romeo + juliet.

black television reached its peak in the early nineties ironically amid reagan aftermath, recession, & rodney king. there was the cosby show, a different world, 227, & amen. of them, my most loved has always been a different world--a situation comedy about college students at the fictious historical black college, hillman. started as a cosby show spinoff, a different world followed cosby in the coveted 8:30 slot on thursday nights. it stayed among the top 5 rated shows for 3-4 consecutive years. during my childhood, i taped every single episode. for the last 4 days, i have managed to watch nearly all of them.

in one episode, young freshmen, lena james (played by jada pinkett), is given the task of reciting shakespearean dialogue for an english lit class. instead, lena, the resident 'round the way girl, chooses to infuse her own brand of baltimore dialogue into the assignment. (aside: tupac guest starred on the show playing lena's hometown boyfriend--in reality, the two were high school friends). here is her character's translation with the original:

shakespeare (1594)

oh gentle romeo

if thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully;

or if thou think i am too quickly won

i'll frown and be perverse, and say thee nay

but thou wilt woo; but else not for the world

in truth, fair montague, i am too fond

a different world (1992)

oh sweet thang romeo

if you think i'm all that, then step to me correctly

but if you think i'm a skeeze

i'll be dissin' & dismissin' then you'll be working overtime gettin' me back

so stop perpetrating

& let's get this party started because baby you know i love you