Red, Black & Green

Red Black and Green:

They used to be my favorite combination of colors. I had a hat in those colors. I rocked an Africa Medallion with those colors. They symbolized Africa to an African-American. The Red’s for the blood, and the black’s for the man, the green is the color that stands for the land. That was in some song I used to love, I think it was the Jungle Brothers, but if I stop to figure it out, I’ll get sidetracked and not finish this post. Red, Black and Green were the colors of the African National Congress. Free Mandela and all that. It was to me as much of a political statement as it was a fashion statement. But like most fashion statements, it went out of style.

I blame Cross Colours. Everybody, their mama, and their illegitimate play cousin used to rock these. This was the first readily accessible hip hop gear. No matter where you lived in the country, you could get that style. The clothes were baggy, and when they first came out, they had my favorite colors. Red, Black and Green. They eventually moved on to other hideous combinations of colors, but my favorite of course were the Red, Black and Green. I never actually had any, but I sure wanted some. That was of course before everybody started wearing them. It went from just the hip hop kids and the conscious kids, to the preppy kids that watched Yo! MTV raps and thought they were down and the weird stoner kids that smoked weed in the parking lot between classes. People started making imitation Cross Colours and before you knew it, them joints got played out pretty quickly and along with it, the Red, Black and Green.

I say all that to say this…

This dude down the way from me is wearing a Cross Colours shirt. It’s Red on the left, Green on the right, with a BOLD Black stripe down the middle. Where da heck did he find that shirt in the 2000’s. Gotta be Burlington Coat Factory or some corner shop in the city. Why, oh why don’t I carry my camera with me at all times???