We must begin this brief line of thought on Chris Tucker’s electric performance in Luc Besson’s 1997 The Fifth Element with a little background on what I call the black elegance movement in black popular music. The moment for black elegance was from 1982 to 1988. It was formed by two streams that go back to the late ’70s. Chic initiated the first stream, and the Time initiated the second and stronger stream. From the Time we get the super-producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. From Jam and Lewis we get the major records of R&B group S.O.S. Band. The S.O.S. Band draws its cosmopolitan look from Chic and its post-disco sound from the Time, whose lead singer is Morris Day, Prince’s archrival in the masterpiece of ’80s popular culture Purple Rain and also the less remembered and appreciated Graffiti Bridge.
Though connected with the Time, and coming from the same city, Minneapolis, Prince broke with the black elegance movement on one point: He blurred the line between male and female roles…
