Film and Production
The success of Video Music Box became just one brick in the foundation that McDaniels would lay in hip-hop culture. It was not long after VMB started that McDaniels began to grow tired of the substandard quality of some of the videos that he aired. Believing he could do a better job of producing videos for some of these emerging artists, McDaniels partnered with childhood friend Lionel C. Martin (The Vid Kid) and co-founded Classic Concepts Productions, a film- and video-production company that produced over 300 music videos, commercials, films, and documentaries between 1987 and 1997. Most notably, Classic Concepts was instrumental in producing videos for such greats as Public Enemy, the Notorious B.I.G, Big Daddy Kane, Nas and Wu-Tang Clan—with McDaniels producing and Martin directing these clips.
McDaniels reputation in the street was becoming as famous as it was over the airwaves. An inmate from Rahway State Prison wrote McDaniels about a government-sponsored hip-hop music program at the prison and McDaniels immediately took an interest in the story and went to the prison to film a documentary about the program called The Lifers' Group at Rahway State Prison, which aired on VMB, and was nominated for an Emmy in 1990.
McDaniels has interviewed former President Bill Clinton, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Reverend Jesse Jackson, legendary salsa singer Celia Cruz, and reported from the National Democratic Convention, just to name a few.
McDaniels hip-hop street credibility later led him to be approached by producers of the groundbreaking film Juice, which starred Tupac Shakur, where he was asked to serve as a consultant to the film and was given the job of associate producer. McDaniels jumped at the opportunity to contribute his talents and connections to this urban film classic and additionally assisted the film’s writer, Ernest Dickerson, in re-writing the script.
When film production began for Who's the Man? starring Ed Lover and Doctor Dré, McDaniels was again called upon—this time to work in front of the camera, playing himself in the supporting cast.
Read more about this topic: Ralph Mc Daniels
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