Established in 1983, Ralph McDaniels curator and founder of Video Music Box Collection Inc. has documented over 20,000 hours of rare video content that captures the metamorphosis of Hip-Hop culture. Video Music Box Collection archives shares public and personal memories of music history. The collection provides a visual timeline of Hip-Hop and its global influence in the areas of music, fashion, art, politics and business. There is no other cultural preservation initiative or individual who captured the ascension of artist such as Run DMC, Jay-Z, Wu-Tang Clan, Notorious B.I.G., LL Cool J, Tupac Shakur, Fat Joe and others who have joined the ranks of business moguls and music entrepreneurs.

Within the collection, there are Four decades of raw, never before seen footage of original music and innovative artistic expression created within the five boroughs of New York City. At the time, no one understood the importance of McDaniel’s work, the visual documentation of the birth of an artistic genre that identified and elevated an undervalued segment of American culture.

Music genres in the collection include Hip Hop, R&B, House, Reggae and Salsa. Dance, Performances, Interviews and footage of the community, emphasize the importance of the Video Music Box Collection’s Cultural Preservation Initiative.

Since the 1970’s, New York City has always been the center of multicultural artistic expression in the forms of Dee-jaying, Rapping, Graffiti Art, Breakdancing, Fashion and Poetry. Influenced by the sounds of Soul, Funk, Disco and Jazz, New York gave birth to Hip-Hop. Ralph McDaniels is a key historian. McDaniels was instrumental in maintaining the visual documentation, and has been committed to doing the work to preserve this part of cultural history. The Video Music Box Collection provides a lens through which history can be viewed and studied.

Since 1983, Brooklyn native Ralph McDaniels, founder and curator of the Video Music Box Collection Inc. has been instrumental in documenting the evolution of Hip-Hop culture. McDaniels, affectionately known as “Uncle Ralph”, through Video Music Box, has played an integral role within the community of Hip-Hop, which positions him as a unique preservationist with historic memory.

McDaniels majored in Communications at LaGuardia Community College and New York Institute of Technology. He later interned and worked at the New York public television station WNYC as an Broadcast Engineer. That is where he created “Video Music Box”. McDaniels has directed and produced over 400 music videos from: Wu-Tang Clan, “C.R.E.A.M” (1993); Nas, “It Ain’t Hard to Tell” (1994); Roxanne Shanté, “Roxanne-Roxanne” (1995), to name a few. He also co-produced two feature films, including “Juice” (1992), “Roxanne Roxanne” (Netflix 2018) and countless documentaries.

McDaniels is also committed to serving his community. He has worked with inner city youth for over 40 years teaching them film, radio and TV. He has provided his wealth of experience to The NYC Board of Education, and the NYC Department of Corrections to assist and educate youth in underserved populations. He also collaborates with The Schomburg Library, The Smithsonian African American Museum, Universal Hip Hop Museum and many other educational and arts institutions. McDaniels is well-known for pioneering Video Music Box which showcases original video content. The Video Music Box Collection is not just a documentary project, it is a lifelong commitment to cultural preservation, and it pays homage to music culture.

Let’s think about the archive as a place where public and personal memories can be preserved. Also, think about the archive as the future and how our history will be presented. It’s important to Culture History that the first step in preservation of the Video Music Box Collection is the digitization and tagging of 20,000 hours of rare video content and classic music videos.

This footage tells a visual story-of an influential art form that originated in the USA. This amount of early visual history will not be found anywhere else in the world. Digitization will preserve this rare collection making it available for educational, reference and research purposes. In addition, the benefit of digitization and tagging will create a digital archive that will be easily accessible.

This Cultural Preservation Initiative is extremely important, and we’re inviting you to #preservetheculture