Christmas came with a new funky beat back in 1979 when Kurtis Blow released  the rap classic, Christmas Rappin’. The chart-topping single became an instant sensation, selling  more than 400,000 copies. Blow, nee Kurtis Walker, was twenty years old when Mercury signed him to the label, making him the first rap artist to sign with a major label.

     Credit Strickland for succeeding where others have not. His direction exhibits a quirky, artistic style. Scenes melt into each other effortlessly. There’s a dazzling visual flare that keeps your eyeballs glued to the screen for 118 minutes. You’re hooked until he’s through weaving a very sordid tale about a dress with a mind of its own and a curse that is deadly.

He revisited his famous 2004 “Pound Cake” speech and clarified that he probably should not have…

     For “Relax,” she introduces an alter-ego, “Suga’ Love,” an afro-wearing Foxy Brown-like character whose looks underscore the fad-happy decade of the 1970s. “I’m a ’90s baby, but at heart, I’m like a child of the ’70s. That era of music heavily influences me,” she notes.