Ralph McDaniels (born February 27, 1959) is an American

music video director A music video director is the head of music video production. The director conceives of videos' artistic and dramatic aspects while instructing the musical act, technical crew, actors, models, and dancers. They may or may not be in collaboration ...

, DJ and VJ. He co-created and co-hosts the

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

program ''

Video Music Box ''Video Music Box'' is an American music television program. The series is the first to feature hip hop videos primarily, and was created in 1983 by Ralph McDaniels and Lionel C. Martin, who also serve as the series' hosts. It aired on the New Yo ...

'' with

Lionel C. Martin Lionel C. Martin is an American music video director, film director and VJ (media personality), VJ from Queens, Queens, New York. While he is known primarily as a music video director, he has also film director, directed the films ''Def Jam's How ...

Biography

McDaniels was born in Brooklyn, New York. His parents moved to Queens, New York when he was eleven. McDaniels studied communications at

LaGuardia Community College LaGuardia Community College is a public community college in New York City. It is in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens in and part of the City University of New York. LaGuardia is named after former congressman and New York City mayor ...

. He later started the video production company Classic Concepts with Video Music Box producer Lionel Martin. In 1983 After interning at WNYC in New York City, and subsequently becoming a radio engineer, McDaniels created ''Studio 31 Dance Party'', a television show revolving around recordings of music performances.Steve Stoute, ''The Tanning of America: How Hip-Hop Created a Culture That Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy'' (New York: Gotham Books, 2012)
pp 78–82
This show would transform into ''Video Music Box'', which was created and hosted by McDaniels and Martin by. In 1994, McDaniels who became known as "Uncle Ralph", directed Rapper

Nas Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones. Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to: Aviation * Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea * National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia ** Nas Air ( ...

first solo video, for his second single,

It Ain't Hard To Tell "It Ain't Hard to Tell" is the second single and last track from American rapper Nas' debut album, ''Illmatic''. Although the track was technically the second single on the album, it was the first single to be released after the album was presse ...

. The video was aired on Video Music Box, which became the longest-running music video show in the world. On December 3, 2021, Showtime premiered the Documentary, "You're Watching Video Music Box", chronicling the longest-running music video show, "Video Music Box" with never before seen footage from the vault of McDaniels. The documentary is written by Steve Rivo and Andre Wilkins and directed by Rapper Nas who is also featured in the documentary along with McDaniels. He now works for the Queens Library for Outreach Services.

References

American hip hop DJs American music video directors American people of Trinidad and Tobago descent Living people VJs (media personalities) People from Queens, New York 1959 births {{US-DJ-stub