
made you do things for $5
that you wouldn't do for 500.
So because Ralph
had complete editorial control,
in between the videos,
he could drop some knowledge.
You know we're here to talk
about-- we're gonna have,
you know, like a conversation,
on what I think
is probably one
of the major problems
is young Black men
killing themselves off.
And, uh, I wanna first
talk to you Guru
about the, uh, the video
that you have out,
it's called "Just to Get A Rep".
And this is how
the story goes
Brothers are amused
by others brother's reps
But the thing they know best
is where the gun is kept
Young brothers are just, like,
everybody's frontin'
on each other. Everybody--
like, it's a lack
of self-esteem.
And to gain esteem,
they want to take something
from the next man.
Bring him down so,
to gain more respect,
to gain a rep.
I believe it was Ralph
that came up
-with Word.
-[Ralph] Word.
That's what they were saying
on the street.
That's what we was saying,
"Word?"
Behind that slang,
came information.
If I'm real sad,
I just cry about it.
Just get it all out,
you know, my system.
I think crying is a good way
to get a lot of things out.
[Sabrina]
So we-- we-- we would drop
in stopping teen pregnancy.
It was important for me
to get information across
in the show like edutainment.
You know, it was like,
we can educate you
at the same time
as entertain you.
He also was the voice
of kind of reason
and bringing
to you social issues,
very-- not as speaking down
to you,
speaking with you
and just kind of sharing
with you what's going on.
And I think
he's probably the only person
we trusted
about what's going on.
It's Uncle Ralph.
He was Uncle Ralph,
he was bringing it to you.
[indistinct rapping]
[indistinct rapping]
[Ray] I would say
that 10% for me
of Video Music Box
at the time was artists.
The other 90%,
we were in the community
or doing an event.
I live in Brooklyn, people from
outside Brooklyn say,
"Our Brooklyn niggas is wild.
Them niggas is just crazy."
-Now, we ain't wild.
-Why is that?
Because every time
something bad happened,
they put it on the news.
But when something happens in
other places, they don't
bring it out like that.
[Bryan] Video Music Box
is based on family.
It might've really
come from my parents.
You know,
they were really active
in community-based issues.
Families is-- is bigger--
is a bigger word
than business to him.
Well, I think, um,
the security is good.
I think everybody feel
more safe
and they need to just
leave those guns home
and, you know, just chill.
Get their education
so they can get there
and make something
out of their self.
[Professor X] Via survival,
you have become a victim.
A war victim.
They're not even being respected
under the guidelines of wartime.
[Ralph] So we would go
to Rikers Island all the time.
You know, we had relationships
with corrections,
and they would let us come in
because the inmates watched
Video Music Box all the time.
They would-- uh,
the correction officers
that I knew would be like, "Yo,
when Video Music Box
comes on,
no stabbings, no nothing.
Nothing's going on."
Soon as it's over,
it's back to business.
Everything's crazy again.
[]
[news reporter] Prosecutors say
they were part of a gang
of about 30 youths,
so we're on a wilding attack
in Central Park last April.
[Ralph] Korey Wise,
when this thing comes out
about these guys
the Central Park Five,
you got some five Black kids
and you got one White woman
and it's just--
you can't win.
These Black kids
are gonna lose,
it's not gonna-- it's not gonna
work out for them.
Later on in life,
I'm watching this tape
of Korey Wise talk
and he's in-- he says
"I was in, um Rikers Island
and watched Video Music Box."
So I'm like,
"What did he just say?"
After I found myself,
uh, becoming incarcerated,
that's when I found
myself embracing--
embrace the Video Music Box.
Video Music Box, it just--
it just--
it spoke to my soul.
I guess it helped raised me.
[man] "Video Music Box
would like to thank the staff
at Rahway State Prison
for allowing us
to come in and do this story."
[Ralph] Rahway prison
used to write me.
The guys used to write me
all the time.
And then they got
a record deal.
And-- And traditionally,
over the years,
people have come out
of Rahway with record deals.
With a charge
and our system locked
When you don't wanna live
[Ralph] And they had a record
deal when I was a kid.
I used to listen
to their records.
It would say "Recorded
in Rahway State Prison."
We call this the house of pain.
Because prison
is about suffering,
it's about living
in pain 24 hours a day.
[Ralph] And it was the real
deal. These was lifers.
Like, these was cats
that they wasn't getting out
no time soon.
[somber music playing]
[Hakeem] Yeah,
the Rahway presentation
was particularly searing,
because it was sort
of an indication
without being lectured to,
you probably wanna avoid
going down this path.
Because this is a circumstance
that you may find yourself in,
if things
go the wrong direction.
I'm trying to make babies,
I'm trying to raise babies
with a strong mother
and a strong father figure,
and I can't do that
when you're behind bars.
-Go ahead.
-So respect.
But I need you here, too.
So, maybe you recognize
the fact that I need you,
if you know what I'm saying?
To build our young
and create that army.
If we don't make it
this generation
but the next generation will.
We tried to find a balance
in presenting
Video Music Box over the years.
You know, we can get
as hood as you wanna get,
we can give you some knowledge
in between there, you know,
and we can have some fun.
However, you wanna mix it up.
I mean, Ralph,
we come from an era
where it was really a dream
to get on at this time.
-Yeah.
-You know?
You know, to become
and maybe get some love
from Rey, get some love
from you, you know.
That was a part
of the dream, right?
-That's right.
-Just to make it that far
and just have a record
in the neighborhood,
who would've thought
it'd be a major
business conglomerate
like it is today.
[hip-hop music playing]
[reporter] Rap has arrived!
The music and the culture
has been absorbed
into many parts
of mainstream America.
Rap music and hip-hop culture
have gone from being
an inner city
homeboy lifestyle
to a popular music.
Craved even by suburbia.
[reporter] At this school,
the kids learn the four Rs,
reading, writing,
'rithmetic, and rap.
Most of the expressions here
make quite a bit of sense.
Fat cables for example
means big gold chains.
Full moon,
that's a large back side.
[Steele] I think
the corporations started
to see the change,
the prospect of making
a lot more money
and being in more control.
You saw the money grabbing
and-- and the opportunity
for individuals
like myself, uh,
coming from these areas.
Uh, the-- the lane
started to kinda get
a little bit more narrow.
[Daymond]
Everything in the world
has some hip-hop tied to it,
and corporations
are making
an absolute killing off of it.
Once the inner city got you,
then the outer city
wanna get involved,
the Whites, whatever, the other
people that's living outside.
They say, "What the hell
are all those niggas doing?"
It's gotta be something.
Let's get involved.
That's the money
we can make out of this.
All these black motherfuckers
jumping around and shit.
How can we make some money
out of that?
And I am Cash Money,
the number-one stunna.
I'm the Birdman Jr.
Weezy, baby.
I mean, hip hop
in the '90s,
we got rich.
[laughs]
-[upbeat music playing]
-[indistinct singing]
[Diddy] We started
to know our worth.
You know what I'm saying?
So, you know, you--
you started to have people
that actually, you know,
became millionaires.
I'm a capitalist
and I'm about making money,
but definitely, uh,
when a corporation comes in,
that's when
the manipulation comes in.
And I'm happy for everybody
getting money,
but it corrupts the system.
[indistinct rapping]
You know, my era came in
with a sense of-of,
"We're not going
to work for you.
We're going to own
our own shit,"
[indistinct rapping]
And we had to figure it out
because there was a lot
of trickery in these contracts
and a lot of shit like that.
-[hip-hop music playing]
-Yo, show time, let's go!
What?
[DJ repeating beat on vinyl]
[DJ Scratch] When you
first start, you know
you're doing it
because you love it.
It's something new.
You're trying something,
and then it became
something epic.
Ralph McDaniels
went from becoming,
you know, somebody
that was doing this shit.
It was a great idea.
And then, now he's an activist
for the culture.
-[rap music playing]
-[indistinct rapping]
[Nas] Everybody deserves a shot.
He gave people that chance.
He gave people that shot.
That was part
of the building blocks
to get us to where
we needed to go.
Video Music Box,
all right.
We're here,
I'm in 125th Street.
Broad Money about to drop
this Tuesday.
I'm taking it's kinda like--
you know,
to the subways today,
that's kinda crazy right now.
Oh, yeah. You know
what I'm saying,
[clears throat]
ain't no artist get on the train
since MC Lyte,
you know what I mean?
-So...
-MOP up in the place!
It's going down like that.
[Billy] I can't find
someone else
outside of our immediate family
that's in the business
that supported MOP
as much as Ralph McDaniels
and Video Music Box.
- How about some hardcore?
- Yeah, we like it raw!
- How about some hardcore?
- Yeah, we like it raw!
- How about some hardcore?
- Yeah, we like it raw!
[Billy] You never would think
that your video
is coming up next,
and he's gonna
actually say your name,
and he's gonna be excited
about your song.
[Lil Fame] He didn't care.
He's just doing a video.
The whole neighborhood
is hyped.
-Uh-huh.
-So we basically did
the video
for the neighborhood.
[hip-hop playing]
[Ralph] The reason why
we started making videos
is because I said sometimes,
"I don't like the videos
that we get that we play
on Video Music Box."
Sometimes it just doesn't work.
I always want the video
to take it to the next level.
So, your movement
can only be, like, right here,
you come back this block.
[Ralph] Me and Lionel
was sitting down one day
and we came up
with an idea of a name
of a company
called Classic Concept.
Then, we started,
like, really producing
and shooting our own stuff.
[record scratches]
Well, my name is Roxanne,
and don't ya know
-[Nas] Roxanne's Revenge.
-[Ralph] Roxanne's Revenge.
Right. That's the first
hip hop video we ever made.
We shot it in Queens,
Queens and Brooklyn. Yeah.
And I remember Ralph,
you know, doing his directing,
and Lionel Martin,
and he was like "Yeah."
And I was like,
"Oh, these are professionals
with three cameras.
This is great."
We weren't really in it
for the money.
[gentle hip-hop music playing]
[Beast] Ralph's
perspective is like,
let me get to know you.
What do you like,
let me hang around
your neighborhood.
Let me see how you eat,
how you move,
-how you walk.
-Ralph did everything.
MC Ren, we had
MC Rail, Steady B.
We shot music videos
for all these artists
and we made them matter.
I grew up on the crime side
The New York Times side
[Ralph] You know RZA
was like, "Yo,
I got a song that's called
C.R.E.A.M.
I want you to do it."
And I said, okay
and I-- I listened to it,
I was like wooh.
Cash rules
everything around me
C.R.E.A.M., get the money
Dollar dollar bill, y'all
[Raekwon] I'm telling him
things, like, yo,
catch the trees.
Catch the rocks.
-Yeah.
-He was just like, "Say less,
-I got it under control."
-He did what he had to do.
He made that shit
match the song.
-Yeah.
-[Nas] When I was starting,
you gave me my visuals
to show me to the world.
Sparkle like a diamond,
sneak a Uzi on the island
In my army jacket linin'
Hit the Earth
like a comet, invasion!
Nas is like
the Afrocentric Asian:
half-man, half-amazin'...
[Ralph] I saw us
as a renaissance
of young Black filmmakers.
[Nas] The buddha
monk's in your trunk
Turn the bass up
not stories by Aesop
Place your loot up,
parties I shoot up
Man, Ralph played
a-- a big part
in Nas' rise because he did
the press kit for Illuminati.
[reporter] The 20 year old
Nas is a product
of one of
the largest and toughest
housing projects
in New York City.
Queensbridge Houses,
AKA The Bridge.
It's full of crime,
full of all this crack, drugs,
all of that.
Just like every other ghetto.
[Raplh] You know what's funny?
Is, like, when we did your EPK,
-I don't know if you realize...
-[Nas] That was huge for me.
Right. Right.
[Nas] I don't know if I ever saw
one of those done...
-Right. Did not. Not on TV.
-[Nas] ...for anybody else. Nah.
Because nobody
played them on TV.
They just used
to give him to the...
you know, TV stations.
-"Oh, this is Nas...
-Yeah.
[Ralph] ...the new artist."
They'd look at it,
"Oh, this is cool,"
but they never put it on TV.
-Right.
-[Ralph] I was like,
"I'm gonna play it
on the TV."
Before even Sony even said it.
[Nas] You know, we was in--
we was like this,
it was like, "Oh, shit, bro.
We're, uh--
We're about to be--
Yo, we made it."
[Ralph] He has a lot of style,
you know what I'm saying?
He-- not only lyric-wise,
you know like, his person.
I don't even know
if you remember,
when they got me on the phone
with you, and I was like,
"Well, what's your idea? What do
you want it to look like?"
And you said,
"Just like Video Music Box,
like what you normally do."
So, I said, "Oh, okay.
We could do that." And that
was all I needed to know.
So, I said, "We gon' do that,
we might as well play it."
I'm a product of hip hop,
you know what I'm saying?
I'm a product from--
of the old school
and the newest of the new.
Ralph had his eyes
on everything that was moving,
so he knew who I was
even though I wasn't
anybody at that time.
But it's Ralph,
so he knows what's going on.
Thank God. [laughs]
It was simple back then right?
Some of the things
that you see here,
I guess, are some of your items.
I don't know if you have
everything here today
but just give us the idea
or the audience an idea
of some of the other items
you might have
or the items in general.
Well, for-- as for right now,
we, uh-- we're testing
the New York market...
I tracked Ralph down
all the way into Virginia.
l saw him and I gave him
a couple of shirts.
Then, he did
this interview with us,
and he was the one
who, kind of, anointed us
right there and said,
"Check them out.
Good clothes.
And, you know, you need
to know who they are."
The phone the next day
was ringing off the hook.
Ralph started to put out
something called Fat Fashions.
A fashion show.
I didn't have any money.
He said, "No problem.
-You can just show in the show."
-[Ralph] Please give it up
for Team FUBU.
[Daymond] So,
when I approached NLL
or I approached anybody else,
Ralph had already basically
whispered in their ear
due to me airing.
He opened the door
for those artists
to believe in me,
and I don't care
what artists they are today,
they owe a large part
of their career to Ralph.
[dramatic music playing]
[Ralph] In 1998, or before 1998,
Giuliani decides
that he was gonna get rid
of some of the assets
the city had.
And one of them became
the city TV station, NYCTV.
Video Music Box. Ruff Ryders,
this is how it's going down.
My man, DMX, in the place,
it's a beautiful thing man
to see you, man.
-Once again, congratulations.
-Yeah.
Thank you very much to all.
[stammers]
And I don't think
they really understand
how beautiful it is.
You know what I'm saying?
'Cause for me, being a dawg,
lock down,
you know what I'm saying?
Watching you on the Box,
you know what I'm saying?
And now,
being a part of this?
I knew--
I just did what I had
to do. You know what I mean?
And, and I'm glad
to be here, man.
I am the streets.
I will be the force
of the streets till I die.
You have a fan out here.
-Thank you very much.
-For real.
Video Music Box.
You know what I'm saying?
You know I'm with it,
the branch, whatever...
[Evelyn] Channel 31
was the biggest outlet we had.
Everyone got to see
Video Music Box on channel 31.
So when they decided
to sell it,
it was a big loss for us...
I gotta stand right here, man.
Sixteen years, I had been
doing Video Music Box.
Can you get this
in the background?
So, when that day ended,
and we got all our tapes,
and we went,
put them in storage,
did whatever we did.
Video Music Box doing it
behind the scenes and...
And I went home
and I had nothing to do.
Oh, this is real,
like it's really not happening
no more, like.
And, you know, we were still
doing music videos
but Video Music Box was me.
[Lionel] I remember Ralph
was very upset
because it was like, now it's--
I got to start from scratch.
All the relationships
I developed,
all of this stuff
and everything like that.
[tape rewinds]
And now you got to start
all over again,
on a political side
as far as getting himself in.
It was like an empty hole.
I was like, "Okay.
What can I do?
Should I go to MTV again?"
I go to BET.
Maybe there's another
channel that's out here
that would take our show.
You know how like
you right here,
you was-- you was hot.
It wasn't like we did anything
wrong, like we fell off.
We was hot when we fell off
that channel.
-Come on, man.
-[crowd chanting]
[Ralph] And I was like,
"Damn, dudes is going
to be playing me when I come up
and start trying to get
a job over here.
They're gonna handle me."
My pride got in the way.
Like, no, I ain't
asking nobody for that.
We're gonna wait it out.
And I just waited it out,
and waited it out,
and waited it out.
It wasn't Ralph's fault
that the channel
was closing down.
He had nothing to do with that.
So, he was like,
"Okay, it's happening".
This is Ralph, Ralph was like,
"All right, no problem.
We're gonna figure it out."
And I remember
crazy Sam calling me.
What you think
the next move is?
I said, what the fuck you
mean what the next move is?
Hey, Ralph, you want me
to go in the streets
and promote
this shit everywhere,
every record label,
every fuckin' place
that moves, barbershops?
He said, "Nah,
I'm gonna lay back,"
I said, "What are you
gonna lay back for?"
I wasn't even going out.
I didn't even want
to talk to nobody.
I was like,
no, I gotta figure this out,
I gotta figure it out.
Don't talk to me.
And crazy Sam's,
"Yo, come on, nigga,
come outside. Come outside."
And I was like, "Fuck it."
So, let's see
what's going on.
And we're gonna proceed on,
all right?
But it didn't keep
Ralph from not taking
his show elsewhere.
It took a lot to search,
but he never gave up,
and he made sure
that he found an outlet
for Video Music Box.
And it was
this other station,
which was like channel 31.
It was channel 25...
He went down for a little while.
But then when he popped
back up again,
it was just like he never left.
I'm that same
brother, you know,
Untouchables, hunny-sixth.
I'm with Uncle Ralph
on Video Music Box.
[rap music playing
on speaker]
[rapping indistinctly]
You know who this lady is?
She goes by name
of Keyshia Cole.
You know, I prepare
for the worst and wish
for the best, you know?
[indistinct singing]
Can you introduce
yourselves, real quick?
-I'm Beyonce.
-I'm Kelly.
-Hello, I'm Michelle.
-And we're Destiny's Child.
It's getting hard for me
And I don't wanna leave
[indistinct rapping]
[Ralph] I said
you're the only guy
that I haven't seen
before live.
And when,
when you got on stage I said,
"This is incredible, man."
That'll be the same day
I give the game back
You know the next question
dog "Yo, where Dame at?"
This track the Indian dance
to bring our reign back
[Ralph]
Yo, go to the studio right now.
I got the legendary
cats out of Houston, Texas.
They go by the name
of the Geto Boyz. Check it out.
When these people's mind stop
playing tricks on them.
-You got that right.
-[laughs]
Every time you're think
you notice something, you know
no matter what your endeavor,
it is that you do.
I hated going on radio.
I hated the radio.
We played the same music over,
and over, and over again.
We're doing
the-- the radio show right now
for my people out there
that's listening.
But at the same time,
I got my video cameras
in here for my video show.
Yeah, coast-to-coast
hip hop countdown.
Your uncle Ralph--
DJ Ralph McDaniels.
Westside connection
in the building.
[cheering]
[Ralph] You needed rotation.
And people only listen
for a certain amount of time.
They wanna hear hit records,
and that whole concept.
I understood
what they were saying,
but I felt like people
still wanted more variety.
And we could throw
in and make the playlist
a little bit bigger,
and they go, "Nope.
It's only these songs
and that's it."
[dramatic music playing]
And I just felt
like I was trapped
in that space.
That's when the-- the whole
hip hop world shifted.
[man] Pioneering music retailer,
Tower Records,
one of several chains
closing its doors nationwide.
The internet destroyed,
the computer destroyed
the music business to me,
I think--
[man] The main culprit
in the decline of the brick
and mortar record store,
online music.
I watched how it destroyed first
of all the recording studios,
a lot of them all went out
of business,
ain't too many left.
The quality of music
got horrible,
you know what I mean?
The record stores dwindled,
and the people that I knew
that was getting those
six figure jobs lost their jobs.
There's a new artist
every time you turn on
your phone and you really
can't get into anyone.
Okay. So, we'll put up
some information,
uh, as well as online
information, so people--
'Cause everybody is online
right now. The game--
the game
changed a little bit, right?
Yeah, yeah, for sure. A lot.
Well, it-- it changed
because now,
we are part of the entertainment
exploitive monster.
In my day, I had to give
out flyers that said,
"Hey, I'm Fat Joe,"
at the train station.
I'm on the thug,
but never the drugs though
When all the kids said
that they hated me, Fat Joe
At night, we would
put up paste posters, glue.
I would go to the clubs
and give the DJ the vinyl.
It was just a real process
to really promote yourself
and get out there.
Now, you just press send
and it's in the air,
and whoever likes it likes it.
In one way, the internet
is a fantasy for a lot of us
because we get worldwide
recognition in minutes.
So, yes,
there's some bad that came out
of the internet into hip hop,
but there's some damn good
that came out of it
and went into hip hop.
Man, The Boogie Down Bronx
is in the house.
Brooklyn's in the house,
Queens is in the house.
We got it going on.
It gave Video Music Box
a different life because
Video Music Box has what,
30,000 hours of footage.
[cheering]
Video Music Box ,
I won't say it lost
its audience.
Its audience shifted...
Yup, come on.
It's Video Music Box.
We out here at Webster Hall
right now, for the launch party.
It's really, really,
really packed, turned up here...
[screaming]
We're in punk Brooklyn!
Brooklyn!
We're from the Bronx.
-Cali!
-Commack, Long Island.
Victor from Jersey!
[indistinct rapping]
[Lance] Ralph was dedicated
and focused on his goals
and his main objectives.
That's where the love
of what I'm doing,
not knowing where it's gonna go
played a major role.
Yeah, Video Music Box
backstage, Summer Jam '06.
I mean,
this is real exclusive.
And I mean, for, like,
six weeks we've been talking
about how this guy
was coming to New York,
and then he did it tonight.
-Jamie Foxx, come on, man.
-Oh, man, I had a blast.
You know, ultimately,
it's a family business
and we just like love
to contribute to it
and see it grow and prosper.
And I think,
when we talk about family,
we're talking
about the fans as well,
because they've been on this
ride with us the whole time.
[Biggie] Check it out
[man] ATL make some
motherfucking noise
B-I-G-G-I-E
AKA B-I-G
Get it, Biggie
[Hakeem]
It's the 20th anniversary
of Christopher Wallace's
passing,
and I said I'm going
to the floor of the house
and I'm going to give
a tribute to Biggie Smalls.
It was all a dream.
I used to read Word Up!
magazine.
Salt-N-Pepa
and Heavy D up in the limousine.
I think in many ways,
you know, hip hop's journey
has been the journey of
the African American community
over the last 50 years.
And as a result,
I think, you know,
the journey of this country,
because the African-American
community
is so intimately connected.
And President Obama's
rise and his election,
his cultural fluency,
his engagement with artists,
it was just an indication
for me as to how deeply
his election had penetrated
into the streets.
Because of what it represented,
not just in the suites.
But who would've ever thought,
whereas Christopher Wallace
said,
"You never thought that hip
hop would take it this far."
Now I'm in the limelight
'cause I rhyme tight
Time to get paid
Blow up like the World Trade
I like to give a shoutout
to my fellow nominees.
Shoutout
to a very special visitor.
Shoutout to team USA...
[Hakeem] And again,
it's how hip hop brings
to you parts
of, you know, civic life
in ways that you may not
have even had any understanding.
With that, I just have two
more words to say...
"Obama out."
[Daymond John] I think
that for the first time,
kids of all colors
revolted within the system.
I think because they understood
that this was a true
president of the people,
this was a hip hop president.
It's undeniable that
hip hop culture changed the lens
for a lot of people in this
country of who we look at,
who we see, who we listen to,
and to understand the cultures,
to understand the challenges,
to understand the triumphs,
and the heartbreak.
And to me Video Music Box
and Ralph McDaniels
were pioneers in, sort of,
planting this seed
of hip hop culture
that is so ubiquitous now.
[laughs]
We're back in Coney Island.
This is Brooklyn
right here.
[man] Boss shit,
your Lordship
Niggas talkin' yachts
since I'm on shit
I used to run the block,
now I'm corporate
Hoppin' out, you know
it's Son when the doors lift
Whole squad hide the burners
Mets hats in the sky like...
[indistinct chatters]
Put your face on the TV screen.
Put your ear on the speaker.
He gonna tell you what it is.
I love my brother
right here, yo.
Peace and love.
If you love hip hop music,
if you love R&B music,
make some noise up
in the piece right now.
[cheers and applause]
I grew up in,
uh, projects
in Brooklyn
and we didn't have outlets
where we really got to see
our own community perform
or have videos.
And Ralph McDaniels Video
Music Box provided that for us
and let us know
that we have the opportunity
to go out there
and do these same things.
[indistinct rapping]
He made us take
a look at our superheroes.
-Yeah.
-And really understand
who they are,
and what they bring to us,
and with what they was bringing
to us was knowledge, wisdom,
you know what I mean?
Understanding,
everything, just--
-The culture.
-It's an honor.
This is Killah Chuck,
right here.
I think Chuck got
a couple of bars, too.
He might have
some bars for us.
Ralph knows this,
the history of hip hop
started in the Bronx,
now it's all over
the whole world!
[cheering]
[DJ Chuck Chillout]
He's got the Mary J Blige
when she started.
Heavy D when he started.
LL Cool J when he started.
The number one rap song,
Video Music Box .
[DJ Chuck Chillout] He was there
when they were nobodies.
[chuckles] So, he--
so, he ate, drank
and slept it, still to this day.
I started
working at the library maybe
like five years ago,
as a Hip Hop Coordinator
and I wanted to see, like,
hip hop in institutions.
In Queens,
there's 65 different libraries.
-Right.
-And I was like,
if we can get
in these communities
and do something,
and put hip hop in there
just like they have
other cultures,
that would be kinda dope.
[Kev] We have events
in the libraries
where we actually bring in
some of the people
that were involved in hip hop,
and not just musically,
people that are writing books,
documentaries, and we show
that to the kids there.
So, in the last five years, I've
done over three hundred programs
with all types
of different people here.
We still keep our core
of what we've been doing,
because it's been working
since 1983.
We also have evolved
with things.
We're on social media.
New York's number one
video show, Video Music Box.
I'm DJ Ralph McDaniels.
Yeah. I gonna have Money Love.
She's gonna check in with us.
My girl from across the river.
First of all,
thank you for taking the time.
I know
you was on the radio today.
Oh, please, that's nothing, man.
Like, you're just--
who can say no to you?
The hardest working man
in hip hop.
Like, who can say no?
Like--
We're in the Smithsonian.
In Washington, DC,
where our mic is in the museum.
So, it's like an artifact.
[Ralph] I think that
young people need to see
this is all part of us
and this is where we came from.
That's amazing, man.
I love what you're doing,
Ralph, like,
this is what it's all about.
The next generation,
them having a better chance.
We have Video
Music Box Collection,
which is the digitizing
of videos of artists
from when they first began
that have been
in our basement
for so many years.
Man, Brooklyn.
Oh, yeah. Sup?
Okay.
Coming in our woods
Say rhymes that I invent
I'm about to recollect,
and inject
And knock you
out your socks
This is full
classic concept
Video Music Box
We're trying to put them
in schools and colleges.
They can see, "Okay,
this was what was happening
in the '80s."
or "This was happening
in the '90s."
Man, I would love to see
a Video Music Box
educational curriculum
that's been placed
in different junior colleges,
colleges, or high schools.
When I started Revolt,
I had called,
you know,
Ralph to tell him, you know,
thank you for just being
such an inspiration.
I wanted to be Video Music Box.
I want to be unapologetically
Black, do whatever we wanna do,
say whatever we wanna say,
be whoever we wanna be.
-[indistinct rapping]
-Oh, yeah. Yeah.
But it started
with Video Music Box .
[Ralph] The Ave has always
been important, you know,
because that's where
we got our gear.
You know, Shirt Kings
was down there.
[Nas] Yes.
The Shirt Kings,
the mighty Shirt Kings.
Um, Eddie Gold Caps.
-Yes.
-Barbershop.
-Uh, Benny the Jeweler.
-[Ralph] Yup.
You know what
the beauty of Ralph is,
Ralph doesn't demand respect.
He commands respect.
And that's truly respect.
Love, man.
Everybody grew up
on you, Ralph.
I know.
One of the things
that brought us together,
honestly, was hip hop.
We're right here
at the Coliseum.
Jamaica Coliseum.
You know,
hip hop was the culture
that allowed us a space
to communicate with each other
without being
extremely judgmental.
[indistinct chatters]
[Ralph] What store is it?
Which one?
I'll be back.
We'll come back.
-We'll come back.
-Yeah.
-This is a vibe, though.
-Right.
I'm Mike Tyson.
I'm kicking everybody's ass.
I'm the world's greatest.
But I wouldn't be who I am now.
It will be a little
different without hip hop.
Different cultures.
This is what--
-[woman] What's up, Nas?
-Hey.
--everything is all about.
And I love the fact that we are
able to reach these heights.
Now, we're looking beyond that.
You know, how you feel
about the effects
of these systems
that kept us from the money.
And create systems that's gonna
bring us to the money
because we're gonna need
that money
to build our communities.
-Yes, sir.
-[man] Peace to The God.
-Peace, peace.
-I love you...
And I think hip hop
culture has been incredible
in contributing
to the Black community.
Ralph McDaniels,
Video Music Box ,
this is what it's all about.
We're with the people
right here on Jamaica Avenue,
Queens, New York.
You dig me?
Turn around
and see the people, man.
-All right.
-[man] Oh, wait, wait,
-[indistinct chatters]
-Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like, like Uncle Ralph's joint.
Shout out...
You wanna give some shout outs?
[laughing]
I give a shout out to my mom.
I wanna give
a shout out little thing.
Shout out to...
Yo, shout out my first wife,
shout out my second wife.
I wanna shout out--
All you beautiful people
out there.
Oh, shout out everybody
from hip hop in Queens.
-I wanna give a shout out--
-Well, let me give a shout out.
Fredro used to cut my hair.
And the pioneers of hip hop
that made this possible.
Shout out to Kool Herc.
Yeah, yeah.
I wanna give
a shout out to Lauryn Hill.
I'm in the gym.
-I wanna give a shout out--
-[laughs] Shout out
I give a shout out to my family
that have been supportive of me
since day one.
I'm the nut that'd be standing
on the side of the stage...
Lauryn, I love you.
I'm sorry.
Did I make a confession?
-Um, okay. Yes, I did.
-All to Brooklyn.
My partners in FUBU.
Big shout out to my moms.
-LL.
-Buy my first turned tables.
-The Rock.
-And for keeping me
off the street.
-Onyx and Mr. Cheeks--
-Alala.
Alala. What's up, Alala?
Shout out to Ralph McDaniels.
Word, and the Vid Kid.
And the whole squad. Crazy Sam.
My man Tuffy.
All-- All the whole crew
that helped Video Music Box
And us down
all these years, man.
All right.
I'm sorry about the baby shower.
For what's-her-name, 'cause
I didn't give her the 10,000.
'Cause I don't think no baby
should get $10,000
for baby shower.
Unless he's my own baby.
To my husband.
To my mom.
To the fans
that have devoted themselves
to Video Music Box.
I wanna give
a shout out to my dad.
You are awesome.
I love you and
I'm forever proud of you.
I wanna give a shout out
to you, Ralph.
-Love.
-A shout out to Ralph.
Thank you for pushing
the culture forward
and preserving the culture, man.
To my husband Ralph McDaniels.
You have done an amazing,
amazing job.
I'm going to spiritually say it,
it's for me,
and I want to give
a shout out to Biz Markie.
We love you, Biz.
Forever.
Alicia Keys.
Um, God, I'm so proud of you.
Shout out to Alicia Keys.
Okay. Shout out
to her crazy husband
for giving us DMX and all
the other shit that he did.
And the new thing
that they doing
with the DJ thing
and all that shit is awesome.
And Marky D, of course,
and Spider D, and all the D's.
Big shout out to my wife.
You know, she holds me down.
You know, this is not easy,
this is a family business.
This is what we do.
Video Music Box for Life.
Thank you, honey.
Mwah. Love you.
I wanna give out
a shout out to Ralph.
Thank you for everything
you've done for me.
And for the hip hop community,
for the culture.
For New York City,
for the world.
Um, thank you, man.