RIP Rap City
After the demise of TRL, it was only a matter of time until Rap City pulled the plug. Now, it’s official. I’d be a hypocrite to get upset at the network, because I honestly haven’t tuned in to an episode for at least two years. Still, October 29 will still be a sad day. During my junior year of high school when I got tendinitis in my knees and couldn’t play sports, I used to go home and watch Big Tigga every afternoon. This was in 2000, before YouTube—let alone MTV Jams—began to make the “appointment viewing” of music videos irrelevant. It was also well before I became an “adult” who could not watch TV in the middle of the afternoon.
As far along in the show’s 21-season run as I watched, there was something almost stoic in Rap City’s refusal to adapt and revamp its platform. When it moved to “the basement,” the ill-lit room, cramped turntable set-up, and makeshift freestyle booth gave the show a gritty yet welcoming public access quality. When I was first getting into hip-hop, that vibe resonated with my relationship with the music. I didn’t listen to it in a glitzy studio overlooking Times Sq.—I listened alone on the couch, sometimes with my brother, sometimes while throwing down ridiculous dunks on my Little Tikes hoop. In the mid-90s, Joe Clair might as well have been in our basement, literally.
A show with that sort of laid-back ethos could never survive in the current media climate. A lot of advocacy groups would like to take credit for the show’s cancellation, mistakingly thinking its relevant enough to be a subversive force in their kids’ lives. And that’s fine—they can go ahead and keep writing letters about Flavor of Love while their sons log onto YouPorn.com. But this decision is purely motivated by business. No one wants to watch an hour of music videos broken up with commercials and chatter, Rap City interviews have no “story-breaking” edge, and there’s no need to catch that dope freestyle from your favorite artist because A) it never happens anymore, and B) even if it did, it’d be on NahRight in about half an hour.
So no, parents and Al Sharponites did not kill Rap City. Lack of creativity and terrible ratings did. The only questions are when will 106 & Park get the axe, and is there any way to make music videos work on TV?
Short of bringing back Beavis & Butthead, I’m not so sure. But let’s never forget the days when it was dope (and also watch these late-ish but awesome clips).
