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Earn Your Leisure Podcast Episode Summary: The Man Behind Hip-Hop TV: Ralph McDaniels on Nas, Suge Knight & Music Video History
Episode Details
- Hosts: Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings
- Guest: Ralph McDaniels, creator of *Video Music Box*
- Episode Focus: Exploration of Ralph McDaniels’ impact on hip-hop and music video history, covering topics such as the rise of hip-hop, key figures like Nas and Suge Knight, and the evolution of music videos.
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Key Themes and Discussions
Ralph McDaniels and *Video Music Box*
- Background: Launched in 1983, *Video Music Box* was pivotal in showcasing hip-hop visuals before mainstream acceptance.
- Concept: McDaniels likened the show to a mixtape, creatively introducing hip-hop to a broader audience.
- Cultural Impact: The show was a crucial platform for artists like Nas, allowing them to gain visibility and connect with fans.
The Golden Era of Music Videos
- Transition in Music Consumption: Shift from audio to visual representation in hip-hop, with YouTube and social media amplifying this trend.
- MTV’s Role: Initial limitations in reach for urban youth, as many did not have cable access during the rise of MTV.
Key Figures and Events in Hip-Hop History
- Nas:
- Collaboration on the music video for “It Ain’t Hard to Tell.”
- McDaniels recognized Nas's potential early in his career.
- Suge Knight:
- Discussion on the often-overlooked influence Suge Knight had on hip-hop culture and business dynamics.
Critiques of Hip-Hop
- Dr. Umar’s Perspective: Criticism of hip-hop for not contributing to community development (schools, hospitals).
- McDaniels’ Counterpoints:
- Hip-hop has driven cultural and economic change, highlighting the connection between hip-hop and community transformation.
- Acknowledgement of hip-hop's role in societal shifts, including political landscapes.
Evolution and Future of Hip-Hop
- Current Trends: Discussion of the shift back towards raw, authentic content in music videos and the continued evolution of hip-hop culture.
- Preservation of Culture: McDaniels emphasizes the importance of archiving and sharing hip-hop history through digital means and community engagement.
The Pay It Forward Foundation
- Mission: To provide financial support to hip-hop pioneers who have shaped the industry.
- Recent Honorees: Include Roxanne Shante, Kool Moe D, and Grandmaster Caz, recognizing their contributions to hip-hop.
- Vision: Highlighting the need for ongoing support and acknowledgment of artists who laid the groundwork for future generations.
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Key Takeaways
- Ralph McDaniels is a crucial figure in the history of hip-hop and music video production, with *Video Music Box* serving as a cultural touchstone.
- The evolution of music videos reflects broader changes in technology and audience consumption patterns, shifting from televised formats to online platforms.
- Critiques of hip-hop must consider its broader cultural impact and contributions to community identity and empowerment.
- Initiatives like the Pay It Forward Foundation are vital for recognizing and supporting hip-hop pioneers, ensuring their stories and legacies are preserved for future generations.
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Conclusion This episode of *Earn Your Leisure* provides an in-depth look at Ralph McDaniels’ influence on hip-hop, the evolution of music videos, and the ongoing discussions about the genre's cultural significance. The insights shared highlight the importance of preserving hip-hop history while acknowledging its complex role in society.
Additional Resources
- For more information on Ralph McDaniels and his work, visit [Video Music Box Collection](http://videomusicboxcollection.org).
- To explore the topics discussed in this episode further, check the full podcast episode on your preferred platform.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
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2:11Alright guys. Yeah. Welcome back. We are back. Special edition. We got a legend. This is an absolute legend. In culture, music, hip hop. Changed my life. For sure. A lot of people. A lot of people. Ralph McDaniels. if you're old enough to remember Video Music Box, that was one of the first major platform that was showing hip-hop visuals. Yes. Before that, it was like you had to hear it on the radio. Right, right. And it was a couple of local shows, but not with hip-hop. We put hip-hop up front. Yeah. The first time you saw your favorite artist, maybe the first time you actually heard them, because if they wasn't on the radio and some records didn't make radio, you was breaking records too.
2:52So this is the first introduction to real music. Yeah, I saw it. It was young people, you know, and hip hop has always been young people. And it was young people, you know, doing it in parks, you know, with plugging into light poles in the Bronx and in Brooklyn and Queens and all these different areas. And I was like, there's something going on here. What is it? You know, I'm a little bit older than hip hop. so you know I'm from the era where you know Marvin Gaye and all that kind of stuff but I knew that this was something that was important and it was going somewhere so yeah first and foremost thank you for joining us thank you brother appreciate it um and uh yeah so it's crazy like when you look at the I don't want to understate the importance of visuals when it comes to hip-hop because I mean it's hard to even calculate how much money is actually generated from actual visual component of it.
3:44But I mean, YouTube, right? If you look at something like YouTube, which YouTube is a subsidiary of Google, but if it was its own standalone company, it would be one of the most richest companies in the world. And a lot of that is driven through music, right? And you see Instagram and all these different platforms where a visual component, it's just changed the way that we digest music. So, you know, to have the foresight of really championing that and really thinking like this was a good idea, because I would assume like when people probably thought like, what is this? Like, I mean, like it's one thing.
4:16Are you hearing music? Okay, that's cool. But I don't want to see a video of somebody rapping in three minutes. Like, what is that? So what was your, how did you get the foresight to understand this is going to be big? And when did this start as far as like you first getting in the business, starting video music box? Like what year was that? How did that come about? So we started Video Music Box in 83, but I was working at some TV stations like 81, 82, right out of college, right? And I was trying to figure out how could we do something with music and TV to make it important. And it was a small PBS station in New York called WNYC TV, great call letters.
5:00And you could barely find the channel. You had to have the right hanger. If it was cloudy outside, you might not get it. Your dial don't go there. Right. And I proposed an idea to play music videos, not necessarily hip-hop, just music videos in general. And so at the time, it was like Michael Jackson, you know, Rick James, Lionel Richie, that kind of thing, right? And so that was the beginning of the idea being introduced. And it became a thing. We used to use the videos during our fundraisers. You know, like PBS has these fundraisers. Call now and you can get this. We'll send you 10 DVDs of Motown and that kind of thing.
5:42So they would play the videos in between. And the calls were crazy. I just still don't understand why. But that's not how I wanted to use the music videos. I wanted to create a video radio show. That's what my concept was. But that's how it was introduced. And then it took off. And they said, can you do this every day after school? And I said, yeah. And I never produced a show. I was an engineer. and I just thought about what I listened to on the radio and said this is what we're gonna do that that's it's taking me back right so 83 and I wrote you I like that you said after school because it was the thing like we had to get home by 3 30 because we knew that you was going to start at 3 30 and if we missed the intro we'll talk about the intro a little bit we's gonna miss the brand new video usually the the the brand new debut video is gonna start the show and so it was important to get there so at the time I mean people probably don't know this but like we didn't see you for a while right it was just the voice so as you're even talking i'm thinking to myself that's crazy because i'm remembering as a kid just hearing the voice how were you putting things together and piecing them to have an hour show because obviously people don't do this it's not the easiest thing to do right put an hour of content together how were you formatting and programming i did it like a mixtape uh you know um and the word mixtape didn't exist at that time, but that's what it really was.
7:01But it was visual. And I would talk, you know, every 15 minutes or so. I didn't necessarily talk through everything. After a while, people got tired of me talking to all the parties I was going to. Meet us at the, you know, at the tunnel. Meet us at this place. All these other stuff. But, but yeah, so I just knew that it was treated like a mixtape. Like if I was home listening to this, but actually now it's on your TV, which to me, I knew that was powerful. the fact that it was on your TV and you could see these things. I knew that people never saw these visuals, you know, like of, especially when it came to hip-hop, the early hip-hop, like Run DMC and Eric B and Rakim and Fat Boys and all that and Houdini and all that stuff.
7:43This is the first time you've really seen them. Up to that point, it was less right on magazine and, you know, Word Up and these posters on your wall, which Biggie talks about in his lyrics, right? Now you're seeing them. Then I was like, I have to interview them because I can get a little bit more insight. And Russell Simmons was the guy who managed everybody, who we grew up together in. I'm born in Brooklyn, moved to Queens, grew up in Queens Village, and I see Russell all the time. So I'm like, yo, Russ, y 'all got a party going on? And he's like, yeah, man, come through. And then that's how we got the interviews.
8:18So Video Music Box, when it starts, do you own the IP of that? Is that your show or is that? Yes, I own Video Music Box. And it was on, what channel was it on? It was on Channel 31, which, like I said, was like a third-tier PBS station. Like in New York, Channel 13 is the main WNET. It's the main, really for all of PBS, it's the main station. And then there's a couple other stations, and then there was Channel 31. So was that important for you to have that ownership? Or like you thought that through before you? Yeah, my dad owned a candy store. And so I realized that owning is everything. And that's where I got that in my head from.
8:58And I wanted to own everything, which is not, you don't need to own everything, which is a mistake. You know, some people just don't need to own everything. Don't tell Dane that. Right. But, you know, I went, that's why I understand Dane so much. But, you know, you don't need to own. In reality, you don't need to own everything. It's a lesson alone. But when you went in there, okay, so you pitched the idea. you say, okay, I have this, this is an idea, and then they're putting it on their platform, so they're just kind of giving you the green light, or they're putting some parameters on what has to be done?
9:33They had no idea what I was doing. They're just like, all right, just let the black boy go. Dead time. Yeah, right. They were not paying attention to anything. We made tons of mistakes, but they didn't really care, but they felt like it brought some diversity to the programming. that was the when did you hit your stride when does it start to become big I would say by 85 now there's more hip hop in the scene you know by 85 86 and you know the golden era for some is 87 and so in that time say it again the golden era we had a golden era for some I'm not an 87 person but for some it's 87 and so that time more labels are putting money into hip hop.
10:22You know, it's like, okay, you got Kane, you got Slick Rick, you got Public Enemy coming soon, you got all this MC Light, you got all this stuff happening, you know. And so now you're starting to get music videos because in the beginning there weren't music videos. You just put a record out. You put a vinyl out and the hip hop artist didn't get a video. Now I'm going to the label, yo, y 'all need to do a video for this because this record is hot. Most of these corporate cats are not in the clubs. They're not going to the Bronx. They're not going to the park. They don't know that this is the biggest thing in these areas, wherever it's at.
10:57If it's in New York, if it's in Detroit, Chicago, Philly, Baltimore, D.C. You go to these places, this hip-hop thing is taking over. But if you never went there, you never saw it. So we would kind of encourage, come to the party, man. Just come to the party. And you're a smart guy. You're going to get it. You're seeing the records break before they know it. Right. But that also leaves an opportunity for you to say, there's another business I create. Because you're the guy that's playing the videos. They don't even know that they need the videos. So you start directing the videos. So I start directing the videos.
11:29Paper Thin, I remember. Yeah. But what's the first major one that you're like, all right, this is the one that's going to go. And now I'm going to be known as a director as well. I think for us, the Cold Chilling Records stuff that we did. Now, Coach Hillin' Records was one of the first independent black-owned labels, like Def Jam. I would say the big three was Uptown Records with Andre Harrell, Russell Simmons, Def Jam, and Coach Hillin' Tyrone Williams. He had the Juice Crew on Coach Hillin'. Juice Crew is also on the radio, so they got a lot of action. Can we get all of them? It's Master Ace, Big Daddy King.
12:10Yep. Biz Marquis. Biz Marquis is in there. Shantae, Shan, Craig G, yeah, or Coogee Rap. Coogee Rap, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're all on the symphony. Oh, the symphony record, yeah. So we did the symphony video, and that was a big deal. You know, like, you know, that was, you know, you saw all of them, you know, in a creative way. We had a company, our company's called Classic Concept, so we wanted to create this concept that was a classic, you know, like, what's going to make this a classic, you know? and that was me and my partner, Lionel Martin. And we wanted to do, sometimes we based it on movies, sometimes we based it on, you know, something that really happened in real life in New York, you know, and we made it into a video.
12:56And then you also directed Nas. It Ain't Hard to Tell. It Ain't Hard to Tell. Young Nas, Chip Too Smile, you know. That was it. That's who he was, you know, kid from Queensbridge, you know. And that was a new wave in 92, 93, 94, really, of the next wave of who these kids were going to be, what hip-hop looked like. And I saw it. He would come to, I would tell Nas, I used to watch you before I met you. Queensbridge would be like 40 deep. And I'm like, okay, it's going to be a problem. and Nas would be like yeah my dudes my guys I was like you wasn't really but you was in it though you was right there with them like cheering it on and when you did that video did you know how like did you know like Nas this is going to be it because it's like that video really was I mean he had like live at the barbecue I think came out first but like when that video hit that's when it really was like official official because even like, you know, I can still remember he had the, you know, he used to have those army hats with the brim.
14:10Yeah. The scully with the brim. Yeah. And he had the red one, the green one. He had the cell phone. That's when the, like the cell phone was like the size of a water bottle, like the flip. He had that and it was just like the iconic moment of it. And I just recently found out, you know, that was a Michael Jackson sample. Yeah. And they said, I don't know if that's true or not, but they said that Mike only let him use it if he wouldn't curse. So there's no curses in that song. I think I read that too. Yeah, yeah. So that's just kind of a... Dodge Professor produced that record. Okay. And he, of course, was the main guy in Main Sauce, which is Live at the Barbecue.
14:41And that was... Back to the Grill again too. Back to the Grill again, yeah. And so when we worked on that project, it was just Nas calling me from his crib in Queensbridge, in the projects, saying, I don't know, I just want to be hot. Just do what you do on Video Music Box. That's all I know. That's as much as not. He knew how to rap, but he didn't have a plan. The record label was like, we just want to show him. Show his face. He's a good-looking guy. And I was like, we're not trying to see all that. He's talking about some hardcore stuff here. We want to get into all of that. But yeah, that was the concept.
15:21But did you know? Because it's like coaching LeBron in high school, right? Did you know this is going to be one of the greatest rappers of all time? Did you see that? Like, oh, no, this kid's different. Well, by the time I had Illmatic and when I did the video, I listened to the whole album. So I was like, he's different. And I'm a guy that grew up listening to Gil Scott Heron, and I looked at him in that way, that he had the poetry, he cared about the community, he was touching souls with what he was saying. But from a street corner perspective, at the same time, This is why I love that era. This is my golden era for me, is Nas, Wu-Tang, Biggie, you know.
16:04It's because I would leave my house in Brooklyn and everything that Nas is saying on the record, I see that every day on the corner. So it's reality, you know. It wasn't like the 80s where it was kind of a story, you know, Slick Rick could tell you an amazing story, but you didn't really see it, you know. And, you know, but with Nas and them, they were outside on the camouflage with the Timberlands and the hat, the red joint. That's great. That's 93, 94 in Queens. But in Staten Island, something's bubbling too. And they're reaching out to you. So what is that like when this golden era, when you're the go-to guy for a city, right?
16:44Because everybody now realizes they've been watching Vity Music Box. They understand the importance of it. West Coast has a little thing bubbling. New York needs a visual, and you're the go-to guy for it. Yeah. I thought that that was a great time to be for what I wanted to do and what the company wanted to do. Because this is what we wanted. We wanted to be the go-to company. And so we had relationships with Nas and Wu-Tang and others that most directors didn't have. And most production companies didn't have. And the other production companies wanted to have that relationship. but I'm in the club at 3 o 'clock in the morning in the Bronx in places that y 'all don't go.
17:28So, you know, you got to go to it. You know, if you want to be successful at this, you got to, you know, rest in peace, Clark Kent. Rest in peace. Clark Kent told me one day, I was like, yo, man, I got these young dudes on my block. I mean, I was talking to Clark Kent, and I'm telling him, I got these young guys on my block, and they don't get it, man. They just, you know, they think they're tough and all of this. You know, they live in nice houses, man. This is not bad. This is okay. And I don't understand them. He says, you got to go to them. And then they'll see you in their situation. And then they'll be like, oh, he's with us.
18:03And so I said, okay. And so that's when I started going to, especially, you know, trap music time and going to those events. And then they would see me and be like, oh, Uncle's here. You know, so they had a different respect. And you have to, it's like talking to people or talking at them. Talking at them, it's not going to work. talking to them it's gonna work so you so video music blog you know become the go to and it's not just music videos like you're actually in the tunnel clubs like you it's like you document culture had to be on a variety of different levels and then you also create different characters oh yeah right that are a part of the the tree like a marvel universe of characters that so you you create a whole ecosystem right but um like it ain't thing once like corporate starts to really pay attention to this right so at what point do you realize the swift because mtv yo mtv raps when did when did they come out in 88 88 88 yeah okay so they were already around yeah by 90s yeah but they started putting more well people didn't have cable technology didn't catch up yet okay so mtv is doing yo but the kids in the hood don't have it and I didn't realize I thought everybody would have it when it came out and people were like how's it affecting you I'm like I don't know I don't see it because I didn't realize that the cable part you know the technology hadn't been wired in so those kids to see it by 92, 93 now they got it so I'm seeing a big difference because they're talking about yo I just was watching yo MTV and I saw this and I'm like oh shit they got it now they got it now how are you feeling at that time because I was the kid that lived in the Bronx and then moved to the suburbs.
19:51So we had to dial when we were there. And then we got cable. But when they started, I think Fab was only on like Saturday nights. Yeah. And Ed and Dre was. Ed and Dre was during like Saturday mornings and maybe 4.30. It came on after you. Like they were three, you were 3.30 to 4.30. Yeah. And then they were like 4.30. Something like that. But as you're watching it, I've never actually seen y 'all in the same space. Like you, Ed and Dre. Like was there like some competitive. They had money. They had money, man. I didn't have nothing. I was on my own dime, bro. Or the people hired me to do shows.
20:27So when you saw me in clubs in the Bronx or in Brooklyn, that was a promoter going, yo, Ralph, we're going to hire you to host the show. Can you shoot the show there as well? And I would go there and they would pay me whatever it was, $500,$1 ,000, and we would do this and the whole place would be jam-packed. Can we do it again next week? I didn't realize that it was us that was helping get that room packed. And then after a while, I was like, we can do this ourselves. Why are we just doing this for$500? And we started doing it ourselves. And that's when we started making money just as promoters.
21:07Was there ever a time when you're in one of these parties and you're like, because New York parties at that time, they could go left at any second. Absolutely. Was there like a party you was at and it was like, all right, we might have kind of cut the cameras off. We might gotta get out of here. Oh yeah, no I remember one night we were in, it was a club, it wasn't even a club, it was like a place where people give galas and things like that, but it was kinda not nice anymore. And it was Flash DJing, it was New Year's Eve, it was Flash's birthday, it's New Year's Day. And Flash was there and I came in and it was people with places packed.
21:46I'm like, okay, we made some money tonight. And I'm walking around, and then I'm talking to the promoter, and then I hear gunshots. I mean, like machine gun gunshots, like not just one, two, three, like brrrr, like that. And I'm like, what's that? It's New Year's Eve, come on, y 'all still out here at New Year's Eve, like what's going on? This is the hood. And so, and Biz Marquis was there. And Biz Marquis, so everybody's running. So Biz Marquis, I see him running my way, and I'm like, oh wow, Biz is here. and he's like yo they wilding and I'm like and Biz got all his jewelry on so I'm like get away from me man they coming for the jewelry I guess and and you know eventually we got in but my friend got shot that night you know he got through it my friend Troy Haywood he got through it but you know and he was like get the money go to the bar Ralph take all the money I was like okay you know his aunt had the money I'm like I'll take that from you miss give me the ultimate money you were somebody that saw hip hop at the beginning stages when did you start to see when did you start to notice the difference as far as money that was coming in on a you start to see like oh this is starting to make millions and millions and multi millions of dollars like what was that corporate was always there like Sprite in 85 Sprite was there which is a Coca Cola company I guess and they were doing Fresh Fest and it was sprite and swatch watch was there and these were just unique situations that I guess Russell and other guys this other guy Charles Stetler they they put together that they could get some money from these corporations that wanted to get with these young kids soda of course is easy you know watches I didn't know but that was pretty creative to to have that oh and I know why because they had Keith Haring, the artist Keith Haring's watches, and it kind of related to young people as graffiti, right?
23:50So, but yeah, I started to see it then. I really started to see it in the 90s, you know, when you get Bad Boy and Rockefeller and Def Jam. You know, Def Jam is really the godfather of creating this whole system of corporate and the right people and the cool crowd and everything, and it all works. We put out Method Man and we put out, why didn't Method Man come out on loud records, which Wu-Tang was on? What you call them, Def Jam had a clear idea of we want to do this something different than maybe what you guys did with Wu-Tang. And they did a good job. Then they put Red Man and Method Man. The mother of the man.
24:37Right. And I remember Lior Cohen telling me that this is going to be the greatest campaign ever. And I was like, I don't know why. Why, because they both had a man at the end of their name? Like, why? But they still perform now. And he embedded that in people's head. And the thing about Def Jam was we're not just going to put out a good hip-hop record. We're going to put out edgy records. The records that really kind of push the edge. There's plenty of artists. And I remember when Leo Cohen told me we were going to make Jay-Z the biggest artist ever. He said that to me. And I was like, and this is, Big E's still around, so Jay's not really quite there yet.
25:17He's good. Clearly, he's a great artist. But I'm like, the greatest artist ever? And, you know. Well, Leo Cohen said that? He said that to me. About Jay-Z? Yeah. What year was that? Maybe 96. Reasonable doubt. Right before that. Yeah. You know, Jay and Rockefeller put Reasonable Doubt. It wasn't on Def Jam at first. It was on another label. Priority. Priority, right. Priority's work wasn't right, so I switched back to this. Right. Priority was cool, but that's not really what they, you know, Jay needed to be with Def Jam. So, like, 96, was that puffing them when they, that's when it really started to get crazy, though, right?
26:04Yeah. like 90s there was there was something happening street teams oh death row too though they played a part yeah because that's when tupac and all like there was a lot of records being sold like tupac selling eight million records and the amount of money that shook knight so maybe maybe it starts with power snoop up until that point because he's the first guy that does huge million records 92 up until that era because before it was just like you just you just you rap you're nice you're nice you nice you nice then it was a gangster era you had to be like but then there was the money because you never kept that even in that era you never cared about how many records you sold but that's what i'm saying there was then there was the money right so i'm trying i'm trying to figure out when the money era started i think i think i think probably will start with with you could let's move because hollywood is coming in now that's la when you come in from la it's hollywood driven everything is the money that the people that are putting up the money it's all based around they do movies they do all that kind of thing they know how to market they just may not have the right product now you come in with snoop and dre they they know what they're doing and okay let's put it out there and then and we're gonna put the money behind it and it hit across the world um i did videos for um um the uh what was the name of his crew Dog Pound?
27:22Not Dog Pound. Oh, man. They did a compilation of all of the artists that were on death row. Okay. Like the Lady of Rage? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We did some videos for that. How smart was Shug? To me, I didn't have any problems with him. I thought that he was a guy. I played football in high school, so he looked like a guy to play football with. And so his size didn't intimidate me. but I knew that he he wanted to win which was so did I so I didn't I got it I never really thought about the reason I'm actually I never really thought about just in this moment of we always give Puff the credit of making hip hop billions but now I'm thinking I'm like maybe it was Suge or maybe it was both of them at the same time because Suge always kept the reputation as a very smart businessman and the West Coast was always gangsta like just gangsta rap and even that's how that's how Snoop originally came out as a gangster, right?
28:22As a gang member. But then somehow it turned very quickly. That Death Row ship was always a gangster card, but they turned into very high levels. Maybe Tupac with the combination of his star power, because he was a movie star already. So maybe when he got to Death Row, it just kind of blew it up. But that's interesting because it's like, maybe he needs to get a little bit more credit for actually making hip-hop multi-billion dollar industry. Or it's the same guys that you, like, you said Leo said this about Jay, right? Right. I'm sure on the other side, Jimmy Iovine's saying, we're going to do this with Snoop.
28:59Right. And so these guys are just pulling, they're pulling strings. And you also have a guy like Suge is going to keep everybody, he's a young kid. And he's going to, look, we're going to be serious about this. We're going to get this album done. Y 'all gonna go to do press. Y 'all gonna take photo. Like he was organizing them. He was the coach. You know like look, cut it out. If somebody's acting up, we'll beat your ass. So, okay, let me not, let me get my shit together. And people, artists might not have realized that this was to their benefit at the time, but when they got the check, they realized how much Shook gave them.
29:37As you've seen this money coming in, especially in this hip hop space, and you've watched it from the beginning, right? you predated the videos start the budget start going up oh yeah right now as a in that time you're what did there is no hype williams yet right billy hunt billy williams all these guys they don't exist yet right director x billy benny boom but you did yeah are you looking at the video budget saying like i need to do more directing because they're actually spending millions of dollars like i remember the million dollar videos right like this is happening in this era how are you viewing this from a director standpoint um we we just thought that the bigger the artists that we worked with the bigger the budget would be so as long as we could keep on striving to work with other like if we worked with um i don't know let's say usher at the time then we needed to work with r kelly you know or to get to a or at the time I don't want people to, I don't want anybody to get twisted.
30:44Different times. Different times. They don't want them. You can't erase the history. Right. It's like Puff. You can't erase the history. Right. So, yeah. So, we just thought that it was, whoever we worked with was bigger, we would get more money. And that was not always the case. It just mattered on what was negotiated. Let me ask you, you know who Dr. Omar is? Yes. So, he has a, I saw him speaking. He talked about Hip Hop 50. and his thing was like, what has hip-hop done? He's kind of critical on a lot of different stuff. He was like, well, hip-hop hasn't done anything. They're like, what do you mean hip-hop hasn't done anything?
31:22He's like, well, we don't have no schools. We don't have no hospitals. We don't have no institutions. So from his standpoint, it was like from 50 years of hip-hop, we've only gotten negative influences, death, and destruction. that's obviously like an extreme argument but it's something to at least I want to ask you about because you're a hip hop from the beginning to now you've seen 50 years of hip hop so when you see somebody like that who's highly regarded in our community as an intellectual controversial he's looking at what he sees in front of the screen he's not looking at who's behind his scenes he's not looking at all the people that are empowered that are cutting those checks and putting them into the community and making it work besides the entertainment part of it and how it changes a community it changes harlem you know you get you know when harlem you know when they put in you know new restaurants and all these different things in brooklyn you know i see it i'm you know i lived in brooklyn you know it's hip-hop that drove people to brooklyn they didn't come there because brooklyn was a you know a cool place it was Biggie saying you know Alive is for I'm from Bethlehem Stout we're Brooklyn right now when you walk down Fulton Street in Brooklyn on a Saturday afternoon middle class white folks with their kids with their kids and the dude with the hoodie Biggie where he come from like what are you doing here and so but that's why they came because we made it cool and you know and you know and I understand you know well sometimes I don't understand where Dr.
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33:05Umar's coming from but in his case you still have to get people on board to not just hip hop people you know we still have to go and sell ourselves every day you know I'm pretty sure you guys get in situations where clearly we know what you do I know everybody in the community knows but you still have to kind of sell well what's the difference between this and joe rogan you know like you know and you know you know what i'm saying you're like what are you talking about bro have you not seen the movement have you not come to the events have you not seen the influence and the way we inspire and people go off and do it and they and you know we're not tracking everybody but we see it yeah and there's a lot of ancillary things that you can't really measure like in some regards you can say that hip really is the reason why Barack Obama got elected because I'm first to say that.
34:00Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. Because his cultural influence made it acceptable for white people to look at somebody black and give him an opportunity where previously that wasn't. And that's because they got so used to Tupac, Biggie, Snoop and all of that. And it just permeated, hip hop permeated society and kind of softened the situation. There are 60 year olds, me, that grew up on hip hop and they're the head of corporations. And you play a Run DMC record and they lose their mind. And their wife looks at them like, who is this man? You know this white man who's 60 years old. We didn't expect that to happen.
34:49And the kids are like, I didn't know dad knew about hip hop. because he grew up, and when he was in high school, I mean, he was in college or in high school, that was the music that he grew up listening to, and he still loves that, and that makes him happy at 60 years old still, and he'll go, he'll buy the kids tickets. We all going to see Run DMC. How about that? And I also think that it's kind of unfair. We put hip-hop in an unfair bucket, right, because it's like, it's still a genre of music. We're not asking what institution has classical music built or what institution has the blues built country music yeah i mean we we have we over index because part of it is because we rely too much on hip-hop right like we don't just look at hip-hop as like this is just good entertainment it becomes so much of our life that it's become entertainment or religion a culture everything for us right so it's like we put so much pressure on it and then that's not really fair because at the end of the day it shouldn't it shouldn't really have that much pressure it should just be a part of what we look at not the whole entire every single thing in our life i think that's where that the distinguishment between between hip-hop and rap music right right because hip-hop as a culture itself yeah you're right we definitely over indexing because it's something that we created and it's something for everything yeah and we we've watched it right so if it was 50 years like I'm 82, baby, 84.
36:16We literally grew up with this music. And I can say for me, it's been the biggest influence. When KRS-One was coming out with Biggie Down Productions, talking about being a teacher, being a teacher, it was like, all right, you could be a teacher. Then Jay's spitting. I'm like, oh, wait. He's saying things that we can unpack. Even for me, it was like, I got to be creative on how I teach because he's saying things that I can use to kids, and now they can relate to it through the music. so it's the biggest influence I mean by far I use hip hop in the libraries now I work with the Queens Library you know they were like first of all the amount of kids that were going to libraries had come down why?
36:57we could use this we don't have to go in the library how do we get them in the library Ralph? I remember sitting in front of a bunch of people that run the library in Queens and I said we could do some events and they'll come and then we just gotta trick them to getting into behind taking books out and getting library cards. And they were like, well, how do we do that? Easy, we bring in a DJ, we got a graffiti writer doing some graffiti, kids want to draw, let's try this. And we started doing that. And that was six years ago, and the numbers increased in all of our 65 branches. We have 65 libraries in Queens.
37:36Now, Ralph, I need a program. We need to get, you know, we need them for 6 and 11 year olds. Okay. I use the same things that they use, the same taxes. They use arts and crafts and all that kind of stuff. But I hip hop it out. So now we're going to customize sneakers. Oh, you think that'll work? Kids love sneakers. Sneaker culture is huge. And now they can make their own. And for those that are out there, you take my idea. Use it. You know, use it. And it's easier. A lot of times I speak to people, different librarians and museum curators in other parts of the country. Well, you're in New York, so that's a different.
38:14But you might have to finance and put a little bit of your money up in the beginning. We didn't have a budget for this. I felt like, why? Why do we not have a budget? It was crazy. Well, it was just not in the budget when we first started. Maybe next year we can put it in the budget. And then you had to sell that. But whatever the case is, sport the numbers up. then you have Booker Hove, Jay-Z Booker Hove come out. Changed the whole culture of what libraries look like. And now they can go to their CEO, president, or whatever and go, this is a perfect example of what we can do here in Indiana or we can do in Ohio or we can do in Nebraska.
38:56And so Jay-Z's not going to get the credit for that. You know, me, I talk about it all the time it was a big deal and i talk about i feel like i was the first and influenced that to happen you know because i remember when rock nation called me and said this is what we're thinking about doing and i was like it's gonna work it's gonna be perfect and that's how it happened well speaking of that from a documentary standpoint right so okay you have 30 years of footage and everything 40 40 years of footage when do you start thinking about doing a documentary and how do you actually even go about making that, you know, tangible with that much millions of hours of footage?
39:42What's the tedious process to actually make that come to life? I've been kicking the idea around, a book or a documentary or a movie, and I've really wanted to do a movie first. Let's just do a movie. People, let's just get right to it. you know, let's get somebody to play Ralph and, you know, and Tuffy and Crazy Sam and Crazy John and Kevin. Right, you know, and so, and then we were right in March of 2020 and this thing, the pandemic hit, right? And so, I was kicking it with a friend of mine. I wanted him, then we started talking about documentary. Sasha Jenkins. Sasha Jenkins did the Wu-Tang documentary.
40:28He did a bunch of documentaries on hip-hop. And so I said, yo, Sasha, man, look, you know, I want you to direct my documentary. We didn't have a place for it yet. We went to a couple of places, and, you know, they were like, okay, it sounds like it's interesting. Sasha was like, your footage is the cell. You know, you got everything. You know, it's not like we're looking for something or we're going and searching for it. You got all the footage. everything you talk about you you got the visuals for it i said right so eventually um we went to um um showtime or actually what happened is sasha and naz went to showtime sasha told me i meet with showtime but i didn't know it was with naz so he says then he calls me today he says yeah me and naz just left the showtime i'm like not why is naz there and he's like oh yeah we're gonna do it with Mass Appeal.
41:25So I said, all right. And he said, and you're the only one, the only documentary they want to do is your documentary. The guy who does documentaries there is very familiar with you. He grew up in New Jersey and he watched you. And he said, you guys know Ralph McDaniels? This is not possible. Talking to the Nas. And that's how, that's how the documentary came about. But more importantly is that we had all of this footage and we brought that to the table and said, you know, like we could do 10 documentaries if you want to. In fact, we've been doing it, you just didn't know that Sasha's my man and I'm Sasha, use this.
42:04Use this. Use this. And Sasha was like, yeah, oh, this is incredible. Nobody has this. So like what we saw with the Yeezus documentary, like you have that for that was specifically for Kanye. But you have that, I mean, pretty much for every artist. Are people after seeing the documentary if you haven't checked it out please go check it out after seeing the feedback from the documentary are labels or artists looking to you to say hey can we get some of that footage because we're thinking about putting a piece together for this artist or that artist well the labels are still trying to figure it out because they're corporate right and they want to be in charge of everything and I'm like you got to go to what the people want you know think about what the people want This is it.
42:47Don't think about it from your perspective because it's going to be corny. I'm not saying that you guys are not excellent at making money and doing what you do, but people want to know the little integral tidbits about DMX or 50 or whoever it is. And you want to see that. And you guys are just going to come from a music perspective. On this record, they did this, which is fine, which is important. People want to know that. But I think that people want to know, you know, the intimate parts of the artist, you know, and sometimes it's not good. And not saying that we want to just just lay out everybody's personal business.
43:28I don't agree in that either. But whatever the artist is comfortable with, let's put it that way. how do you feel about um like it feel like hip-hop now is everybody's looking at like it from a different standpoint now right all of these different cases that have come about right but a lot of that stems from like stuff that happened 20 20 years ago right so how do you feel about like the full circle moment now especially like when it comes to sexual assault and stuff like that. When we saw videos, that was kind of borderline on that, but nobody really thought about it like that at that moment, right?
44:11So what's your thoughts? Especially the rock and roll video. Yeah, well, yeah. So what's your thoughts on the state of where that currently stands right now? It's a different time. There are things that I played on Video Music Box back in the days I would never be able to play them now. And we edit them. we have to edit those videos. Like if we throw a throwback and we look at it, how possibly did we play this on TV? I know one that came to mind. You know, and I don't, you know, it happened, you know. I have no excuse. These things happened. And that's the culture that we are in and we evolve and we learn and we do whatever we do to make it right.
44:56And that's what, you know, that's what 2024 is. Is it a music industry problem or a hip hop problem? No, it's just people problem. You know, some men standing around, yeah, let's do this. It's music. You know, look, I remember there was a time in the early 2000s when strip clubs was where you went to break records. And it'd be like thousands of people going to the strip club and, you know, the record release party was at a strip club. you know and I wasn't really into strip clubs like that but I was aware of it you know that it was happening and I'm a married man my wife's like you ain't going to no damn strip club where you going boy and so but I knew it was happening and that was a culture that's where we get Cardi B Cardi B comes directly out of that she's talking she's telling you about the strip club culture she was a stripper right but she starts on on this blog or on Instagram or whatever it was, Facebook, whatever it was, and she's just talking.
46:02Last night, this happened, and da-da-da-da-da, and she's breaking down all of this stuff that I don't know. I have no idea, but I know that this girl is very interesting. I don't even know she's a rapper. In fact, she's not a rapper yet. I'm like, I don't know something about her. She's going to be somebody. I don't know where this is going, but it's going somewhere. 10 years 15 years later she's one of the biggest in the game loving hip-hop it's interesting it's this evolution right because when i think of all the videos that you directed early on the paper then uh we produced it produced it ain't hard to tell even the routine the rawness of those videos yeah and then we have an era where we're going into million dollar videos highly produced videos right and so you go from video music box you go to mtv on tv raps and you get bt rap city all these 106 and park tl's in there somewhere yep and then now we're streaming and it's youtube and it's going back to the rawness of the video right how are you viewing this from your standpoint it's like are we going back to the origin or people just like to have that raw authentic i think they just like to not know it not be predictable like kyson that right i'm like okay i'm watching i don't watch him all the time but i everything that he seems to get reaction when it's something that happened that he didn't know was going to happen you know he's just good at planning it out you know but i think that people like that you know they're in this world in this universe and it just happened and oh my god what you call him kevin hart is on there oh uh this guy is on there you know i'm not gonna be surprised if denzel pops up on you know on on you know and denzel will get it you know because denzel gets it he gets it he he comes from that place he knows it he knows what it is you don't have to do it but if he feels like it he probably said let's do it but i think everything works in cycles because even you know the million dollar budget video but then DMX comes out.
48:07Let's take it back to the streets, right? And then that ushered in an era of just raw grittiness and it goes back up. So it goes up, it goes down, it goes up, it goes down as far as quality. I think that's the competition. Yeah. Because, you know, Rough Riders, we got all the bikes. Nobody don't have that. That was still a great, that was a well-produced video. Yeah, let's take it to the... No, but I'm saying it's in this tunnel. Yeah, the content of it was. But it's not like protect your neck. Right. Which is just like, yo, somebody shot this on a camcorder and they gave it to you. Right. This is like, they put even like his next video, How's It Going Down.
48:39Right. Like these are good. Like if you look at them now, they're still well produced. The cinematography is good. The lighting is good. DMX is, you know, a unicorn. Well, he wants to. Yeah, he wants to. I remember with Video Music Box and Crazy Sam went to Yonkers and he was there to tape some other artists. And he says, yo man this other guy comes up and says why are you messing with them they're whack you should be doing it with me and you know this is before he blew up right and so Sam is like you know we hear this all the time and he says yo man I'm gonna be right back man I'm gonna do something for y 'all and he does a little freestyle you know and Sam said the guy actually was pretty good he was crazy he's crazy and crazy Sam is crazy and so but dmx you know no filter just come on let's do it he's an actor he was in movies like he's a real you know like he's a real deal talented yeah super talented um okay so when do you start to get into actually literature right because now you actually have the children yeah we got the book how does that come about?
49:56The book was from me working in the library. I saw a lot of books, but I didn't see enough for hip-hop or for our people or for the hip-hop community. Sometimes people say, oh, it's black. I'm like, no, it's just people that are into hip-hop. We talk a certain way, and you'll know it when you hear it and you just start talking with them. You could walk in a corporate room and you look for that guy or that girl that's, okay, that's my peoples right there. I need them. right there, I gotta connect with them after we leave. And so we wanted to create something that was based upon my story, but also as a way to teach kids in books, which once again, they don't have to do that, they could use this.
50:43So how do we make that interesting? We pack it with a lot of information, and we packed it with my story, the story of parents who grew up and wanted to show their kid where they came from, where hip-hop started at in the Bronx, and take them to Times Square, where they used to be dancing on cardboard here, and people would give them money, and all of these things that is part of the hip-hop experience back in the days. And so that's what the book is about. But in the same time, we're doing reading comprehension and math and science, you know, STEM in general, just to kind of make the book last a little bit longer.
51:23So let me ask you this. as far as, just from a hip-hop question. There's two artists who I feel will never get the proper respect that they deserve from hip-hop purists. Kanye West and Drake. To me, I feel like hip-hop purists will never champion them. But their resume speaks for itself. How do you feel about that? I'm a fan of both of them, guys. And I may not be the hip-hop purist you're talking about. It's a guy that's sitting on the stoop right now, you know, with some Timbs on. He still drinks Old English. And he'll tell you every album cut, he knows his stuff, right? I know that guy. And girls and women as well.
52:09And it's because they believe that hip-hop is an era, a certain era, that they grew up on probably, and that's it. And some, you know, may go a little further around, you know, into today. But most of them are of a certain age. And they just, you know, if it doesn't have, if the lyrics are not in these type of cadence, or the beats are not these type of beats, then it's not hip-hop. I just look at both of them like nobody's done what they've done. Nobody in the history of hip-hop. Like, when I look at Drake, to be number one for 15 years, every single year consistently. Soft, son, it's soft.
52:55and then it's like for Carlye to be the number one producer then to be the number one rapper to have five classic albums not from New York son not from New York I mean this is what they gonna say right even this era right think about this era like if that's the argument not from New York doesn't it feel I mean watching it from every era we don't dominate the music and it's been that way for a while now in fact we don't who is the artist I mean you could say A-Boogie or you might say Cardi you throw Nikki in there but we don't we don't have the person or the people or even a group of people that New York can say like that's us women women they dominate women Nikki Minaj Cardi B but Nikki's even Nikki's in her 40s but she's still number one I'm not I said Nikki and Cardi and you could throw an A-Boogie in there but it's Ice Spice was hot she had a run I like Ice Spice I think of the Riot the dude that does the beats you know that's DJ Nuff's son I'm like this guy's amazing I love the music and I really kind of tuned in I'm like who like I didn't even realize it was drill and I was like who's doing the music like what is this this sounds like familiar and so I think that that helps the music the music was first the DJ was first I felt like there was a time we all know this time when each barrel had a number of people coming from it and I feel now it's like it's a different city and that's I mean that's good that speaks to the growth of the music itself but New York in itself like I couldn't tell you who outside of A Boogie in the Bronx that was by design okay remember when Cash Money became popular right yeah late 90s that's how long Cash Money been around yeah Cash Money was using music that they they did on their own I mean some of it was sampled but we didn't know it wasn't like Like, you know, keep rising to the top and, you know, samples that we knew.
54:53It wasn't, don't look any further. It wasn't that. It was something else. The music business realized Cash Money could make records for a lot less than they have to give Jay-Z on his third album or his fourth album. Why are we spending this much money to give to Jay or give to DMX or to Wu-Tang? Let's give it to Cash Money. They know how to make records for less and less samples. We don't got to worry about getting sued. None of that legal stuff is going to happen. And that was when the shift happened right there. And once they became popular and they started selling records, then all of the record labels said, oh, we got to find us a cash money.
55:35And so that's when it changed. And I think it's the culture too. Culture drives music. So what I mean by that is like West Coast had a culture. the gang culture permeated and then that sound that they created went worldwide globally and now and then people started making music to kind of mirror that right New York had a culture 5 % all that and people started making music to permeate what Rakim was talking about and what Nas or Wu-Tang was talking about right then it was the hustler culture with Jay and Big now it's gang culture but like different like Chicago gang culture drill that's permeated so even if they from New York they don't sound like they're from New York they emulate in Chicago or it's just down south culture in general so now everybody the gold teeth is coming back and how they dress and how they talk and the slang that they're using sound like they're from Louisiana Alabama even if they're from New York they're using Atlanta slang yeah so that culture there are New York artists but it doesn't seem like that New York vintage feel because like Dipset was authentic to New York.
56:51Their culture permeated it but that was Dipset. Like G-Unit, that was 50 Cent was Queens, right? Like even 50 is the last of it. I think you're making the point I'm saying. What's the authentic New York? We don't really have an authentic New York. Nicki Minaj and Cardi B, those are authentic New York. I think Cardi is authentic New York. Nicki too. Nicki definitely. I think Nicki's a lyricist. I don't count her anymore Why not It's like Jay I don't count But she's still active I know but I'm saying like They're from a demographic That's like The Hall of Fame That's the Hall of Fame already We already know Solidified First Ballot That's Hall of Fame But that The music has to stay young There's no New York I mean you got artists That's traditional New York But they haven't Like Somebody like Davies He's a New Yorker He's a New Yorker The way he dressed The way he talks But he's not He's not a Mainstream popular artist Pop Smoke was the last one.
57:49He was a hybrid because he was a new generation, but he was real New York. His cadence, his flow, his vibe was very much the new New York. He championed gang culture and all of that, but it didn't seem like. When ASAP Rocky and them came out, I thought they were from Houston. When I first saw ASAP Mark, I thought they were from Houston because they had nothing. I wasn't familiar with anything that they were talking about as far as like that's not New York. They kind of had that Harlem swag, though. When you, after a while, yeah, when it first came out, it was like, even Santana was like, no, that's not Harlem.
58:24Like, you know what I'm saying? And no disrespect to her. Yeah, that was years ago. He was like, yo. Oh, when he said that. That's not Harlem. Like, he didn't mean like they're not from Harlem, but he's like, that's not Harlem. That's a new generation. That's not the Harlem that he knew. That they know. But it was the new Harlem. It was a new, yeah. That ushered in a new style. There was a whole thing of style with that generation, which changed, which influenced a lot of kids now. Right. You know? Then that's why they look at A$AP the way A$AP Rocky. He's revered. Right. He's like in that Tyler Creator.
58:54Tyler Creator is a thing of more kind of impact. And Tyler Creator is amazing. And the first, I saw him first on you. Yeah. You put the video with the cockroach on his face. Right. I was like, what is this? Yeah. But I saw him live first, and I felt like I didn't feel L.A., where he's from. I felt like this is a new, he could be in New York doing this. And, you know, and he, he had all of the, the movement, you know? And I was like, I didn't have any idea that he was from, from, from LA. But that's why Kendrick is, is such a big artist. Cause he leaned into LA culture. Oh yeah. Double down, triple down, quadruple down on it.
59:30When times gets hard, he always goes back to LA. Right. So it's like, and they grabbed him. Huh? They grabbed him too. Who grabbed him? No, they, they made sure. No, no, no, but I'm just saying, like, that's somebody who, he put that anthem out and it was L.A. Like, you know what I'm saying? Because he was L.A. He's their, outside of Nib, it was their favorite son, right? Like, you think, when they passed him the crown on stage and Snoop's on stage and Game's on stage and J-Rock, all these guys have made sure since early on that he's going to be the next one. J-Rock. Right? J-Rock is very important.
1:00:04He's opening up for J-Rock. Right, because J-Rock looked like he was from Brooklyn. Game is very important. Right, game too. Game looked like he was from New York. Right, so that opens up the door, even though they don't have the sales like Kendrick and others, but J-Rock is a very important part to me, from outside of L.A. to the success. Yeah, he's going to make it. Tyler, I'm with you. I didn't even know he was from there. On the new album, he's saying he's the biggest out of the city since Kenny, and I'm like, oh, okay. But you look at it, when they did that show, When Kendrick did that show, if you look at the largest ovation outside of when Kendrick does not like us, it's Tyler.
1:00:46Really? Yeah. So what's next for you? I mean, you know, you got the book. Yeah. Did a documentary. You've chronicled 50 years of hip hop, literally. Like, you as an elder statesman and somebody that's, you know, established your legacy. What are you looking forward to in the next 10 years? I think it's important that because I work in a business right now that deals with government funding and that type of thing and grants and stuff like that, we have to be aware who we have in office right now. And it's changed. And so now we're in preservation mode. I do a lot of stuff that, you know, my whole thing is with my nonprofit is Video Music Boss Collection.
1:01:34It's preserving this culture, digitizing it, making it available, and then, you know, doing stories and curating. Government contracts from school districts? So you might get government contracts for schools. You might get government contracts for museums. You know, so you do something at MoMA, you could get a$3 million contract to do something at the MoMA. or you could get$10 ,000 or$5 ,000 to do something at Yonkers Library. And is that money going to be coming? According to the way it's been projected, it may be coming, but it may not be coming into hip-hop or it might not be coming into our community.
1:02:16It may be going somewhere else now. So we have to make sure that we protect our history and make sure that. And some people go, oh, man, come on, Ralph. We don't want to hear about that. And it's important that we do that because if we don't do that, then we don't have a story. So how do we do that? We have to have our own spaces for that. And we, as the community, have to protect it. We have to do it ourselves. You know, I grew up in Crown Heights when I lived in Brooklyn. And Crown Heights is like half Hasidic Jewish, half African American, well, and Caribbean. And everybody takes care of their own.
1:02:53you know you know if it's a caribbean community like you know like we haven't uh a shabba super cat and and and uh and somebody will perform tonight and you go and they make sure that they got they protected they protecting their thing the african-american community does does it as well and the hasidic community does it as well my neighbors were hasidic jews you know i see them every day family first ralph okay you know i hear it all the time and we have to be like that family first. You know, like, we are very competitive. That's what we do. Hip-hop is a very competitive thing. Sports, you know, it's very competitive.
1:03:30We're the greatest at that. But we have to think about taking care of our culture and making sure that it's protected. And that, by doing that, then also brings wealth to that community in those particular areas. You know, anything that's happened to us is because we didn't do that. Do you think that hip-hop will be under something? One of the things they said in Project 2025 with that people's artistic abilities is going to be... We'll be the first. We'll be the first that they're going to try and shut down. Look, we've been doing this for a minute. We've been running things for a long time. You got Black-ish.
1:04:06You got all these shows on TV. We've been running, and everybody knows about it. It's not just Black people who are buying this. Clearly, this is entertainment. Everybody's buying it. It's not like we forced it down your throat. We said you enjoyed it. But somebody's sitting in the back, all right, these black people, that's enough for y 'all. Y 'all had a nice little run. So now, okay, look, expect that to happen. And just be ready. And just be prepared. Don't just sit back and lay down and go, okay, we're not getting that funding no more. We gotta go do something else and just leave it. Which is what we can to do.
1:04:44We just leave it. And then somebody comes and buys it for cheap and makes it something. I think you sit in a unique standpoint, right? If this is the era of content, I mean, you have it. You have it. You have something that can't be duplicated, which is content of people who are no longer here. Yeah. Right? And you have it in the early stages and late stages and even current stages. You talked about the process of digitizing. I mean, that's a lengthy process, I'm sure, but what's the view, what's the vision really for after it's digitized? now are we trying to say like hey we're gonna put this on the screen we want to we want to have it in harvard you know nas has a fellowship there um other institutions hbcus um i went to school in long island put it there you know that was i went to school for tv and film put it in those type of schools you know where journalists the next journalist the next earn your leisure guys are coming up and they should be able to see all of this and learn information from what y 'all do you know and it's valuable like we do it because we do it and we really enjoy it some of us make a lot of money out of it but it's valuable information it's valuable I want to talk about one thing before we go and it's the painful foundation because it's important it's important to watch it's important to see but more importantly is what you guys are doing I know you're on the board for those who are not familiar hopefully you can explain to them but just watching you give back to a generation that we grew up watching, especially hip-hop artists.
1:06:21I know this year's recipients were Roxanne Shante, Grandmaster Cash, Kumo D. His videos was crazy. Was Scarface this year? Last year. Scarface and Rakim. So giving back to artists who paved the way for the future generations. Talk about the Pay to Full Foundation and your role in it. I think that part is like that that paved the way. Like, we're trying to figure out is who's the right artist. You know, because some people, I was the first. It was not necessarily based upon who was the first. It was the influence, kind of, in a way. But the idea is from Ben Horowitz, who, you know, his companies and, you know, his business is amazing.
1:07:06And he, just as a guy who loves hip hop, went to NYU in the 90s. He grew up in the golden era. and was listening to all this music while he was doing whatever he was doing, became very successful at it. And you go to his house and he's just like, he's just playing, he's definitely playing some Nas and some Scarface or Ghetto Boys or whoever, 50. And he was like, I want to do something that can benefit these artists. No strings attached. And sometimes with us, or with anybody, somebody comes and says, I'm going to give you$500 ,000. You're like, why? What do I got to do? If somebody comes and gives you$20, you're like, what do I got to do?
1:07:52You think there's a catch to it, and there's no catch to it at all. And some people, they've asked to, you know, they want to do it with, to give the money to, and they just didn't, they were scared to take the money. The recipients? Yeah, the recipients. And I was like, it's me talking to you. I wouldn't do that to you, bro. And for whatever reason. And I had to explain to the foundation, this is not something normal. People don't just come and give you money. That's not how it works. So be patient. Wait a second. Give me another week. I'll go to their house and talk to them. But yeah, so two years in a row.
1:08:35Nas of course is part of it very important part of it and Steve Stout
1:08:43and QD3 Quincy Jones' son and Fab Five Freddy and others that are part of it and they were just these were just the people that were there for the initial conversation I met Ben Harwood Steve Stout and Steve was working on a book I mean Ben was working on a book and he wanted to quote me in the book and I just didn't understand it. Like, why me? But he had studied my whole thing and he's, you're a purist. You're a hip-hop purist. And I was like, all right. And so we sat down in Queens in the library and I gave him some words and he used it in his book. And we've been friends ever since. So each year, how many people can receive the reward?
1:09:27It could vary. Last year was two. It was supposed to be three actually last year. and so that didn't happen. This year was three. So maybe let's say three right now. Three first. And it's not like, you know, like Kaz was easy. Kaz was like, he wrote a song. He had this book. He gave it to his man, Big Bad Hank and Hank went and made one of the biggest hip hop records ever. Excuse me. Rap is the light. Using Kaz's words and never got the credit for it. Kaz never got the credit for it. Nobody ever came back and said, you know, here's some money for that. And so that was like a clear, like, damn.
1:10:13Like, how many times do we hear rappers delay? We still hear it now at corporate galas, you know? And so Kaz was a clear understanding of it. Roxanne Chante, who I worked with in the beginning, did her first video, one of my first videos that I did, was just a girl that could rap. She was one of those hip hop purists. She's that girl. Cause she's still that girl. She's sitting in, you know, she works with Sirius Radio now, but she'll give you the breakdown. Like, nah, that ain't hip hop son. You know, she's that girl. And, and Kool Moe D is a revolutionary. He's, he's Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, you know, Meghavers all wrapped up in one.
1:10:55And with a James Brown beat underneath it. You know. Big leather jacket. Right. And, you know, and so he meant a lot to Harlem, the image of him, and, you know, the traditions of the guys, you know, the Dougie Freshers and others that, you know, DJ Hollywood and all these people that were doing their thing, Harlem, you know. And he was the right choice, you know. And I remember this year when it happened, you know, because he knew me. I did videos for him. You know, he didn't really know everybody. and he's not a guy that you see all the time so he don't even come outside like that. He might do some shows but you don't really see Cuomo D and he was like and I could see a little puzzlement on the stick like what's about to happen?
1:11:40And I'm like it's cool, ain't nothing gonna happen. It's gonna be fine. We're gonna leave him, we're gonna get back on the plane we're gonna go back to our normal life and that's gonna be it. But some of the more successful guys in that world, Silicon Valley world come to the event and they buy tickets and they want to hang out with Ben Harwood but they listen to hip hop that night. That's dope. I appreciate it bro. So how can they get the book? How can they follow everything you got going on? Videomusicbox.com for the book.
1:12:18Videomusicboxcollection.org is my non-profit. Please support that. We do a lot of work. It's a lot of work, archiving, digitizing, all of the stuff that we do to just get the details of what the story of hip-hop is about. And it's not the story of hip-hop. It's more from my perspective, from what we covered. We didn't cover everything. Clearly, we were in New York most of the time. But it is in other areas of the country, some of the story. There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you guys for rocking with us. I'll see you next week. Peace. Peace. Peace. alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child in Massachusetts.
1:12:56An MS-13 gang member from El Salvador accused of murdering a Texas man. A Venezuelan charged with filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Kristi Noem, the United States Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded. And over 100 ,000 illegal aliens have been arrested. If you are here illegally, you're next. You will be fined nearly$1 ,000 a day, imprisoned and deported. You will never return.
1:13:35But if you register using our CBP Home app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally. Do what's right. Leave now. Under President Trump, America's laws, border, and families will be protected. Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.
From the publisher
In this episode of Earn Your Leisure, we sit down with hip hop media pioneer Ralph McDaniels, creator of Video Music Box. He shares how he built the show like a mixtape, maintained full creative control, and gave artists like Nas their first shot in front of the camera.
We explore the golden era of music videos, MTV’s impact, and whether Suge Knight gets enough credit for shaping the industry. Ralph also responds to Dr. Umar’s critiques of hip hop and discusses the genre’s lasting power to connect people worldwide.
From stories about DMX, Kanye, and Drake, to thoughts on New York’s musical influence and threats like Project 2025, this episode is full of game, history, and cultural insight. Tap in.
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