On January 3, 1989, The Arsenio Hall Show debuted and changed late night television.
Arsenio was full of landmark cultural moments — like the time his good friend Prince gave a mini-concert on the show in 1991, or when Bill Clinton played the saxophone on the show in an attempt to appeal to a younger (and Black) demographic. It also provided a platform and safe space for Black artists, athletes, and intellectuals, including for Magic Johnson, who sat down with Arsenio a day after he announced he was HIV positive.
"Something that I would whisper to you that I probably shouldn’t say out loud, is that now I see a lot of people – black and white – doing things that I started,” Hall told the Guardian in 2021. “I really do think that I kind of broke the mold a little bit, and allowed people to do it their way."
A home for Hip-Hop, Arsenio regularly featured rappers including MC Hammer, Yo Yo, MC Lyte, Naughty By Nature, A Tribe Called Quest, Fu-Schnickens, CL Smooth, Guru, Das EFX, Wu-Tang Clan, KRS One, and more. He also famously featured the West Coast All-Stars for a star-studded performance of the anti-violence anthem "We're All In The Same Gang."
