The Bridge is New York City’s #1 spot for old school hip hop. Saturdays at 11:00 PM on NYC TV (Channel 25, Cablevision 22)

Continuing in our season-long tribute to the legendary Video Music Box, tomorrow’s episode of The Bridge dips into hip hop’s Golden Era, 1987 to 1990.

Featuring: exclusive vintage interviews with Heavy D & the Boyz (1987) and Al B Sure! (1987), live performances by Public Enemy (1989), Biz Markie (1989) and KRS-One (1988), and classic videos by Big Daddy Kane, EPMD, and Eric B & Rakim.

KRS-One

The Golden Era is the greatest era of hip hop, it’s golden, and by greatest and golden I mean in the sense of the aesthetic and/or intellectual. Because, to be frank, though the Golden Era is universally lauded as the best era of hip hop, it’s not necessarily everyone’s favorite era.

Which isn’t to say Golden Era hip hop isn’t stand-alone amazing, because it absolutely is. Rakim is fucking ill, KRS-One live on stage will light your house on fire and punch you in the face (tomorrow’s episode of The Bridge has the craziest live footage of KRS performing South Bronx and Criminal Minded. Insane.)

But the Golden Era isn’t exactly what I reach for on the iPod in a walk through Prospect Park or a ride on the subway. That would generally be some early 90s proto-street era stuff; Tribe and Nas, Gangstarr and Stakes is High.

It’s a bit like jazz: everyone can go around saying Miles Davis Bitches Brew is the greatest jazz album of the 60s and 70s, but when you’re reaching for a record on an early Sunday morning, you’re much more likely to land on…I dunno, Winchester Cathedral? Bitches Brew is just too g.d. good to listen to. It’s legendary, it’s unreal.

Hip Hop works the same way. Bring the Noise is easily the crowning cultural achievement of the 20th century, but, man, I can’t listen to it everyday. It’s too good, too legendary. I’m happy enough just knowing it’s out there.

Which isn’t to say people shouldn’t watch tomorrow’s episode, ooobviously. How else could you know it’s out there without a local television show broadcasting visual evidence??