Ralph McDaniels@VMB 30th Anniversary
Black History Month
Video Music Box 30th Anniversary @ Schomburg Center in Harlem
February 5, 2013, Video Music Box (VMB) founder and Hip Hop Icon Ralph McDaniels held his kickoff event at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture to celebrate the 30-year anniversary of Video Music Box.
Before BET, MTV, and countless others there was Video Music Box (VMB). Created in 1983 by Ralph McDaniels, VMB is a 60-minute American television program/series that was the first to cater to the growing audiences of hip-hop fans.
Ralph McDaniels
At the time BET wasn’t even showing real hip-hop like that till later, all they had was “Video Soul” and MTV didn’t play hip-hop at all at the time. But it didn’t matter nobody in the ‘hood had cable in 80’s anyway.
After school every kid would run home to turn to channel 31 everyday at 3:30 to watch the latest videos on VMB. Back in the days VMB was the only vehicle available to promote Hip-Hop music and culture.
It originally aired on New York City-owned public television station WNYC-TV and became one of the most influential shows to give Hip-Hop/Urban artists mainstream exposure. Over the course of time people start affectionately calling the Hip-Hop pioneer host “Uncle Ralph.”
He has also produced over 400 music videos, is an on-air personality for HOT97 Radio, and has been involved with several feature films.
At the event the upcoming VMB documentary was screened to a packed house and received loud cheers and rave reviews from the audience. The film featured artists such as: Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, Lil’ Wayne, Nas, Wu-Tang Clan, Celia Cruz, Fresh Prince & Jazzy Jeff, Mary J. Blige and many others.
Congratulations Uncle Ralph.
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