We all know that the music video has been an integral part of hip hop culture from its earliest iterations. That’s how we know how to do the Humpty Dance, how to get those Adidas looking just right, and that Busta Rhyme’s manic energy can not only be heard, but seen! MTV came about in 1981 and nothing in popular music was ever the same again. Although Run DMC were among the first artists to get a rap song played on the station, MTV was notoriously reticent to give hip hop much airtime initially.

But as hip hop gained in popularity, and mass culture responded to it in a variety of ways, it was inevitable that music videos by rap artists would gain traction, and by the early 90s, these video clips were ubiquitous. Supported by the iconic show Yo!MTV Raps, which began in 1988, hip music videos finally began their ascent toward a higher profile on MTV. Many famous directors and choreographers got their start making music videos!

From the clips of Roxane Shante destroying fools to the fisheye lens excess of the 90s to the socially conscious works like ‘This is America’ from just a few years ago, the music video has supported and given important weight to hip hop culture. We’re here to celebrate that today!

This ingenious video took clips of ODB from a previous music video (for Shimmy Shimmy Ya) and put him in various scenes from the 1975 Blaxploitation film ‘Dolemite’. It is probably my favorite hip hop video- it’s hilarious, it uses an older film but is very much of its time, and gives a fascinating shape to ODB’s chaotic, charismatic persona.

So bring em out!

Let’s not worry too much about repeats from other days on this one! However:

In order to keep the thread from borking, please limit yourself to one YouTube/media link (putting the ‘challenge’ in the ’30 day challenge’ ) per post. If someone ‘beats you to it’ and posts a song you would’ve posted, reply under their post saying why you like this song/why it was your pick as well, etc. Let’s not give Disqus a reason to make the thread hard to navigate for those of us listening to the songs! If you want to mention some others, of course that’s fine!

(This time around, if you want to pick a ‘runner up’, go for it- just reply to your first pick and post it there! Just don’t go nuts, ok? I know this is a fun one to think about!)