YO! MTV RAPS: "THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH"

Before Doctor Dré (né André Brown) became a household name in 1988 as co-host of Yo! MTV Raps, he was a student at Long Island’s Adelphi University, where he attended a class called “Black Music and Musicians” with Chuck D, future Def Jam Recordings president Bill Stephney and Public Enemy associate/activist/journalist Harry Allen.

He was also the host of a show on the university’s WBAU, a gig he’d landed through Stephney, who’d captivated the student body with his own WBAU program, The Mr. Bill Show. Chuck D hosted a radio show, too, with fellow Public Enemy member Flavor Flav, under the moniker Spectrum City DJs.

Hip-hop was in its infancy, so to hear songs on the radio typically played only at neighborhood park jams felt revolutionary to those picking up what this crew of trailblazers was putting down.

“I call us the greatest incubator in the history of hip-hop,” says Doctor Dré (not to be confused with Dr. Dre of N.W.A and The Chronic). “It all stemmed from the late, great Dr. Andrei Strobert and the Black music class we attended.

We were sitting in class, talking about artists we respected. And of course, Bill and Chuck came with James Brown. And I said, ‘Earth, Wind & Fire!’ They both turned around and looked at me. I was wearing a sweater vest and tie. I said, ‘And Parliament-Funkadelic―these are the great groups!’ So Bill invited me to lunch with him and Chuck.”

Over burgers and fries at the University Center, the trio feverishly discussed their insatiable appetite for music and Stephney’s buzzing radio show. Before Dré could say, “Hip hip hop and you don’t stop,” he was on the third floor of the building, where the radio station was housed, plotting his own show. He can still recite the station ID and phone number from memory: “WBAU—We’re bad and you know It! 90.3 FM, 516-747-4757.”

Doctor Dré was also part of the hip-hop group Original Concept, one of the first acts to land a contract with Def Jam. Its debut album, 1988’s Straight From the Basement of Kooley High, produced two notable singles: “Pump That Bass” and “Can You Feel It.” But the act dissolved shortly thereafter, and Dré was soon presented with an opportunity that would change his life: co-hosting a new TV show called Yo! MTV Raps, a spinoff of MTV Europe’s Yo! Created by Ted Demme and Peter Dougherty, the U.S. iteration was originally hosted by graffiti artist/hip-hop luminary Fab Five Freddy, but he didn’t want to do it daily. Doctor Dré, though intrigued, was also apprehensive.

“When I was given the opportunity to host Yo! MTV Raps, I went back to my crew at 10 South Franklin Street,” he remembers. “I walked in and said, ‘Guys, Peter Dougherty just asked me to host Yo! MTV Raps. I don’t know what to do. That will be like selling out.’ Keith Shocklee [part of the Public Enemy production team The Bomb Squad] shouted, ‘Fuck that! They’re bullshitting.’

“Chuck looked up—this was when Public Enemy was just starting to really happen—and said, ‘Why not? What’s the big deal? Do it.’ I said, ‘Well, what about Original Concept and Public Enemy?’ Chuck said again, ‘Dré, do it.’ I was, like, ‘But this is MTV. What is this fat Black man from Nassau County doing on TV?’ I drove around the rest of the night, called Peter back and said, ‘I’ll take the job.’”

Doctor Dré had been introduced to co-host Ed Lover during the audition process. Though Dré “didn’t know him from a can of paint,” their comedic chemistry had Demme doubled over with laughter.

Yo! MTV Raps premiered on Aug. 6, 1988, and quickly became integral to introducing hip-hop to a global audience, laying the foundation for the form’s subsequent chart dominance.

“There wasn’t a whole bunch of rap videos then,” Doctor Dré recalls of the show’s origins. “And let’s use the word ‘rap,’ because that’s what it was about. There were The Fat Boys, who were huge on MTV, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five with ‘The Message’ and then Run-DMC being the kings of rock. There were all these elements coming together and all of a sudden, Ted started directing rap videos with Salt-N-Pepa and Kid ’N Play. So I guess it just morphed into Yo! MTV Raps because it was called ‘rap music’ at the time.”

He also credits Ralph McDaniels and Lionel C. Martin, who blazed a trail in 1983 on New York public television with Video Music Box, the first show to feature hip-hop videos.

With a revolving door of guests like Public Enemy, Naughty by Nature, Queen Latifah, N.W.A, Run-DMC and Sir Mix-A-Lot, shenanigans were practically guaranteed. Asked to name the craziest episode, Dré admits he’s stumped: “There were just too many.”

But there were memorable moments aplenty. Like the time 7-footer Shaquille O’Neal stole Dré’s jacket and, to his surprise, it fit. Or when Howard Stern and Mel Gibson popped by for no apparent reason. Bobby Brown even managed to linger on set for a straight week without MTV realizing it.

“Our first guest wasn’t even a hip-hop artist,” Dré says with a chuckle. “It was Carole King. She was sitting in the grandstands watching us do the show and cracking up. We said to Ted, ‘Who is that?’ He said, ‘Oh, that’s Carole King.’ So we asked if we could have her on the show. Ted walked over and asked, but she didn’t know anything about rap. We didn’t care. As we’d say, ‘Everybody’s a great guest. Bring them all. You can’t lose.’ So we bring Carole King on. She’s an incredible guest. We have a great time. No one complained.”

Despite the show’s success, ratings began to fall in 1991 after the premiere of Public Enemy’s controversial video for “By the Time I Get to Arizona” (from Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black), written to protest Arizona governor Evan Mecham’s refusal to observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The clip’s depiction of Black paramilitary operatives assassinating Arizona politicians in response was deemed too violent, and it was removed from regular rotation on MTV.

By early 1993, Yo! MTV Raps had gone from airing daily to weekly—after midnight. Its finale came on Aug. 17, 1995. There were attempts to keep it going, with a stripped-down version called Yo! airing from 1996 to 1999. Steve-O of the Jackass franchise tried to revive it in 2008 during the Jackassworld.com: 24 Hour Takeover, but his effort did little to spark renewed interest in the show. Another reimagining of the series premiered on Paramount+ in May 2022. That, too, was short-lived.

“You could not revive American Bandstand without Dick Clark,” Dré says. “Even though Ryan Seacrest skates around on New Year’s Eve, it’s still Dick Clark. You cannot revive Soul Train without the late, great Don Cornelius. You cannot revive Yo! MTV Raps without Doctor Dré, Ed Lover and Fab Five Freddy.”

“Yo! MTV Raps was the greatest show on Earth and the blessing of blessings,” he concludes. “We were blessed because we had great people showing us the way. Thank you to all those folks who gave us the opportunity to be us.”