Hippest trip in America, the Soul Train American music variety television program was a great success and has been awarded for its 35-year history in production. Featured performances from gospel, funk, jazz, disco, dance/pop artists with R&B and soul as the main platform. Soul Train was popular amongst the African-American audience, growing to encompass many rap artists and break dancers that took to the front stage to attract a larger audience with show dancers performing "East Coast" dance moves.
Darnell Williams, Nick Cannon, MC Hammer, Rosie Perez were just a few of the in-studio group of dancers, who were featured to perform alongside the audience with their two main set elements that built the show. "Soul Train Scramble Board" allowed two dancers to unscramble letters that formed the name of the show's performer or a credited historic figure within African American history, with a 60-second timeframe. The "Soul Train Line" became so popular amongst the music and dance scene, allowing dancers to form two lines and create new dance moves and styles that were current in that era.
R&B group Shalamar, enjoyed years of success with band members Jeffrey Daniel and Jody Watley as in-house dancers on set for the Soul Train, striking a deal with the talent scouts to become the leading force and singers of the show in 1978, this changed the way African Americans were seen within the music and film industry. With original and current music theme songs, Soul Train released several songs with "TSOP" (The Sound Of Philadelphia) with vocals by The Three Degrees, and Gamble and Huff composing this R&B radio hit in 1974, which has become the legendary sound of the Soul Train. Launching their own Soul Train Music Awards in 1987, the top hip-hop, R&B, gospel music artist were awarded for their talent with Aretha Franklin playing a major part in supporting new artists into the music world by giving special awards such as The Lena Horne Award for Outstanding Career Achievements.