VJ Ralph McDaniels lined up the show’s music video “Video Music Box” on WNYC-TV on January 7, 1988 in New York City. – Credit: Al Pereira/Getty Images/Michael Ochs Archives
Ralph McDaniels spread the cry.
His show Video Music Box It debuted on New York’s television station WNYC-TV in 1983 and aired on WNYE-TV to this day, making it the longest-lasting music video show ever. It also first aired a hip-hop music video on television. “When I said it on TV, no one said it except me,” McDaniels said of the on-air cry. “People say, ‘Why is that possible?’ “It was a hip-hop term, so I just said it on TV.”
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The legendary VJ, DJ, music video director and hip hop archivist, even his latest efforts, has transformed some of his 20,000 hours of footage into a YouTube channel. He launched the VideMusicbox1 channel in 2010, featuring classic footage of performances, interviews and documentaries. The most viewed videos on the channel are mid-90s ODB and GZA Freestyle, considered “Uncle Ralph,” and may be a unique piece in rap history.
“The crazy part about it is that it’s not a song,” he says on Zoom. “It’s freestyle where ODB makes beatboxes. I don’t think that what GZA is saying came out. [on a song]. It was freestyle and that was it. “He says he randomly recorded two in the club’s bathroom. I’m a hip hop guy. I was there. “All of these tapes I have knew it was important to at least tell the story of New York hip-hop from my perspective.”
YouTube has been the default digital archive of hip-hop instead of physical space for 20 years. Freedom of access on the platform means that anyone can upload content (if they meet the terms of service). This means viewers can explore music videos that have not been aired for decades, mixtapes that are no longer available anywhere else, old music-oriented television shows, and bevy of other unusual content.
In 2022, digital archivist Claudio Abreu uploaded Jay-Z’s iconic 2001 Hot 97 Summer Jam footage to the Hiphopvcr platform, providing visuals at moments previously only existed by word of mouth (although McDaniels has classic footage from Zone-Z Z Post-Promance). YouTube-based internet platforms such as Zachtv, created by the late Chicago Zack Stoner, are valuable chronicles of the first chapters of the Chicago drill scene. Many of the people Stoner spoke to were no longer alive or unable to interview freely. The recently released former Drag Kingpin DeMetrius “Big Meech” Frenoly has a myth that influenced Rick Ross’ “BMF” songs, multiple documentaries and television shows. Much of that aura comes from the infamous appearance on the New York-based Smack DVD, which was uploaded to YouTube and earned millions of views.
Hip-hop fans can cull around the service to get an introduction or reminder of the previous hip-hop era. There’s no other place to listen to clips of famous 1986 radio DJs. Magic reports “You might be checking out the stars of the future,” or a 1989 interview with Tupac during his time as the NU African Panther. Television and radio stations often rebroadcast old content. That is, last year’s interviews and television broadcasts are everywhere.
At age 66, McDaniels’ life coincided with the birth and global expansion of hip-hop. He grew up in Brooklyn and moved to Queens at the age of 11, where he studied communication at LaGuardia Community College and began working for radio station WNYC in 1983. Soon, he created it. Studio 31 Dance Partyhe eventually changed it Video Music Box Alongside co-host Lionel Martin.
Above Video Music Boxthe two tried to showcase hip-hop videos and performances. “I go to places and watch these groups perform, record them professionally and put them on TV,” he says. “The artist said, ‘Yes, I didn’t know that would turn out like that.’ ” It mentions the quality of the video. “Yeah, I work for a real TV station.” His reputation as a photographer has grown over the years.
His video safe spans his genre “I’m watching the video music box“A 2023 Showtime documentary documenting its impact on hip-hop culture. The documentary was written by Stee Rivo and Andre Wilkins, directed by NAS, with the first solo music video, “It’s not hard to tell,” Ilmatic, Directed by McDaniels. (“I work with the NAS from time to time. The NAS said, ‘Yeah, how did you know that was important?” I said, ‘I knew.’) McDaniels also directed the videos for Roxanne Chante and McRite.
At one point in the early 1990s, McDaniels began working for the venerable New York radio station Hot 97, and recorded all of the Hot 97 Summer Jams since 1994. He says he’s still trying to figure out what to do with the footage. It was at Hot 97 that he realized that the transition to digital content was happening – the station created a YouTube page in September 2006 – and he also wanted him to attend the platform.
McDaniels says that all his archival work is “about teaching,” and that “young people will find shit on their own. They will look for it and find it.” He says that for now, the accounts are running on instinct. His daughter and brother help him coordinate the pages. They also serve as co-partners for his video music box nonprofit. “I just put things randomly right now,” he says. It could be just an interview that was dope. “He says that copyright issues and people swipe through his content have slowed down his recent output, and he is still strategizing how to upload new content.
He recently raised funds through a “high-end archivist” nonprofit that backed up tape safes during the Covid-19 quarantine period and looked up VHS tapes to create digital copies. He is currently considering the next step. This will work with YouTube executives Lyor Cohen and Tuma Basa to amplify his footage.
No matter what platform McDaniels works on, he has given up on continuing his video music box mission. “We have something to talk about,” he says. “There are so many stories that have not been told in hip hop yet, and I have footage. When I tell a story, someone wants to see it. Maybe I got it.”
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