Ralph McDaniels
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Ralph “Uncle Ralph” McDaniels (born Brooklyn, NY) is a hip-hop culture pioneer, entrepreneur and visionary who created the first music video show focused exclusively to an urban market and named the pioneering show – Video Music Box. Widely recognized by the music industry as the "original tastemaker to the streets", McDaniels became more commonly known as “Uncle Ralph” in 1995 when Kool DJ Red Alert started calling him that on his radio show.
McDaniels is President of Uncle Ralph Productions, an on Air- Personality at New York’s WQHT Hot 97, Executive Producer and host of The Bridge and co-owner of onfumes.com.
McDaniels influence in hip-hop culture stems from the astounding success of his 20-year hip-hop music show and spans over 25 years through the millions of viewers, fans, and consumers that support him throughout his career endeavors in radio, television, and the fashion industry.
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[edit] Video Music Box
Growing up in both Brooklyn and Queens, McDaniels, aspired to be a DJ. He attended New York Institute of Technology where he studied Communications/TV/Film and graduated in 1982. It was at this time McDaniels started noticing an alarming array of talented hip-hop artists continuously being rejected and suppressed by mainstream media and wanted to give those overlooked artists a platform where they could be acknowledged by the consumers who craved them.
McDaniels decided to take matters into his own hands and approached a local TV station with an idea to host a music video show. The TV station was not enthused about McDaniels idea but instead allowed him to host another popular local show with the same concept called Studio 31 Dance Party on WNYC-TV. After about a year of hosting Studio 31 Dance Party, McDaniels got the opportunity to produce a show the way he originally wanted to do it and he appropriately named it - Video Music Box (VMB).
It was not long before VMB’s 6-day, 60-minute public access viewership began to grow far beyond what any of the cable networks had expected. By 1995, Billboard magazine had recognized and awarded VMB as the "Best Local R&B/Rap Regional Show". In addition, VMB was also notably voted as the Top 10 Greatest Hip Hop TV Moments by VH1 in 2003. By 2005, over 192,000 households per week were regularly viewing VMB. McDaniels had shined a light on an undertapped urban audience and literally answered their outcries against mainstream media’s disregard of their favorite artists with VMB.
In 1985, McDaniels became the first to broadcast a hip-hop tour, “Fresh Fest”, on VMB which featured many of today’s hip-hop icons such as RUN DMC, LL Cool J, Queen Latifah, Will Smith, and many others. It was also through the broadcast of VMB that McDaniels was able to successfully register over 10,000 voters earning McDaniels tremendous respect and accolades in throughout the city of New York.
[edit] Film and Production
The success of Video Music Box became just one brick in the foundation McDaniels would lay in hip-hop culture. It was not long after VMB started that McDaniels began to grow tired of the substandard quality of some of the videos that he aired. Believing he could do a better job of producing videos for some of these emerging artists, McDaniels partnered with childhood friend, Lionel C. Martin (Vid Kid) and co-founded Classic Concepts Productions, a film and video production company that produced over 300 music videos commercials, films and documentaries between 1987 and 1997. Most notably, Classic Concepts was instrumental in producing videos for such greats as the Notorious B.I.G, Big Daddy Kane, Nas and Wu-Tang Clan.
McDaniels reputation in the street was becoming as infamous as it was over the airwaves. An inmate from Rahway State Prison wrote McDaniels about a government-sponsored rap music program at the prison and McDaniels immediately took an interest in the story and went to the prison to film a documentary about the program called “The Lifers Group” at Rahway State Prison which aired on VMB, and was nominated for an Emmy in 1990.
McDaniels hip-hop street credibility later led him to be approached by producers of a groundbreaking film, [[Juice (film)|Juice] starring Tupac Shakur where he was asked to serve as a consultant to the film and later titled Associate Producer. McDaniels jumped at the opportunity to contribute his talents and connections to the urban film classic and additionally assisted the film’s writer, Ernest Dickerson, in re-writing the script.
When film production began for Whos the Man? starring Ed Lover and Dr. Dre, McDaniels was again called upon—this time to work in front of the camera playing the role of himself in the supporting cast.
[edit] Hip-Hop Tastemaker
With radio, TV and film under his belt, McDaniels had his feet firmly planted in almost every genre of hip-hop culture. In 1996 McDaniels would go on to add fashion to his repertoire with the creation of a New York Urban Fashion show, “The Phat Fashion”, which would feature the urban clothing lines of designers such as FUBU and Karl Kani whose clothing McDaniels helped to make popular on his show. Soon after, McDaniels further cemented his place within the urban fashion scene with the launch of "Uncle Ralph’s Urban Gear" a Brooklyn-based clothing store and t-shirt line.
By 1997 McDaniels was hired as an on-air personality to do a hip-hop radio show on New York’s WQHT HOT 97 that reached over 6 million listeners within the tri-state area.
[edit] Multimedia Technology
Recognizing a need to keep up with today’s technology and sense a of responsibility to his audience, McDaniels developed the Video Music Box Archives and offered MTV and VH1 access to feature music programming from his vast library of over 20,000 hours of video.
In 2005, McDaniels teamed up with Def Jam Mobile to create his own video channel for cellular phones. Two years later, McDaniels, officially launched onfumes.com an interactive web site featuring unlimited access to McDaniel’s archived collection of hip-hop and R&B videos, never-seen-before interviews and behind-the scenes footage as well as access to up-and-coming urban artists, filmmakers and influential music trends.
[edit] Additional Awards & Honors
- 1993-America’s Best & Brightest Award, Dollars & Sense Magazine
- 1994- Awarded Role Model of the Year by the City Council of New York
- 1995- Award for Emmy Nomination of “The Lifers Group” at Rahway State Prison, Billboard Magazine
- 2001-Honored by Urban Network Magazine for dedication & service
- 2007- Heineken Red Star Soul Award recipient
