Onyx - Slam

What this video is

Released May 11, 1993, 'Slam' arrived at a precise cultural inflection point: grunge had normalized moshing on MTV, and hip-hop was aggressively pushing into mainstream pop radio rotation. Onyx consciously modeled the concept on Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' video, transposing the mosh-pit energy into a Black, Queens NYC context. The video aired on both MTV and BET during the 1993 NBA Playoffs, which adopted…

Why it matters

'Slam' is a foundational document of rap-rock crossover and the 'mosh-rap' subgenre. Its fusion of hardcore hip-hop delivery with punk mosh-pit visual language and an anthemic chant chorus predated and influenced the rap-metal wave of the late 1990s. The video's aesthetic — raw, physical,…

The director

Parris Mayhew is the original guitarist and co-founding member of hardcore-metal band Cro-Mags, co-writing their 1986 debut album The Age Of Quarrel. His accidental creation of the first slam-dancing music video for Cro-Mags' 'We Gotta Know' launched his…