Rap City
Rap City, also known as Rap City: Tha Basement from 1999 to 2005, is a music video television program block that originally aired on the Black Entertainment Television network from August 11, 1989, to November 8, 2008. The program was an exclusive showcase for hip hop music videos, and features interviews with and freestyles from popular rappers, and often has guest DJs serve as co-hosts.
History
Conception
The show was created by former BET VJ/producer Alvin Jones, a.k.a. "The Unseen VJ". This was a spin-off of the "Rap Week" segment of Video Vibrations, also hosted by "The Unseen VJ". While its competitor Yo! MTV Raps, which is now discontinued, mainly focused on popular rappers, Rap City also included videos from up-and-coming underground rappers.In 1999, Stephen G. Hill, then-president of Music Programming, took Rap City from its original format, a traveling show that went into the cities of the hottest rappers in the country, to an in studio format. Retitled Rap City: Tha Basement after meeting DJ & radio personalities The Bassment Brothers: Trouble T & Phil the Thrill, who were doing a show called Friday Night in the Bassment on WKKV fm radio in Milwaukee, WI during this time. Big Tigger, the host chosen for the show, even resembled one of the brothers: Trouble T. So much so that his grandmother reached out to him to congratulate him about the show after mistaking Tigger for her grandson! Hill, Senior Producer Craig Henry and Producer John Tucker were credited with creating the studio format. Henry created a 360° basement set that gave the illusion of a real basement, and Tucker was noted for creating the iconic performance in the bathroom that became "The Booth".
Hosts and timeslots
Among notable previous hosts of the show are Chris Thomas. Throughout his run, Thomas was also known as "The Mayor of Rap City", or simply "The Mayor". Other hosts included Hans Dobson aka Prime , Prince DaJour, Joe Clair, Leslie Segar , Big Tigger, DJ Mad Linx, J-Nicks and Q-45.On September 13, 1999, Stephen G. Hill, BET's President of Music Programming, Senior Producer Craig Henry and Producer John Tucker a new show to fit a studio format; Rap City was re-titled Rap City: Tha Basement and newly hosted by Big Tigger, who succeeded Joe Clair and Big Lez. On August 28, 2000, BET moved the show to 4 p.m. On January 18, 2005, the show was repackaged and Big Tigger was replaced as host by Mad Linx, a DJ and radio personality. He was replaced in order to host BET Style, and later 106 & Park. The transition was explained that Tigger's "mother" sold the basement and forced him out to live with his father. On October 3, 2005, Mad Linx went on hiatus to host BET Road Show; for the following several months, the show was hosted by J-Nicks, a native of St. Louis. Occasionally, special guests would host Rap City. The show's runtime was also shortened from two to one hour.
On December 28, 2005, BET returned the show to its original 5 p.m. time slot. Mad Linx returned to his weekday routine on February 2, 2006. J-Nicks left to work as a weekday radio DJ for WHTA Hot 107.9 FM in Atlanta. On August 14, 2006, Q45 replaced Mad Linx on the show. On September 25, 2006, the time slot for Rap City changed to 4 p.m., and then flipped back to 5 p.m. in October 2006. From that moment on, Q45 hosted the show on Weekdays. Mad Linx hosted Rap City Top 10 on Saturdays and Big Tigger hosted the show as Rap City Presents... specials.
On September 17, 2007, BET changed the time slot of Rap City to 1 a.m. ET, a time slot previously held by syndicated programming. In October 2007, due to series-low ratings, Rap City returned to its previous time slot at 5 p.m. In September 2008, Rap City obtained a new time of 3 p.m.