It feels so good to be us. For those old enough to remember (*cough* me), In Living Color was the sketch-comedy hallmark of our adolescence—in fact, its run spanned my entire high school career. The (elder) Wayans-brothers vehicle was a revolutionary counterpoint to Saturday Night Live, remixing comedy for the hip-hop generation—replacing the blues of the live band with DJ SW1 (little brother Shawn Wayans) and a dancing fleet of “Fly Girls,” famously choreographed by Rosie Perez.
The show notably helped launch the careers of Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx, David Alan Grier and Tommy Davidson—and a Bronx, N.Y., fly girl from the block named Jennifer Lopez—and though it lasted a brief four seasons, it left an indelible impression on its fans.
Clearly, one of those fans is pop/R&B showman Bruno Mars, who re-created the set for the video of his latest release, “Finesse.” The song features its own Bronx fly girl, reality star-turned-rap star Cardi B—and I think we can finally stop debating her skills, because her flow is exactly what this new jack swing-inspired track needed to take us back to a happier time and place.
The video doesn’t disappoint, treating us to just the dose of neon-tinged nostalgia we need in an increasingly crazy world—and it got us so hype, we predict the return of some seriously ’90s hip-hop style for spring and summer 2018.
Because we out here drippin’ in finesse.