Yo!Tube : A Tribute to Yo! MTV Raps–Part 1
When I was a young youth growing up in the video age, Yo! MTV Raps was the most important two hours of my week. Sure, there was Pump It Up, Rap City, The Box, whatever…but all that came later. Yo! was the truth, the first and foremost, and it changed my life (and yours) forever. I remember it like it was yesterday. The year was 1988…
Look, I know this website isn’t all about re-posting other people’s content, but I can’t overstate the significance that Yo! MTV Raps (and rap videos in general) had on my adolescent world. Therefore, the purpose of this series is to highlight the way we were, and to shine a little light into long-neglected corners of the hip-hop classics-bin. But because you can’t just live in the past, I’ll try to find a new song every once in a while that might need your support, just to stay current. I know we all send each other this kind of shit anyway, but I wanted to do it up right, out of respect for the architects. So without further ado, let’s get to the videos…
We better begin at the beginning, so here it is. The first video ever played on Yo! MTV Raps was…
Really, it doesn’t get more classic than that. But for all you completists out there, the first video ever played on a regular episode of Yo! (as opposed to the pilot) was…
And seriously, that was the best version of it that I could find. But it’s all good. I’m just sad I couldn’t locate any clips of the opening credits from this era, which had snippets from the videos for Gangstarr’s Words I Manifest and 2 Live Crew’s Move Somethin’ (among others), and which still featured the infamous Flava Flav “Yeeeeeah, boyeeee!!!” intro. Good times, good times. Back in the day I knew rap would never die…
And it still hasn’t. So, in the spirit of those words, here’s some new shit. There was a time when I stopped checking for this gentleman, but we all know he was one the greats during an earlier era. And this may be proof that at last he’s back on bars. No real video for this yet, but enjoy the song anyway…
Alright, fam. I hope those videos took you way back, and I promise there’ll be more to come. I’ll try to keep it chronological, so we can grow up on hip-hop all over again. Until next time…
Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh, boyeeeeeeee!!!
Grip Grand
March 7th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
That Rae track is fucking bonkers….. Vatican mixtape 3 from a few years back is also one of the most slept on.
March 8th, 2009 at 5:54 am
I loved and love Yo! Mtv Raps. I will make another post about that.
My issue with Rae is that he makes shit up that doesn’t make sense. Him and Ghost (I like Ghost wayyyyyy better) it’s hard for me to really get into his songs when the shit he is saying is made-up gibberish only he understands.
And that song only makes me appreciate Jay-Z more. It’s hard to feel like “oh shit he smashed that song!” when he is doing a “chart topper”. you feel? Richies chart topper was the best… there is no question he can rap well.
March 5th, 2010 at 2:45 am
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