I've been screaming! No one was going to tell me? Now all those years watching Soul Train and I did not make this connection when MC Hammer, who I a
I’ve been screaming! No one was going to tell me?
Now all those years watching Soul Train and I did not make this connection when MC Hammer, who I am a huge fan of, came out. Watch Tamechi make the connection around the 13 minute mark. You realize that you saw the amazing outfits on Soul Train. You saw the iconic looks on Hammer. And you never made the connection.
Where are these man’s awards? Is he in the Fashion Hall of Fame? Because THIS look was one of THE top iconic looks of that time and he created it. One of my relatives even wore an ensemble that my grandmother made that took a bit of inspiration from this look when she sang in the school talent show.
An unsung fashion LEGEND.
Sidebar….how is MTV pretending to be at a loss for content with all this unsung history running around?
Tamechi Toney-Briggs credited in multiple interviews and retrospectives as the designer who created the look we now call MC Hammer pants — long before they became mainstream. He was styling, innovating, experimenting, and shaping silhouettes in ways that were bold, theatrical, and deeply rooted in Black performance culture.
And here’s the part people forget:
Soul Train wasn’t just dancers.
It was:
stylists
hair artists
makeup visionaries
seamstresses and designers
culture-makers behind the scenes
Black LGB artists were right there — dreaming, sewing, styling, choreographing, shaping.
Like too many of their peers from this time, they rarely got credit.
But they helped build the look.
They helped build the vibe.
They helped build the boldness.
And yes — many of them were unsung.
Soul Train was a sanctuary of creativity
For so many gay Black men Soul Train was one of the few spaces where:
flamboyance wasn’t punished
confidence wasn’t mocked
style could be extra and still celebrated
movement could be fluid, expressive, free
What the world later called “fashion trends” or “new style” often came straight from them.
Hammer pants.
Slouch socks.
Dramatic jackets.
Hair sculpting.
Accessories that made the outfit come alive.
They were remixing fashion the way DJs remix sound.
And they did it while navigating:
homophobia
racism
class barriers
being told their gifts “didn’t matter”
- the government ignoring, dismissing, and minimizing their health concerns and dying friends and family (I have gay and bisexual family that I pray is resting in peace)
That’s courage.
This is why remembering matters
When we leave gay and lesbian Black artists out of the story,
we flatten culture into something safe and sanitized.
But the truth is:
Black culture has always included queer brilliance.
Black style has always included queer innovation.
Black performance has always been shaped by LGB creativity.
And yes — many of those innovators came through Soul Train.
They deserve their flowers.
Not later.
Not after another documentary.
Now.
The bigger message
When you see someone dismissed because people think:
“that’s just fashion”
“that’s just dance”
“that’s just personality”
remember:
Visionaries rarely look “important” in the moment.
But their fingerprints end up on everything.
Just like Tamechi Toney-Briggs.
Just like those Soul Train stylists and dancers.
Just like the LGB creatives who lifted entire eras of music and style — and didn’t get named.
Your gifts may not always be recognized right away either.
Still — create.
Still — innovate.
Still — shine.
Because legacy has a way of surfacing truth over time.
**As you watch this video, do you not love how he kept evolving and doing what was right for him?