Travel Back In Time To Hip Hop’s Golden Era With ‘Yo! MTV Raps Classic’ On Paramount+

Between the 50th anniversary celebrations, TikTok videos of middle aged men giving mumble rap the gasface, and various online feuds about legacy artists being shut out of radio, it’s clear hip hop is currently suffering from a generation gap. It’s not the first time. Way back in 1987, the “old school” and “new school” faced off, most famously in a series of diss records between veteran rapper Kool Moe Dee and teenage superstar LL Cool J. Kool Moe Dee is seen at the time explaining the beef in refreshingly adult terms in one of the 75 episodes of Yo! MTV Raps Classic, which are currently available for streaming on Paramount+. 

It’s still hard to believe, but despite selling millions of records since first hitting vinyl in 1979, hip hop was still fighting for MTV air time as late as 1986. The video-fueled success of Run-DMC’s “Walk This Way” and the Beastie Boys “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)” started to break down the wall. Still, outside of Ralph McDaniel’s pioneering Video Music Box, which you could only watch on New York City public television, there were no shows exclusively dedicated to the genre even though hip hop artists had been producing music videos since the dawn of the era. 

Yo! MTV Raps was the brainchild of Peter Dougherty, a maverick music video director and producer who had long been a hip hop advocate at MTV, where he worked in the promo department. The first episode premiered on August 6, 1988, and was initially intended as a one-off special. It became the highest rated show on MTV up to that point in time and was turned into a weekly then daily series which would air the next seven years.

While reviewing all 75 episodes is impossible, that first episode deserves a deeper look. It starts with a freestyle by a pre-movie star, pre-slap Will Smith, when he was still a young rapper known as the Fresh Prince. The show is hosted by Run-DMC, at that point the biggest hip hop group in the known universe, who introduce the first video on stage in front of a sold-out arena. Ironically, the video is “Follow The Leader” by Eric B. & Rakim, an act whose groundbreaking sound made DMC question whether his career in hip hop was over.

Yo! MTV Raps was initially hosted by New York scenester Fab 5 Freddy before introducing jocular co-hosts Ed Lover and Doctor Dre (not to be confused with Dr. Dre of N.W.A.). It eventually had its own soundstage at MTV where guests would premiere new videos, perform live or just hang out. While some of the performances betray hip hop’s live shortcomings, others, such as those by KRS-One and Mary J. Blige, bristle with energy. 

As the episodes run into each other you realize you’re watching hip hop history as it’s being made. Fashions, slang and personalities change from year to year, and the video playlists feature both hip hop classics and obscurities by such acts as 3 Times Dope, Donald D and J.J. Fad. The narrative is somewhat undercut by the fact that the episodes aren’t presented in chronological order and some are edited after the fact to feature full episodes dedicated to landmark artists like Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. 

Among the highlights are N.W.A. hanging out at the Compton Swap Meet, LL Cool J washing his car in his Mom’s driveway, a pool party in L.A. with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, the Geto Boys kickin’ it in Houston, and a video shoot with a young and somewhat intimidating Wu-Tang Clan. There are also revealing interviews with Nas, Queen Latifah and Common, then at the start of their careers, and appearances from hip hop loving celebrities like Shaquille O’Neal, Mike Tyson, Eddie Murphy, and, believe it or not, Mel Gibson.

Granted, I am biased having grown up on the stuff, but you can’t help being struck by how much talent and charisma the artists of yesteryear exude. If you were a rapper in 1989, there was no guarantee you would have a career a year on, and the now common side hustles of acting, podcasting and clothing companies didn’t exist. Though the artists seem realer and more authentic, a certain innocence prevails. These are young men and women doing what they love and making up the rules as they go along. As the years roll by, the innocence evaporates as artists address black on black violence, the Los Angeles riots, and racism in America.

In the early 1990s, MTV cut Yo! MTV Raps back to once a week. Its final episode aired in August 1995, ending with an astounding freestyle rhyme cypher featuring Rakim, Redman, and Method Man, among others. The brand has been resuscitated by MTV numerous times over the years, most recently with eight new episodes streaming on last year on Paramount+. Hip hop entered the pop mainstream long ago. Yo! MTV Raps Classic takes you back to that pivotal time when it was still making inroads into Middle America one television screen at a time. 

Benjamin H. Smith is a New York based writer, producer and musician.