August 1988 will mark the 20th anniversary of
"Yo! MTV Raps", a showcase of hip hop videos.
MTV2 is airing several specials and also old school hip hop music videos. Yesterday, they aired LL Cool J "Going Back To Cali" & DJ Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince "Parents Just Don't Understand".
Well a half hour of random old school videos mixed with current garbage is better than nothing...
Also aired a special featuring Fab 5 Freddy talking to artists like Salt N' Pepa and producer Jermaine Dupri with classic "Yo! MTV Raps" clips before the half hour video block. MTV2 mostly airs current rap & emo videos.
Checked Moronic TV listings and it's mostly reality garbage like "The Hills" and "(Un)Real World".
I pretty much prefer hip hop from the 1980's and early 1990's since I'm not much into the hardcore gangsta rap except for a very few songs for the sample/beats. I'm not really into the genre, but enjoy several songs from Run DMC, LL Cool J, Will Smith (when he was Fresh Prince), and Beastie Boys.
They should release a DVD with old school rap videos since there's hardly any.
About The 20th Anniversary Of Yo! MTV Raps
You may not realize it, but the world changed on August 8th 1988. That was the day that Yo! MTV Raps premiered on "MTV," a young upstart cable network dedicated to music videos. The moment that pilot aired hip-hop transcended the 'hood and dived head-first into the mainstream.
You see the inner-city kids already knew what time it was. Hip-hop informed the way they walked, talked and dressed. Their superstars had names like Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, and Run-DMC . It didn't matter if you lived in New York City, Philadelphia, Houston, Miami or L.A. if you were from the 'hood hip hop was your way of life.
When Yo! MTV Raps hit the airwaves the rest of the world was invited to the party. Featuring on location artist interviews, in-studio performances and most importantly, the best music videos Yo! gave rap fans the music and culture at its most concentrated.
Everyone from a kid living in a Detroit trailer park to the preppy kid in the Hollywood Hills got an unprecedented look inside hip-hop. Rap enthusiasts from around the country and the world were now able to see how their counterparts lived. Guided by the personification of cool, Fab 5 Freddy, and two irreverent brothers from Long Island named Ed Lover and Dr. Dre, Yo! took us where no other show had gone before. This wasn't some instructional, hip-hop-by-numbers program; this was the viewer getting an insider's access to the most important youth movement in decades. When MTV hollered "Yo!" the world listened.
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