'Yo! MTV Raps' Puts The 'M' Back in Music Television

By Broadside Staff Writer Emily Sharrer
Photo by Flickr's 'tomeppy'

Let’s think back to the time when MTV used to actually play music and not just scripted dramas about the trite lives of rich kids from "Laguna Beach".

It has been a long time since shows like "Headbangers Ball" and "Yo! MTV Raps" provided unscripted interviews and performances with popular artists, and actually provided the music that the “M” in MTV stands for. But for the month of April, MTV will interrupt its regularly scheduled crap for special airings of classic episodes of "Yo! MTV Raps" to celebrate the show’s 20th year anniversary.

“You really cannot know and see the influence something has had until you have had a few years or a decade or so to reflect back,” said Freddy, also known as Fab Five Freddy, one of the first hosts on "Yo! MTV Raps." “The main reason we can reflect back now is because hip-hop culture is still thriving and still throbbing.”

"Yo! MTV Raps" premiered on Aug. 6, 1988 and ended its revolutionary run in August of 1995. The show, which was hosted by hip-hop pioneers Doctor Dré and Ed Lover, along with Fab Five Freddy, was the first ever hip-hop oriented music show on MTV.

“'Yo! MTV Raps' hit the air right when the Afrocentric movement in hip-hop was getting big,” Freddy said. “Groups like the Jungle Brothers helped to set it out and then you had the whole native tongue movement and it was also a direct contrast to Run DMC, Eric B. and Rakim, etc. It was the ‘daisy age,’ if you will. You can have these extremely different artists standing on the same platform, which was 'Yo! MTV Raps.'”

Other hip-hop music shows like "106 & Park", "Rap City" and MTV’s current rap show, "Sucker Free", were all spawned after "Yo!" to keep hip-hop in the mainstream, yet none have been as influential as "Yo!" has proven to be.

Freddy recalled at the time of the show, hip-hop was in its golden era because “there was so much diversity and great and interesting music.”

“That’s one of the things that’s so special about "Yo!;" it showcased so much diversity and balance culturally as opposed to a lot of the music you hear in the mainstream now,” Freddy said.

Taking a look down memory lane at vintage episodes of "Yo!" might be good for music lovers, say Freddy and Dré, since yesterday’s hip-hop and today’s more manufactured rap sound are definitely not one in the same.

“I used to wonder back in the day, why does every rapper talk about this ‘sucker M.C.’ and now we know who the sucker M.C.’s are... these sucker M.C.’s are a majority of what gets played nowadays,” Freddy said.

“We don’t have artists anymore, we have sound machines,” Dré said. “You have record company executives telling them ‘This is the song that is going to work for you.’ We have to get back to the soul of making music, but that may never happen because everything is about the business. But if you are a real artist, you get in your van and you play and you play because that is what you love to do.”

So, if current MTV viewers can get past their reality show complex and open their minds to the roots of hip-hop as featured on one of MTV’s best endeavors, they will be in for a treat. Rare footage, interviews, long forgotten videos and original freestyling from hip-hop’s first superstars are just a few perks. Plus, they might just come away with some valuable rap knowledge and "Yo!" historical tidbits like the answer to Eric B. and Rakim’s question, “Could you name this tune?”

The answer to that question in the first-ever video aired on the show is probably “no” for most viewers when proclaimed rap fans everywhere should know “Follow the Leader is the title, theme, task.” And Kanye or 50? Let’s not kid ourselves, Tupac or any member of Wu-Tang Clan wins, hands down.

Even if you are not interested in sprucing up your hip-hop knowledge, it is not going to be easy for MTV viewers to miss seeing at least one episode of the acclaimed show, which will air on all of MTV’s networks (MTV, MTV2, MTV Tr3s, MTV Jams, MTV Hits, MTV Mobile, MTV Radio and MTV on Demand).

During the month of April, "Sucker Free" will once again become "Yo! MTV Raps" and countdown current hip-hop videos as well as add-in classic videos from LL Cool J, Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dré and more every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 4:30 p.m.

The show will also provide commentary from Freddy, Lover and Dré. Also, don’t miss the strictly "Yo!" countdown specials on April 28 to 30 at 4:30 p.m. which will show videos, old episodes and a feature on "Yo!" artists then and now. Check out www.MTV.com for full listings.

The series that “helped bring hip-hop to the global masses” will also be available online with rare pictures, videos and interviews. So, don’t take my word for it, feel free to check it out for yourself.