Ralph McDaniels Soul Jam ft. Blue Magic and DJ Hollywood
July 6, 2019 6:00pm – 9:00pm
“Uncle” Ralph McDaniels is a hip-hop mainstay with more than 400 credits as a music video director to his name (Nas’ “It Ain’t Hard To Tell”, Wu-Tang Clan’s “C.R.E.A.M.”, and Black Moon’s “Who Got The Props”, among others), but he’s likely best known as the longtime host of Video Music Box. McDaniels created the long-running music video program in 1983, and for the past three decades he’s documented New York’s hip-hop scene with the wisdom and reverence of a hip-hop lifer who’s seen it all. At this year’s SummerStage festival he’s hosting a “Soul Jam,” joined by two acts from the 1970s that ooze style and swagger. The Philly soul quintet Blue Magic is known for its choreographed dance moves, smooth ballads like the lovesick anthem “Sideshow” (1974), and their 1989 collaboration with Big Daddy Kane, “To Be Your Man”; DJ Hollywood came to fame as a disco DJ whose call-and-response style of performance pre-dated hip-hop music in the mid-70s. As the first to string together rhymes into a “flow,” the glitzy downtown DJ is credited as one of hip-hop’s earliest forefathers, even though he resisted association with the burgeoning scene in the gritty South Bronx.
Cost: Free
More Info:
Location
Central Park – Summerstage
71st Street and East River Drive
New York NY 10021 US