Hip Hop History with Ralph McDaniels of Video Music Box Fashion Culture

“We wanna be fabulous. We wanna be fly. We wanna be fresh!” declares Ralph McDaniels. For we’re excited to share this conversation between Video Music Box co-creator Ralph McDaniels and FIT professor and author Elena Romero about the styles, sounds, and scene of early hip hop in NYC. Ralph McDaniels is the founder and curator of the Video Music Box, which airs on NYC-TV, (channel 25 or 22). McDaniels, also known as "Uncle Ralph," has directed and produced over 400 music videos, and co-produced the films Juice (1992) and You’re Watching Video Music Box (Showtime, 2021). McDaniels's microphone is held in the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Elena Romero is assistant chair and assistant professor of Marketing Communications at FIT and was a co-curator of Fresh, Fly, and Fabulous: 50 Years of Hip Hop Style . Romero is the author of Free Stylin': How Hip Hop Changed the Fashion Industry (2012) and is a featured expert in the style documentaries The Remix: Hip Hop x Fashion (2019) and Fresh Dressed (2015). This talk was recorded in Feb 2023. Watch the full video with captions on YouTube. The Museum at FIT (MFIT) is the only museum dedicated exclusively to the art of fashion in New York City.

You can listen to Hip Hop History with Ralph McDaniels of Video Music Box Fashion Culture online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Hip Hop History with Ralph McDaniels of Video Music Box Fashion Culture is an episode from The Museum at FIT Fashion Culture Podcast by museumatfit.

This episode is 34:10 long.

This episode was published on Feb 1, 2025.

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