Hip-Hop Wired Presents: A Tribute To BET’s Rap City: Tha Basement [VIDEO]

If you have DirectTV, this might get you through their current deliberations. Back when BET’s focus was musical based programming, and coinciding with the rise of their flagship program 106 And Park, there was Rap City: Tha Basement. During the late 90s and the mid 2000s, Tha Basement was the one and only place to be to see exclusive rapper interviews, and most infamously, freestyles.

Rap City’s initial inception in 1998 was a landmark for Black Entertainment Television, but it was when Big Tigger took over the show (Editor’s Note: shout out to Joe Clair, Big Lez and Chris Thomas aka The Mayor of Rap City) that the program hit legendary status. Today, Hip-Hop Wired takes a quick look back at our favorite visitors and freestyles from Tigger’s tenure from 1999 and on.

Anybody who was anybody in Hip-Hop at the time made sure to jump into the booth with Tigger (who was no slouch on the mic himself) and it always made for memorable television. In the world of hyper information through blogs and social media, it is highly unlikely that a period of television like this will ever re-emerge again. But, let’s just remember the good times. Hit the jump and check out our favorite freestyles from the booth.

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