Flashback: TLC's Diggin' On You

TLC - Diggin' On You (Official Music Video) - The best video clips are right here

Flashback: Tia and Tamera Mowry

I guess time flies when you're having fun!

Old School: A Different World

A Different World, which aired for six seasons on NBC, was a spin-off series from The Cosby Show, originally centered on Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet) and the life of students at Hillman College, a fictional historically Black college in Virginia. The show typically addressed issues that were avoided by the Cosby Show writers (race and class relations, the Equal Rights Amendment).

The success and popularity of A Different World are credited with an increase in enrollment at historically Black colleges and universities during the late 1980s and early 1990s!

I watched A Different World religiously and I was so ready to go to college after seeing characters like Freddie, Kim, Dwayne Wayne and especially Whitley Gilbert. This is my absolute favorite show of all time! With scenes like this, you'll know why HBCU's are the best!

Old School: Sparkle

Sparkle was a movie released in 1976 that was inspired by the singing group, The Supremes. Sparkle is a period film set in Harlem, New York during the late 1950s and early 1960s which follows the rough lives and careers of singer Sparkle Williams and her family and friends. Most definitely low-budget and reminiscent of the blaxploitation films of the era, Sparkle had one of the best soundtracks of all time (before "soundtracks" for movies were even popular!). The group EnVogue took like three of their best-selling singles from this movie! If you ever come across the movie, it might remind you of Dreamgirls.

Rumors had been circulating that Whitney Houston's BrownHouse Productions had planned a modernized remake of Sparkle and Aaliyah was signed to star as Sparkle, but died in August 2001 before production began. Although the film was put on hold following the singer's death, Ashanti was later attached to star as Sparkle in a remake. In 2003, Warner Bros. announced plans to go forward with the production with Raven-Symoné in the lead. But, with the release of a film version of Dreamgirls in 2006, development on Sparkle was shut down. I absolutely love this movie!

Old School: Moesha

"Mo to the...E to the..."
I know everybody remembers the theme some from this show. I think Moesha was a great show that focused on the life of an upper middle class, African-American family through the eyes of a typical girl. The show dealt with "real teen social issues", such as teen pregnancy, drug use, race relations, premarital sex, the death of a parent, and day-to-day issues faced by teenagers at home and in school.

Old School: Polly

Polly had to be my absolute favorite movie and musical when I was growing up. The movie, a Disney classic released in 1989, stars Keshia Knight Pulliam and Phylicia Rashad, better known as Rudy and Claire Huxtable. The story is about Polly Whittier who arrives in Harrington, Alabama in 1955 where she has been sent to live with her Aunt Polly, the richest black woman in the county. Her aunt is a very stern woman, and despite Polly's best efforts, refuses to warm up to her niece. The joyful orphan doesn't let it get to her and goes on to inspire the transformation of the dull town and its residents.

It had the best songs including, Angel Eyes, Stand Up, Rainbow Color Me and Sweeter. I had to have watched this everyday after school for at least a year! Polly is based on the 1960 Disney film "Pollyanna, " which starred Hayley Mills (also a pretty good film!). Be sure to search YouTube for other scenes from Polly which is very hard to find today in stores or on the internet.

Old School: School Daze

Probably one of the best Spike Lee movies of all time, School Daze is based in part on Spike Lee's experiences at Atlanta's Morehouse College. It is a story about fraternity and sorority members clashing with other students at a historically black college during homecoming weekend.

Throughout the film, light-skinned African American women of the Gamma Rays (a women's auxiliary to the Gamma Phi Gamma fraternity) battle it out with their Afro-headed fellow co-eds. The students at Mission College also battle with the local unemployed and uneducated people living around the campus, who resent the Mission students for taking all of the good jobs.

Best of all, it's kind of like a musical and even if you have yet to see it, you can watch Alicia Keys' new video "Teenage Love Affair" which is inspired by the movie! Musical performances are throughout, including the production "Good or Bad Hair", a fantasy dis-fest between the Wannabes and Jigaboos, and "Be Alone Tonight" performed by Campbell (as Jane Toussaint and her Royal Court) at a talent competition. The go-go anthem "Da Butt" is performed by the group E.U. during the after-party for the Gammites.

Old School: Imitation of Life

Imitation of Life was a movie that me and my friends watched all of the time in college. We watched this movie like it was the newest blockbuster out. It is indeed a classic.

Imitation of Life is a actually a remake set in 1947, when Lora Meredith, a struggling white widow with plans to become a famous Broadway actress, loses track of her young daughter Suzie, and requests the help of a stranger named Steve Archer to help her find the girl. Suzie is found and looked after by Annie Johnson, a black widow with a daughter, Sarah Jane, who is about Suzie's age and, unlike her mother, is very light-skinned to the point of appearing Caucasian. In return for her kindness, Lora takes Annie in temporarily. Despite the fact that Lora cannot afford a nanny, Annie persuades Lora to let her stay and take care of Suzie, so that Lora can pursue an acting career.

Lora's tight focus on her career also prevents her from spending time with her daughter, who sees more of Annie than she does her own mother. Annie and Sarah Jane have their own struggles, as the light-skinned Sarah Jane is in a constant state of turmoil over her identity and steadfastly wants to pass for white. Sarah Jane's anger at being black translates into animosity towards her long-suffering mother.

The film progresses to 1958, finding Lora as a highly regarded Broadway star living in a luxurious mansion in upstate New York. After rejecting David's latest script, Lora takes a role in a dramatic film. At the show's after-party, she meets Steven, whom she hasn't seen in a decade. The two slowly begin rekindling their relationship, and Steve is reintroduced to Annie and the now-teenaged Suzie and Sarah Jane. When Lora is signed to star in an Italian motion picture, she leaves Steve to watch after Suzie, and the teenager develops an unrequited crush on her mother's boyfriend.

Adolescence has not stopped Sarah Jane from attempting to pass for white: she begins dating a white boy, who severely beats her after learning she is black. Some time later, Sarah Jane passes in order to get a job performing at a seedy nightclub, and lies to Annie and tells her she is working at the library. When Annie learns the truth and appears to claim her daughter, Sarah Jane is fired, and Sarah Jane's subsequent dismissal of her mother's care begins taking a physical toll on Annie. Lora returns from her trip to Italy to find that Sarah Jane has run away from home, and has Steve hire a detective to find her. The detective locates Sarah Jane in California, living as a white woman under an assumed name and working as a chorus girl. Annie, becoming weaker and more depressed by the day, flies out to California to see her daughter one last time and say goodbye.
After a confrontation with her mother, Suzie decides to go away to school in Denver, Colorado to forget about Steve. Not soon after Suzie leaves, however, the now gravely ill Annie passes away, presumably "of a broken heart".

As per her last wishes, Annie is given a lavish funeral in a large church, complete with a gospel choir (and a solo by gospel star Mahalia Jackson) and a parade-like procession with a horse-drawn hearse. Just before the procession begins, however, a remorseful Sarah Jane tears through the audience and throws herself upon her mother's casket, begging forgiveness. Lora takes Sarah Jane to their limousine to join her, Suzie, and Steve as the procession slowly travels through the city.

Make this your next Netflix pick!