Music · 2
Which MTV program, launched in 1984, was one of the first to feature rap and hip-hop videos, helping bring the genre to a mainstream cable audience?
Answer
Yo! MTV Raps
Yo! MTV Raps debuted in 1988 (with a 1984-era predecessor segment) and became the first nationally televised program dedicated to hip-hop, dramatically expanding rap's mainstream reach. Its full weekly format launched in 1988 and ran until 1995.
💡 Did you know?
Yo! MTV Raps once drew higher ratings than any other show on MTV, proving hip-hop's commercial power to skeptical record executives and advertisers.
Other options people guess
- Headbangers Ball
- 120 Minutes
- Dial MTV
Topics
- mtv
- 1980s
- hip-hop
- music-television
Know your music trivia?
Play a free Music quiz and see how many you get right — no signup needed to start.
More Music facts
Music
Which MTV show, premiering in 1986, counted down the week's most-requested videos as voted by viewers calling a 900 number?
Dial MTV's 900-number voting system was so popular it generated millions of calls per week, becoming one of the most dialled 900 numbers in American telephone history.
Music
What were the first words spoken on MTV when it launched on August 1, 1981?
MTV's launch transmission was a repurposed NASA Space Shuttle launch clip — the network had almost no budget for original content on its first night on air.
Music
How many music videos were in MTV's total rotation when the channel launched on August 1, 1981?
MTV ran the same 120 videos on loop for months in 1981; many were filler concert footage because the music industry hadn't yet grasped the format's potential.
Music
Which music video had the distinction of being the very first video played on MTV when the channel launched in 1981?
The Buggles' Trevor Horn later became one of the most successful record producers of the 1980s, helming hits for Frankie Goes to Hollywood and ABC.
Music
Which instrument, invented in 1920, is the only one played entirely without physical contact by the performer?
The theremin, invented in 1920, is the only instrument played without physical contact—its eerie sound defined sci-fi and horror film scores for decades.
Music
Which 1983 Michael Jackson music video, at roughly 14 minutes long, was so unprecedented in scale that MTV aired it as a television event rather than standard rotation?
The making of 'Thriller' was itself filmed as a documentary called 'The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller,' which outsold almost every music release of 1984 as a home video.