Celebrating the Legacy of Ralph McDaniels and Video Music Box

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“Uncle” Ralph McDaniels is a hip-hop mainstay with more than 400 credits as a music video director to his name (Nas’ “It Ain’t Hard To Tell”, Wu-Tang Clan’s “C.R.E.A.M.”, and Black Moon’s “Who Got The Props”, among others), but he’s likely best known as the longtime host of Video Music Box. McDaniels created the long-running music video program in 1983, and for the past three decades he’s documented New York’s hip-hop scene with the wisdom and reverence of a hip-hop lifer who’s seen it all. At this year’s SummerStage festival he’s hosting a “Soul Jam,” joined by two acts from the 1970s that ooze style and swagger. The Philly soul quintet Blue Magic is known for its choreographed dance moves, smooth ballads like the lovesick anthem “Sideshow” (1974), and their 1989 collaboration with Big Daddy Kane, “To Be Your Man”; DJ Hollywood came to fame as a disco DJ whose call-and-response style of performance pre-dated hip-hop music in the mid-70s. As the first to string together rhymes into a “flow,” the glitzy downtown DJ is credited as one of hip-hop’s earliest forefathers, even though he resisted association with the burgeoning scene in the gritty South Bronx.

Show Notes

South Jamaica, Queens | A South Side Kid | Queens Jazz Musicians | Crack Era | Chemical Warfare | War on Drugs | Stop and Frisk | Queens Central Library | A Cipher in Queens | Sherwin Banfiel | Club Encore Mix | Eddie Murphy | Disco Records | Soul Music | Blue Ice Night | ClubVideo Music Box | Baisley Park | 1990 Redman and Biz Markie Springfield Freestyle | Stretch and Bobbito | Grandmast | Vic | Doggtime | DJ Dirty Harry | Lionel ‘Vid Kid’ Martin | Mister Cheeks | Mobb Deep | WuTang – Ice cream| Shirt King Phade | Jay Z | Kool Red Alert | Dapper Dan | LL Cool J | Colosseum Mall | FUBU | Daymond John | Karl Kani | Cross Colours | April Walker | Diddy | Hype Williams| Irv Gotti | Queens Village | Mic Geronimo – Shit’s Real (It’s Real) | Cash Money Click | Ja Rule | Self Destruction | KRS One Stop the Violence | Nassau Coliseum | Nelson George | D-Nice | Overcoming Self Destruction – Documentary | MC Lyte | Big Daddy Kane  | Daddy-O | Drake | Chance the Rapper | Uncle Murder | Just-Ice  | Wu-Tang Clan – C.R.E.A.M. | Heavy D | Salt-N-Pepa – Get Up Everybody | Lil Wayne 

“Don’t Get in the Way of you Getting the Interview”

Ice-T | Flip Da Script | Superstar Jay | Funkmaster Flex | Sway in the Morning | Ebro Hot97 | DJ Clark Kent | Chris Brown | Cardi B | ICP | Vikki Tobak | Contact High | Danny Hastings | It Ain’t Hard to Tell | Nas EPK | Q-Tip | Belly | Biggie | Tribe Called Quest | Leather Medallion 90s  | Paid in Full | Willie Burger | Cappadonna  | RZA | Adobe After Effects | Chyron  | Grassvalley Wipe | Tats Cru 106 and Park Ave | Socrates Park  | Fred “Bugsy” Buggs | Imhotep Gary Byrd | Hank Spann | Disco fever | Russel Simmons | Davy DMX – One For The Treble (Originals B-Boy Dedication Video) | Fat Boys | Krush Groove | Sheila E. | Naughty by Nature  | Juice (Film) | Beat Street | Breakin’ (Film)  | 2Pac | Ernest R. Dickerson | Spike Lee | Queen Latifah | The Bomb Squad (Producers) | Something for the Radio – Biz Markie | Motown Philly | Who Got the Props – Black Moon | Tha Alkaholiks – Only When I’m Drunk  | Loud Records  | Gin and Juice  | Yo MTV Raps | Luke Ft. 2 Live Crew – I Wanna Rock | New York Hot Track (Video Show) | Who Is Gil Scott-Heron? | Winter in America  | S.O.B.’s | Blue Note | Crazy Sam