Rap Metropolis was proof.
By the point the present made its BET debut on Aug. 11, 1989, hip-hop was the rallying cry of Black America, decreased to a catchy whisper all through mainstream America. The Grammys wouldn’t air our awards. Radio not often performed our music. MTV birthed Yo! MTV Raps in 1988, years after music titans like Rick James and David Bowie questioned the community’s obvious erasure of Black artists.
To many, hip-hop was a fad. Rap Metropolis was proof that hip-hop was extra.
When Rap Metropolis co-founder Hans “Prime” Dobson was on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, dissing Arizona for not recognizing Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a nationwide vacation, Rap Metropolis was proof that hip-hop was a rise up. When Will Smith instructed Rap Metropolis producers its inaugural host, Chris “The Mayor” Thomas, didn’t want a teleprompter telling him converse hip-hop as a result of he was already a illustration of the tradition, Rap Metropolis was proof that hip-hop was a language. When host Joe Clair’s interview with Infamous B.I.G. — one of many final of Biggie’s life — aired three days after the rapper’s premature loss of life, Rap Metropolis was proof that hip-hop was ceaselessly. And Rap Metropolis by no means felt prefer it was involved with exhibiting all of that to anybody else however its personal folks.
“Although MTV was doing it [with Yo! MTV Raps], this was from Black folks to Black folks. It was like B2B,” Former Vibe Journal editor-in-chief, Datwon Thomas, joked in an interview with Okayplayer. “In the event you weren’t a rapper, you weren’t going to be on Yo! MTV Raps. For Rap Metropolis, in the event you have been an up-and-coming DJ, you could possibly get on and be in The Basement with Tigger. It felt like you could possibly make it.”
That’s Rap Metropolis’s everlasting legacy — music discovery anyplace as proof that hip-hop was in every single place. Earlier than T.I. grew to become the “King of the South,” he was an unknown entourage member rolling with Goodie Mob, OutKast and Youngbloodz when Rap Metropolis hosts Joe Clair and Leslie “Massive Lez” Segar gave him time to shine on digital camera. In BET’s documentary Welcome To Rap Metropolis, T.I. left the drug recreation after that singular expertise as a result of he felt he was near altering his life. Jay-Z was $1 billion poorer and a 12 months faraway from escaping a federal drug raid that may’ve landed him in jail when Prime let him rhyme for the primary time on TV in 1990 subsequent to Massive Daddy Kane. Thomas, who remembers first listening to Frequent in 1992 on Rap Metropolis, noticed how the present grew to become a pipeline between rappers and the mainstream consideration of BET’s nationwide viewers. “Rap Metropolis was a part of our every day lexicon. After we have been at Vibe, we’d wish to activate the TV to see what they acquired occurring.”
Authenticity is what made you belief Rap Metropolis’s musical judgment. The folks guiding you thru the world of hip-hop have been kids of the tradition and felt like reflections of the viewers that trusted them. In its prime, Rap Metropolis hosts included comedians revered by rappers (Chris “The Mayor” Thomas and Joe Clair), a reformed drug vendor (Durik “Prince” Dajour), hip-hop nerd (Hans “Prime” Dobson), and a hip-hop choreographer (Leslie “Massive Lez” Segar). Rap Metropolis began because the premiere vacation spot for music discovery, however rapidly grew to become an establishment hip-hop swore by as we watched these unknowns ascend to superstardom after Rap Metropolis gave them a launchpad.
“Rap Metropolis was a faith. The hosts have been the disciples,” former Def Jam President Kevin Liles stated in Welcome To Rap Metropolis.
If Rap Metropolis was a faith, then you may simply divide its timeline with B.T. and A.T. — Earlier than Tigger and After Tigger. For generations of hip-hop followers, the mere point out of Rap Metropolis reflexively makes them consider the beady-eyed jovial smile of Darian “Massive Tigger” Morgan, a radio persona with a boombox for vocal chords and ginsu knife for a tongue keen to slice by way of any awkward rigidity with a piercing joke or reduce any MCs head off with a devastating freestyle. He was the right individual to usher Rap Metropolis into its new, and most definitive period — Rap Metropolis: The Basement.
“The very first Rap Metropolis: The Basement present we did was with Redman and Technique Man. I already had a historical past with them from my radio station, WPGC, on the time as a result of when ‘How Excessive’ got here out, they’d come to the radio station, and we had freestyled on the radio for 20 minutes, which was unparalleled again then,” Massive Tigger stated in an interview with Okayplayer. “By the second week, it was a factor. To have a chance to only go in there and have enjoyable with a few of my favourite artists was one of the best a part of my complete present.”
Rap Metropolis developed from appointment tv to a form of vacation spot TV when it moved to The Basement on Sept. 13, 1999. It was a easy, makeshift basement set tattooed with all of the data you wish to hearken to and the posters of the entire rappers you’d ever wish to meet, fitted with a recording sales space. The rappers that have been starting to achieve rarified air, buoyed by multi-platinum success, all descended from their unreachable perch into a spot all of us felt was dwelling as a result of it almost certainly appeared like our properties. After which there was The Sales space.
Frequent and Will.I.Am throughout Frequent and Will.I.Am Go to BET’s Rap Metropolis – January 9, 2007 at BET Studios in New York Metropolis, New York, United States.
Photograph by Johnny Nunez/WireImage.
It can’t be overstated how impactful The Sales space was to hip-hop. It wasn’t a programming formality; it was a ceremony of passage, a proving floor, whether or not you had the No. 1 music within the nation or the most well liked mixtape on the block. Earlier than 106 & Park grew to become a nationwide phenomenon in 2001, there was a two-year window the place one of the best platform for rappers to immediately attraction to their viewers on a massively in style community was in Mama Tigger’s basement. Pair that with the very fact the present’s heyday got here on the tail finish of hip-hop’s golden period, the place the legends of in the present day have been nonetheless etching their place in historical past, and you may perceive why The Sales space was handled with career-shifting reverence.
Clips throughout Clipse, Swizz Beatz and Vixon Mannequin on Rap Metropolis – November 28, 2006 at BET Studio in New York Metropolis, New York, United States.
Photograph by Johnny Nunez/WireImage.
For a couple of minutes on daily basis, the shiny swimsuit glitz, the platinum plaque shine, and the Cristal way of life have been gone, and followers have been greeted with a mixtape of All Stars, the magnitude of which has by no means been duplicated since. You had 2001 Jadakiss boasting about his “nicks the dimensions of PlayStation reminiscence playing cards” over Sunshine Anderson’s “Heard It All Earlier than.” 2003 DMX was “beginning to get too large for the cage I’ve been trapped in” over Nas’s “Made You Look.” Cam’ron counted a stack of money whereas explaining how his “A.Ok. was his AKA earlier than his ABCs” in what’s now known as a “cultural second” by Thomas. Tigger remembers, “Ludacris wrote rhymes only for the present.” Buju Banton and Elephant Man turned the basement right into a bashment in a Rap Metropolis freestyle so iconic it’s nonetheless talked about in Jamaica and is the very first thing you see while you Google “Buju Banton Elephant Man.”
The Sales space was the land of practically inexplicable level-ups, the place even lyrical Krillins like Lil Bow Wow might change into Tremendous Saiyans. By shifting the main target of The Infamous B.I.G.’s rap and R&B diva-focused “Simply Enjoying (Desires)” primarily to Hollywood actresses he needed thus far, the lyrically underwhelming spitter improbably delivered a high 5 Rap Metropolis freestyle of all time. In some way, the teenager heartthrob became a sly wordsmith, conjuring quippy barbs like, “J. Lo, I don’t know, I don’t wanna go the place everyone been/Ben (Affleck).” Even Tigger, along with his penchant for punishing freestyles, made positive each MC was impressed to convey their greatest, if for nothing else than to not be upstaged by the host. “There have been some individuals who acquired a bit extra vitality from me as a result of I ain’t imagine ‘em. I heard you good. Let me see in the event you’re very nice.”
Lloyd Banks throughout Ludacris and Lloyd Banks Go to Rap Metropolis with Ludacris and Lloyd Banks at BET Studio in New York Metropolis, New York, United States.
Photograph by Johnny Nunez/WireImage.
By the point the present went off air on Nov. 8, 2008, The Sales space freestyles had change into crucial a part of the present. And as time has handed, it’s these moments of lyrical spontaneity which have stored Rap Metropolis within the minds of future generations. “With out YouTube and Instagram, I could be forgotten. The community hasn’t completed something to maintain the legacy alive by selling it. Thank God individuals who watched it in real-time nonetheless have a thirst and reverence for it,” Tigger explains.
One of many folks impressed by these YouTube movies was 11-year-old Gabe Pabon in 2007, who shaped “a unconscious considered, ‘This is able to be one thing cool to do at some point,’” he tells Okayplayer. That Gen Z Rap Metropolis appreciator grew as much as change into Gabe P, creator of On The Radar Radio, the premier hip-hop efficiency platform on the web. The present’s inexperienced background and centerstage mic is probably the most recognizable freestyle setup since Rap Metropolis’s sales space. “It wasn’t till we did the primary couple of freestyles the place all of us gathered round and thought, ‘Yo, this could possibly be the following Rap Metropolis.’”
On The Radar Radio is based on the identical ideas of music discovery that outlined Rap Metropolis. The powerhouse platform releases 5 to seven freestyle movies a day, and is likely one of the few locations the place you may see a freestyle from little-known battle rapper Cortez and the following day see Drake and Central Cee break the web. The Rap Metropolis mannequin of the late ‘90s and 2000s continues to be related to Gen Z as a result of music discovery is an immutable facet of life. With a whole lot of 1000’s of songs launched on daily basis, platforms like On The Radar Radio, From The Block, The Entrance Porch, and others change into trusted sources on what’s sizzling.
“They do not have Rap Metropolis anymore on TV the place they know at 4 p.m. they’ll activate their TV to BET to look at [Rap City] and get their music style. Now it’s on-demand for them always,” Gabe says. “We’re actually good at creating an area for folks to get misplaced within the OTR algorithm and simply devour as a lot music as they like and uncover as many artists as they need.”
Marley Marl, KRS1 and 50 Cent throughout 50 Cent Host with Rap Metropolis with Particular Visitor KRS1 and Marley Marl at BET Rap Metropolis in New York, New York.
Photograph by Johnny Nunez/WireImage.
Even with folks like Gabe asserting “nothing I do can be potential with out the Massive Tiggers of the world,” Tigger’s voice is calm but coated in disappointment when discussing the legacy of Rap Metropolis. Its non secular offspring have had immense success, BET has aired a number of Rap Metropolis specials across the BET Hip Hop Awards between 2021-2023, and a three-part Welcome To Rap Metropolis documentary traced the 19-year historical past of the hip-hop establishment. But, Tigger talks concerning the present’s potential revival apparently by no means reaching an ideation assembly with BET, regardless that he attests that individuals ask him about bringing again Rap Metropolis on daily basis. Nonetheless, he’s grateful that Rap Metropolis was in a position to be proof that hip-hop is king.
“Rap Metropolis was a present that introduced hip-hop to each nook of the world,” Tigger says. “The lasting legacy is that the present expanded the significance of lyricism. I’m pleased with numerous issues I’ve completed in life. I’m no extra prouder than the work that me, the producers, and the community did with that present.”
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