3 questions for 'Rap City' creator Alvin Jones on giving hip-hop artists a platform on TV: 'Black people wanted to see people that they could relate to'

As hip-hop celebrates its 50th birthday, Rap City, the series that arguably did the most to catapult regional rap legends to global superstars, is also getting its flowers with a forthcoming 3-part docuseries, Welcome to Rap City, that kicks off Oct. 10. The show, which debuted in 1989 and ran for 19 years, remains TV's longest-running hip-hop program. Its creator, Alvin Jones, credits its longevity to the foresight he had in a genre that, he says, few others believed in.

"Everybody thought hip-hop was a fad similar to rock and roll in the '50s," Jones, 64, told Yahoo Entertainment. "The one thing that I realized is that when there's something growing and it's mixed with resistance, that's when it's time."

In the mid-1980s, Jones was a producer and host at TV's first Black television network, BET. At the time, the company was airing upwards of eight hours of music videos a day and playing everything from reggae to pop and rap. But network executives were looking for something new that would grow its audience and separate itself from its friendly rival MTV to better reflect how America was in transition for many Black Americans, who saw a strong white backlash to the Civil Rights movement.

In the fall of 1988, Jones suggested playing an entire week of nothing but rap music, something BET executives were hesitant about. At the time, Jones called it "Rap Week" and he credits the network's founder Bob Johnson with giving it a chance, despite the uncertainty. The result was the biggest ratings the channel had ever seen. To ensure it wasn't a flop, the company did a second Rap Week between Christmas and New Year's Day in 1988, which again set a new ratings record.

In 1989, BET executives made the decision to launch a full fledged hip-hop show with Jones at the helm, called Rap City. The formula was simple: Conduct interviews with rap artists in a laid-back atmosphere and play their music videos. Eventually, a freestyle rap component was added.

"This was all a dream," Jones said.

Though Jones left Rap City in 1991 to pursue his own entrepreneurial endeavors, the show went on to introduce the world to rapper Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter in 1990 and air Notorious B.I.G.'s final interview in 1997.

Rap City debuted a year after Yo! MTV Raps and seven years after Video Music Box but it remains the gold standard for hip-hop TV, running from 1989 to 2008 on BET. Fifty years after hip-hop music was born out of a party in a rec room of a Bronx, N.Y., apartment building in August 1973, its flagship show is getting an encore.

Yahoo Entertainment spoke to Jones about the legacy of Rap City and hip-hop's lasting influence on the world. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

1. When you think about the phrase 'longest running hip-hop show' — knowing all that the genre is, was and will be — what goes through your head?

I gotta thank first Bob Johnson for having the foresight to start BET [in 1980] — which he always said he wanted to create a vehicle so that Black folks can see themselves and be represented. Then when it came to music, at the time people thought hip-hop was a fad. There were barely any [national] hip-hop channels. The record companies were pushing the Madonnas, the Chaka Khans and Luther Vandross. So to do anything with hip-hop, you couldn't put that in a video then. We needed to show that music videos were important for hip-hop music and give those artists a platform. Black people wanted to see people that they could relate to.

So Rap City started off as a reflection of hip-hop culture. It was a reflection of the time, what was happening at the time when we created it. But also Rap City has been able to adapt and change and grow to how people are living, changing and growing. So it kind of morphs with the environment. It also continues to live on and evolve.

It wasn't bigger than what I could imagine. I felt it in my gut. … Once it started getting some momentum, other people came along and they kept it going for 19 years. So am I surprised that it lasted that long? No. Am I grateful? Yes. Am I happy that other people contributed to make it be the longest run in hip hop-show? I could not do that alone.

2. Why was Rap City the best place for the biggest names in hip hop to tell their own story?

It became the best place because we understood it. I look at things on many levels. There are scenarios where we are painted in a certain way, and I'll give you an example. When Public Enemy First came out, everybody was talking about how militant and how radical they were. And the first time I met Public Enemy was backstage at the Capitol Center, which was the big arena in Landover, Md. And I'm backstage and then I see Chuck D holding his oldest daughter, Dominique, with his wife. And so I'm like, these are human beings and they need to be seen as human.

So the first year of Rap City, what we did is we took seven rap acts and we went to a children's hospital and we did a Christmas special at children's hospital. That was to show the humanity of these young Black folks. They're not hooligans and they're not disrespectful. If you think about it, it's a sad thing to have children in the hospital, but to have children in the hospital around Christmas is extremely sad. So we took seven rap acts and we took them to the children's hospital and those kids just loved that.

3. What can people expect from this 3-part Rap City doc?

It’s like a history lesson and from a different point of view. It shows what was going on with the country from Reaganomics, to President H.W. Bush and how Black people were perceived. In living it, I didn't understand the impact that Rap City would have on the culture of people, so I'm like, wow. It puts it in perspective of the history of what was going on in the United States about culture and hip-hop's impact.

The first episode of the 3-part documentary Welcome to Rap City airs Oct. 10 at 8 p.m. ET on BET.