02/01/2024
Black History Fact - Al McFarland, founder of Strickly HipHop Tv
MTV had "Yo MTV Raps" and though various television music video programs aired both locally and nationally, no program gave young, brilliant Hiphop and R&B artists any shine or time of day. Even with the emergence of superstar acts like New Edition, Bobby Brown, Ralph Tresvant, BBD, and Picture Perfect, there was no one video show dedicated to highlighting the accomplishments, live performances, or music videos for the local acts.
While working to produce a live concert the John Marshall School on Dorchester, Massachusetts (now known as Up Academy), Al McFarlan met with Soul singer/songwriter Larry Woo to get feedback about his upcoming concert. Larry's South End apartment had a full studio and business office in the basement, where he would conduct business and schedule meetings with his artists. His only rapper (yours truly) walked into the basement to see Al standing there. "You MC Spice?" I answered, "Yes." Al said, "Yo, help me, man. I'm doing a concert with Stetsasonic. Here's the flyer." I looked over the wack flyer and said, "nobody's coming to this # # # #. Your flyer is garbage. You're doing it at a SCHOOL?"
Al and I drove to the school and the janitor let us in to see where he scheduled the show to be. It was in the school gym. No bleachers, no risers, nothing. he showed me the corner where the rappers were to perform. I looked at him and said, "Where the # # # # is the STAGE? You want people to stand on their tippy-toes or sit on somebody's shoulders? Yo, your whole game is # # # #'d up. You don't know what you're doing. This show is gonna suck!" Al looked at me again and said, "Come on, man. Help me out."
I recreated the flyer, gave him consultation on how to run the show correctly, and we started hanging out together and talking about a possible video show. I urged Al to join the BNN-tv program, get credentials, and learn to shoot and edit videos. I turned to my connections in the music industry to get fresh music videos from DefJam, Capitol Music Group, Columbia Records, Sony Music Entertainment, and every record label that had R&B and Hiphop music. If we couldn't get the videos, we would record them on tape from TV and add a blur to the watermark. Chonita Floyd aka "Cho Flo" was the main person at Def Jam to show crazy love! She hooked us up with t-shirts to give away on-air, and exclusives that kept Boston in the loop!
In 1987, we launched Strickly Hiphop and Boston was never the same. We played uncensored videos by artists who grew up around the way. Everybody was a star, and we gave everybody a chance. I personally taught video hosts like Angela Arthur and Rocsi Diaz how to host the show years after I hosted it. I didn't care WHO the artist was, or if the artist didn't like me personally, the rules were: let ANYBODY who wants to be on the show - get on the show.
Strickly Hiphop made headlines for being too racy with the language, and Boston City Council and the Boston Police tried to have the show pulled off the air. Freedom of speech rules. We stayed for over 35 years. Next year, we will do the Strickly Hiphop Legend Awards because the artists, community leaders, and elected officials deserve their recognition. Thanks for your many years of support. My brother Al McFarlan IS Black history!
- MC Spice
