MTV Jams
Encyclopedia
MTV Jams is a Viacom
-owned American
hip-hop
/urban
music video
channel that debuted on 1998 as MTVX
, then was relaunched in 2002 under its current name. Like its sister stations MTV Hits
, VH1 Soul
, and CMT Pure Country
, MTV Jams is available exclusively on digital cable
.
The channel runs on an automated
eight hour wheel schedule which repeats three times a day, starting at 6am Eastern
, and then resetting at 2pm and 10pm. Promotional advertising, other interstitial programming and some events, such as the Ozone Awards are also carried on the network, along with various theme programming to promote album releases or other happenings in the music world.
MTV Jams was the last remaining MTV network in the United States to use MTV's original Kabel
font for their music video credit tags, which the main MTV network discontinued in October 2007. MTV Jams switched to the font style used by MTV Hits and rarely by MTV itself in May 2011. The logo had a minor readjustment in February 2010 to remove the Music Television tagline and a small quarter of the logo in line with the official rebranding of all MTV networks.
than there was for hip-hop, rap and R&B, so they made the decision to replace MTVX's channel space with a new format branded with MTV Jams, at the time, the network's branding for music of that type and an actual show on the channel's mother network
.
After its launch, MTV Jams' playlist became predictable and less random than it originally seemed. The new videos that were in heavy rotation were usually played once per hour or once per every two hours.
, MTV Jams began to play more obscure videos, as well as a larger selection of older videos, than it had previously played.
Currently, the breadth of MTV Jams' playlist surpasses that of its sister stations VH1 Soul
and MTV Hits
, with several hundred more videos played on a regular basis. Most of the urban music videos that have ever aired on an MTV, VH1 or even BET can be seen on MTV Jams, as well as many more obscure urban videos that cannot be seen on any other Viacom network, though usually the channel does not air music preceding the 1989 premiere of Yo! MTV Raps
, except for a few small cases.
" as opposed to where the random contestant will get something of more value plus the tube socks.
, Afla Mega, and Big Kuntry King
.) to talk about recent problems or studies in hip-hop. In the aforementioned episode, they discussed the autotune "T-Pain
" effect and about how he rediscovered it. The cast will always come to a conclusion about the topic at hand. For instance, they came to the conclusion to, when using the autotune, either "shout out" to T-Pain or feature him on the record. The closing scene will always show the summarized point, which was "No biting allowed".
-style videos. This is always unannounced and spontaenous for viewers, in the vein of MTV2
's original format.
In the fall of 2004, MTV Jams presented a week of shows titled "Takeover," where artists were invited to host a day of programming. Artists included Usher, Kanye West
, Lil' Jon, Nelly
, and Fat Joe
. Each artist played their favorite videos and their own videos. Additionally, MTV specials such as 'Diary' and live performance footage was played that related to the artists. This may have marked the first time the channel has ever aired any non-music video programming. In March 2005, MTV Jams invited 50 Cent to their studios to introduce his and his posse's music videos, as well as to play some of his favorite old school videos. He also spoke briefly between videos about his newest album and about his musical inspirations. At the time, these two specials were the most VJ-like to ever appear on the generally low-budget channel.
, Da Back Wudz, Young Jeezy
, Tony Yayo
, and Paul Wall
. Da Back Wudz, Young Jeezy, Tony Yayo, and Paul Wall came into the MTV Jams studio to speak about their careers and to play blocks of their favorite videos. These blocks were rotated pretty heavily, sometimes several times a day, so the summer of 2005 arguably became the period of MTV Jams' history that has seen the most redundant and least varied playlist to date.
The same summer, MTV Jams moved one step closer toward its high-budget, show-based sister networks MTV and VH1 when it briefly aired documentary style programs on the hip-hop themed and MTV-produced movie Hustle and Flow.
or DirecTV
. Time Warner Cable
does not carry the network except on their former Adelphia systems, where previous contracts with MTV Networks are required to be honored, and Bright House Networks
, of which Time Warner Cable formerly had a stake in. The network is also not seen in New York City
on non-Cablevision systems; Time Warner is the majority cable provider for Manhattan, Staten Island, and Brooklyn/Queens. The network is also carried on some cable systems in Latin America
, South America
, and Mexico
in a localized form. In Bolivia
(Latin America
) the channel is available under Digital television
systems.
Viacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
-owned American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
hip-hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
/urban
Urban contemporary
Urban contemporary is a music radio format. The term was coined by the late New York DJ Frankie Crocker in the mid 1970s. Urban contemporary radio stations feature a playlist made up entirely of hip hop/rap, contemporary R&B, pop, electronica such as dubstep and drum and bass and Caribbean music...
music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
channel that debuted on 1998 as MTVX
MTVX
MTVX was a Viacom-owned American rock music video channel. MTVX was available exclusively on digital cable packages or satellite TV providers, being the first network of the "MTV Networks Digital Suite".- Format :...
, then was relaunched in 2002 under its current name. Like its sister stations MTV Hits
MTV Hits
MTV Hits is an American music video channel that debuted on May 1, 2002. The format of the network resembles that of the classic MTV before the additional of other programming to that network in the 1990s and their slow decline of music video programming...
, VH1 Soul
VH1 Soul
VH1 Soul is a digital cable and satellite television channel and is the sister network to VH1. It showcases R&B, funk, soul, and Motown music from various periods....
, and CMT Pure Country
CMT Pure Country
CMT Pure Country is a digital cable and satellite television channel, it is the sister network to CMT. It showcases country music videos all day from the 1980s to the current day, using the same 8-hour programming wheel schedule repeated three times daily as sister networks MTV Hits and MTV Jams...
, MTV Jams is available exclusively on digital cable
Digital cable
Digital cable is a generic term for any type of cable television distribution using digital video compression or distribution. The technology was originally developed by Motorola.-Background:...
.
The channel runs on an automated
Automation
Automation is the use of control systems and information technologies to reduce the need for human work in the production of goods and services. In the scope of industrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization...
eight hour wheel schedule which repeats three times a day, starting at 6am Eastern
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
, and then resetting at 2pm and 10pm. Promotional advertising, other interstitial programming and some events, such as the Ozone Awards are also carried on the network, along with various theme programming to promote album releases or other happenings in the music world.
MTV Jams was the last remaining MTV network in the United States to use MTV's original Kabel
Kabel (typeface)
Kabel is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed by German typeface designer Rudolf Koch, and released by the Klingspor foundry in 1927. The face was named to honor the newly completed trans-Atlantic telephone cable...
font for their music video credit tags, which the main MTV network discontinued in October 2007. MTV Jams switched to the font style used by MTV Hits and rarely by MTV itself in May 2011. The logo had a minor readjustment in February 2010 to remove the Music Television tagline and a small quarter of the logo in line with the official rebranding of all MTV networks.
Initial reactions
MTVX's replacement in 2002 by MTV Jams was explained by the network as being based on demographic trends and industry data that there was a lower demand for a channel devoted to hard rock and heavy metalHeavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
than there was for hip-hop, rap and R&B, so they made the decision to replace MTVX's channel space with a new format branded with MTV Jams, at the time, the network's branding for music of that type and an actual show on the channel's mother network
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
.
After its launch, MTV Jams' playlist became predictable and less random than it originally seemed. The new videos that were in heavy rotation were usually played once per hour or once per every two hours.
Programming
Beginning in the summer of 2004, MTV Jams added some variety into its programming. Along with MTV HitsMTV Hits
MTV Hits is an American music video channel that debuted on May 1, 2002. The format of the network resembles that of the classic MTV before the additional of other programming to that network in the 1990s and their slow decline of music video programming...
, MTV Jams began to play more obscure videos, as well as a larger selection of older videos, than it had previously played.
Currently, the breadth of MTV Jams' playlist surpasses that of its sister stations VH1 Soul
VH1 Soul
VH1 Soul is a digital cable and satellite television channel and is the sister network to VH1. It showcases R&B, funk, soul, and Motown music from various periods....
and MTV Hits
MTV Hits
MTV Hits is an American music video channel that debuted on May 1, 2002. The format of the network resembles that of the classic MTV before the additional of other programming to that network in the 1990s and their slow decline of music video programming...
, with several hundred more videos played on a regular basis. Most of the urban music videos that have ever aired on an MTV, VH1 or even BET can be seen on MTV Jams, as well as many more obscure urban videos that cannot be seen on any other Viacom network, though usually the channel does not air music preceding the 1989 premiere of Yo! MTV Raps
Yo! MTV Raps
Yo! MTV Raps was a two-hour American television music video program, which ran from August 1988 to August 1995 through its original Yo! MTV Raps name and later by Yo! . The program was the first hip hop music show on the network, based on the original MTV Europe show, aired one year earlier. The U.S...
, except for a few small cases.
Hood Fab
MTV Jams hosts a frequent live game show by the name of Hood Fab, hosted by Buttahman. In this game, Buttahman will have two contestants (normally one popular hip-hop artist and one random contestant off of the street, although there have been games where two artists went against each other.) and ask them questions about hip-hop. The contests take place in Various cities. The one who answers the most correctly gets a bonus question. Whoever gets the bonus question, wins a prize. The artist normally just gets bragging right and the "Official Hood Fab tube socksSOCKS
SOCKS is an Internet protocol that routes network packets between a client and server through a proxy server. SOCKS5 additionally provides authentication so only authorized users may access a server...
" as opposed to where the random contestant will get something of more value plus the tube socks.
The Parker Report
Every now and then, MTV Jams includes a short show called The Parker Report, hosted by Erik Parker. On the show, Erik will feature hip-hop artists, normally under a theme (for instance, one episode he featured the Grand Hustle team of T.I.T.I.
Clifford Joseph Harris, Jr. , better known by his stage name T.I., is an American rap artist, film and music producer, actor and author. He is also the founder and co-chief executive officer of Grand Hustle Records....
, Afla Mega, and Big Kuntry King
Big Kuntry King
Sean Marrett also known as Big Kuntry King is an American southern rapper from Atlanta, Georgia who's signed to Grand Hustle Records. He is also a member of P$C, Pimp Squad Click a rap group. His debut album My Turn to Eat was released September 30, 2008.-Albums:-Singles:-References:...
.) to talk about recent problems or studies in hip-hop. In the aforementioned episode, they discussed the autotune "T-Pain
T-Pain
Faheem Rasheed Najm , better known by his stage name T-Pain, is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, and actor, currently signed to Young Money Entertainment. His debut album, Rappa Ternt Sanga, was released in 2005. In 2007, T-Pain released his second studio album Epiphany,...
" effect and about how he rediscovered it. The cast will always come to a conclusion about the topic at hand. For instance, they came to the conclusion to, when using the autotune, either "shout out" to T-Pain or feature him on the record. The closing scene will always show the summarized point, which was "No biting allowed".
Marathons
Occasionally, MTV Jams will air special, unannounced alphabetical marathons of music videos by artist name, usually around holiday periods, or videos themed around lists such as most popular of the year, nominated for certain awards or that of an artist around the release of a new album.Themed blocks
From time to time, MTV Jams is also known to include special themed blocks of programming, for example, an hour of a specific artist or label's videos, an hour block of '90s gangsta rap, or a string of reggaeReggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
-style videos. This is always unannounced and spontaenous for viewers, in the vein of MTV2
MTV2
MTV2 is a cable network that is widely available in the United States on digital cable and satellite television, and is progressively being added to analogue cable lineups across the nation...
's original format.
In the fall of 2004, MTV Jams presented a week of shows titled "Takeover," where artists were invited to host a day of programming. Artists included Usher, Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...
, Lil' Jon, Nelly
Nelly
Cornell Iral Haynes, Jr. , better known by his stage name Nelly, is an Grammy Award winning American rapper and actor. He has performed with the rap group St. Lunatics since 1993 and signed to Universal Records in 1999. Under Universal, Nelly began his solo career in 2000 with his debut album...
, and Fat Joe
Fat Joe
Joseph Antonio Cartagena , better known by his stage name Fat Joe, is an American rapper, CEO of Terror Squad Entertainment, and member of musical groups D.I.T.C. and Terror Squad....
. Each artist played their favorite videos and their own videos. Additionally, MTV specials such as 'Diary' and live performance footage was played that related to the artists. This may have marked the first time the channel has ever aired any non-music video programming. In March 2005, MTV Jams invited 50 Cent to their studios to introduce his and his posse's music videos, as well as to play some of his favorite old school videos. He also spoke briefly between videos about his newest album and about his musical inspirations. At the time, these two specials were the most VJ-like to ever appear on the generally low-budget channel.
Fab 5 of Summer '05
During the summer of 2005, MTV Jams debuted a new, larger logo for itself in order to promote special summer programming called "The Fab 5 of Summer '05" that was running on the channel for the duration of the summer. The "Fab 5" were five up-and-coming hip-hop artists that the channel placed a heavy emphasis on during the entire summer. They were Juelz SantanaJuelz Santana
LaRon Louis James , better known by his stage name Juelz Santana, is an American rapper, producer, and actor. He appeared on Cam'ron's 2002 singles, "Oh Boy" and "Hey Ma"...
, Da Back Wudz, Young Jeezy
Young Jeezy
Jay Wayne Jenkins , better known by his stage name Young Jeezy, is an American rapper. He is the member of the hip hop group United Streets Dopeboyz of America and a former member of BMF...
, Tony Yayo
Tony Yayo
Marvin Bernard , better known by his stage name Tony Yayo, is a Haitian American rapper and member of the hip hop group G-Unit...
, and Paul Wall
Paul Wall
Paul Michael Slayton , better known by his stage name Paul Wall, is an American rapper. He is currently affiliated with Swishahouse Records, having released several albums under the label as well as...
. Da Back Wudz, Young Jeezy, Tony Yayo, and Paul Wall came into the MTV Jams studio to speak about their careers and to play blocks of their favorite videos. These blocks were rotated pretty heavily, sometimes several times a day, so the summer of 2005 arguably became the period of MTV Jams' history that has seen the most redundant and least varied playlist to date.
The same summer, MTV Jams moved one step closer toward its high-budget, show-based sister networks MTV and VH1 when it briefly aired documentary style programs on the hip-hop themed and MTV-produced movie Hustle and Flow.
Jam of the Week
MTV Jams every Sunday morning programs a music video as "Jam of the Week" each hour of the day. The videos chosen are often premiered or popular.Availability
MTV Jams, a part of the MTV Digital Suite and VH1, is available on most digital cable systems,but not Dish NetworkDish Network
Dish Network Corporation is the second largest pay TV provider in the United States, providing direct broadcast satellite service—including satellite television, audio programming, and interactive television services—to 14.337 million commercial and residential customers in the United States. Dish...
or DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
. Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable is an American cable television company that operates in 28 states and has 31 operating divisions...
does not carry the network except on their former Adelphia systems, where previous contracts with MTV Networks are required to be honored, and Bright House Networks
Bright House Networks
Bright House Networks is a cable television company, the seventh largest cable operator and the sixth largest traditional multiple system operator in the United States owned by Advance/Newhouse, headquartered in Syracuse, New York...
, of which Time Warner Cable formerly had a stake in. The network is also not seen in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on non-Cablevision systems; Time Warner is the majority cable provider for Manhattan, Staten Island, and Brooklyn/Queens. The network is also carried on some cable systems in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
, South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, and Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
in a localized form. In Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
(Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
) the channel is available under Digital television
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
systems.