My 25-and-older readers, don’t act like you don’t remember wanting one of these shirts as a kid! Black Bart Simpson used to be the sh*t! Hell, regular yellow Bart Simpson is great in his own right, but the Black Bart Simpson shirt was an instant classic, and a first-ballot inductee to the Bootleg T-Shirt Hall Of Fame. Black Bart Simpson is up there in between the M.C. Hammer era “U Can’t Touch This” shirt and the Marion Barry era “The Bitch Set Me Up” tee. If you ever make it to the Hall of Fame, you can’t miss it. It’s right before you get to the “Stop Snitchin” wing.
The other early 90′s trend that amuses me now, is the leather Africa medallion.
The reason this trend was funny to me, is because most of the people I knew who wore these medallions were into activities that cannot quite be described as Pro-Black by any stretch of the imagination. One medallion-sporting friend only dated white girls. Another sold crack to other black folks in the neighborhood. It was never about upliftment for them; It was more like “Hey! I’m black, and I want to look good so I’m wearing this fashion accessory with no regard for the true meaning behind it!” Basically, the Africa Medallion was to the early 90′s what the Che Guevara t-shirt was to the earlier part of this decade.
Whatever the case, I hope this brought back memories for some of you. If not…F*CK Y’ALL! I know I’m getting old…no need to rub it in!
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Ah, I’m not 25 or older but I remember (and hated!) these shirts, lol. For me they’re right up there with the Mickey/Minnie Mouse shirts where they would be rocking Tommy Hilfiger or FUBU (I don’t even…).
Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Nino Brown’s ass have one of those medallions in New Jack City?
My dad had one of those medallions!
“My 25-and-older readers, don’t act like you don’t remember wanting one of these shirts as a kid!”
LOL. Back then I couldn’t wait to buy one so I made one myself and did a damn good job!
Man I remember cats rockin the Black Bart Simpson shirt tucked into Cross Colors/Karl Kani jeans, with the medallion and the khufi. Cotdamn, walkin around looking like a bag of damn skittles. Lmao.
I used to love my Black Bart Simpson shirt. It was my favorite right next to the Looney Tunes wearing cross colors backwards shirts.
The one thing that got the Black Bart shirt to spread fast were vendors at a HBCU Classic. Where else can you go to ten different vendors and get ten different ‘unique’ Black Bart shirts…LOL
How is that not pro-black? He’s keeping it within the community!
how could you forget the Freaknik shirts. They always had a cartoon character with a big azz on em.