Yo! was the first national program showcasing hip-hop music and artists. For many, it was their introduction to hip-hop, as well as their sole source of hip-hop education. The show helped push the genre into the mainstream and spread globally. It was fertile ground for content that had never before been seen or done.
Tag Archives: Hip Hop
ALL HAIL THE QUEENS: The Pioneers of Female Rap
. Lauryn and Missy weren’t the first to switch it up between spitting and singing, Lauryn wasn’t the first conscious female rapper with knowledge of self, and Kim and Foxy weren’t the first to take ownership of their sexuality, or come as hard as the boys. That was all happening as hip-hop was coming of age, in the ’80s, and the originals are long overdue for their props. MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, and Salt-N-Pepa were early champions of feminism and equality, girl power (before it was a buzz phrase), sisterhood and agency.
LET’S GET BUSY: REMEMBERING THE ARSENIO HALL SHOW
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 seeContinue reading “LET’S GET BUSY: REMEMBERING THE ARSENIO HALL SHOW”
THE GOLDEN AGE OF HIP-HOP TRILOGY
#MusicSermon’s three central sermons from hip-hop’s Golden Age (late 80s — early 90s) ARTIST: Madina Design In preface to this Sermonic Trilogy I need to echo a point made it one of the sermons below, as it’s a through-line through not just all three of these conversations, but a key aspect to the growth of hip-hop overall: rap musicContinue reading “THE GOLDEN AGE OF HIP-HOP TRILOGY”
REMEMBERING HEAVY
Celebrating one of the most underrated artists in mainstream hip-hop In 2011 we lost an artist I consider criminally underrated and under-acknowledged in hip hop conversations. We’ve touched on him in previous #MusicSermons: looking at the book of Uptown and remembering how hard we danced in the 90s, but today we’re going to properly focusContinue reading “REMEMBERING HEAVY”
#MUSICSERMON’S TOP 11
Shortly before #MusicSermon’s anniversary, we put out a call for your Top sermons over the first year. For the rest of the month, we’re counting down down the Top 11 based on your responses. #11: THE GOLDEN ERA of R&B/HIP-HOP COLLABS When hip-hop and r&b collabs first hit their stride, each genre brought a distinctContinue reading “#MUSICSERMON’S TOP 11”