Photograph: Sari Wynne
Peace to Jesse Serwer. Link
While it’s reasonable to wonder why such an influential show never left the sphere of local public television, longtime cohost Ray DeJon explains that such an evolution would likely have meant the forfeiting of an unparalleled cultural archive. “I’ve seen numerous offers put on the table for us to go national, and what stopped Ralph every time was that they wanted to take over the creative rights,” DeJon says. “Now, whenever BET, VH1 or any of those networks wants to do a behind-the-scenes bio on hip-hop, they’ve gotta come to Ralph because he’s the only one with the original footage.”
