To Be Continued…

The golden era of the rap video stretched from the late ’80s all of the way into the early 2000s. Rap music was gaining momentum during the rise of music television, and as rap evolved, many shows began to cater specifically to the genre. Yo! MTV Raps and Rap City, for example, offered a space for rappers to be interviewed by people who looked like them and who understood the culture. Until that point, most critics had treated the genre with a type of odd fascination, as if it were a novelty. But these new shows took rap seriously. Rap videos began to flourish, particularly in the mid-’90s, and production budgets for music videos rose as the genre maintained a strong foothold within the American cultural conversation. Because of this, videos became more narrative based and began to resemble short films. Rappers took advantage of this creative space and financial support to build their ideal cinematic universes.

But there was the occasional hiccup with these projects. Sometimes the ambition of a storyteller would outweigh the time, space, or resources needed for a given story to unfold, and the music video would end with a “To Be Continued…” promise. More often than not, however, they didn’t deliver on a next chapter. Here is a look at some of these music videos, the unrelated videos that followed them, and the sequels that should have been.