Ralph McDaniels Celebrates Forty Years of Video Music Box

*Images by Rowena Husbands for Blink of An Eye Photography

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VJ Ralph McDaniels is anything but a video host. He's a cultivator and helped build the presence of Hip Hop music and it's culture. McDaniels helped to propel many careers of musicians and designers. Video Music Box came along just some ten years after Rap music started getting serious airplay on the radio.

McDaniels and his famous microphone took you places where all of the talented people were. There was no other show on television like Video Music Box. For many of us, this was our pass to get to know well known and not so famous artists. His platform provided a space for people color to be heard. Mostly importantly, to be seen. Ralph has been apart of the culture in front and behind the scenes for decades. Never minimizing Hip Hop music as it changed. But, continued to push ahead with it and it's new voices. In his community. He places the value of education and prominence through his foundation. The Video Music Box Collection Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation, digitization and archival of video footage to Hip-Hop’s original music video show.

McDaniels’ continues to hold the essence of the music created by men and women of a particular environment. Many of which share their experiences through their unique backgrounds and styles.