Treasured hip-hop music video show Yo! MTV Raps will celebrate a milestone with a strictly nostalgic tribute concert at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on June 1 as the Yo! MTV Raps: 30th Anniversary Experience, an ode to hip-hop’s most defining era amplified with performances by the Golden Era’s most legendary lyricists and collectives.
The line-up is bombarded with late 80s and early 90s hip-hop acts who were apart of the 7-year long-running show’s most momentous times which stand as legendary moments in hip-hop history. Scheduled to take the stage: Melle Mel and The Furious Five, Big Daddy Kane and the Juice Crew, Eric B. and Rakim, Doug E. Fresh, Public Enemy, Krs-One and Boogie Down Productions, EPMD, Brand Nubian, Nice and Smooth, Das Efx, Onyx, Black Sheep, the Pharcyde, Yo-Yo, Kid Capri and Special Ed. Controversial rap group Young Black Teenagers will also reunite after 24 years of disbanding to perform their noted songs.
Raps’ sly weekend host Fab 5 Freddy will reprise his stance for the concert alongside fellow Yo! legends, Ed Lover, Doctor Dré and T-Money with DJs Red Alert, Chuck Chillout, and Skribble.
A rack of special tribute videos featuring post-Golden Era lyricists such as Method Man, Redman, Eminem and many more will be shown during the grand event.
We are witnessing the burgeon of awareness, appreciation, and respective recall of classic hip-hop. Art of Rap, I Love the 90s, Masters of Ceremony, The Roots Picnic, are tours and concert series that have carved a special place for classic hip-hop. DJ Skribble, who is also one of the show’s co-producers is on a mission to grow the Yo! MTV Raps brand for the stake of its historic mark in hip-hop history. “The actual star of the show is the Yo! MTV Raps brand and all the iconic groups that either started their career or got their mainstream light through that show,” DJ Skribble tells Rolling Stone. “So many people from my age group, we lived and died by that show.”
Doctor Dré recalled encounters of people approaching him in awe about how much they enjoyed the hit rap show and have craved for its return. The constant word and hype behind a Yo! MTV Raps comeback has inspired Dré to make moves towards this iconic reunion and mold the Yo! MTV Raps brand. Raising my kids and going to school functions and their parents come up, going, “Oh my God, I used to run home from school and watch you on TV,” Dré tells Rolling Stone.
For 30 years the legacy of Yo! MTV Raps has maintained its relevance through the unapologetic nostalgia and status as solid documentation of hip-hop’s most illuminating era. Hosted by Ed Lover, Fab 5 Freddy and Doctor Dré, the show served as a portal to hip-hop paradise showcasing electrifying freestyles, interviews with star emcees, and premiering highly anticipated music videos.
Tickets for the Yo! MTV Raps: 30th Anniversary Experience will go on sale Saturday, April 21 at 12 p.m. est on Ticketmaster.