30 YEARS AGO LAST WEEK, THE ARSENIO HALL SHOW DEBUTED AND CHANGED LATE-NIGHT TV FOREVER. MORE IMPORTANTLY, IT CHANGED URBAN MUSIC ON TV FOREVER.
This was only about a year after YO! MTV Raps hit the scene, and a year before In Living Color and Fox’s hip-hop centric line-up, so there weren’t many spaces to see our artists and our culture on mainstream TV.
Arsenio changed that, and created a space for black music and culture to get comfortable and make itself at home. Tonight, we’re gonna run through some of his best performances and moments, starting with hip-hop.