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This photo taken on Oct. 24, 2016, shows visitors walking past a pumpkin lantern show in front of a shopping mall to mark the Halloween in Shenyang, northeast China’s Liaoning province. STR/AFP/Getty Images
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The best Halloween costumes of 2016

Stars nailed them, per usual, but us normals did, too

Clinton Yates @clintonyates
Topics:
Halloween

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    5:44 PMWhether or not you still or ever did dress up for Halloween, it’s not hard to appreciate a good costume. Of course, there are people who wouldn’t recognize a solid one if it were literally walking down the street in front of them. That said, we’re not here to drag people either, so we’ll just keep Khloe Kardashian’s name to a minimum Monday.

    5. The Entire Cast and Crew of ESPN’s His & Hers

    We realize that the homer element to this making the list is very high, but come on, look at that photograph. This show’s parody game has been on point, but what made Monday particularly special was the complete holiday revamp of the set, designed after the movie they were spoofing, Boyz n the Hood. Sitting on the stoop, with the lawn chair and all the side props, up to and including a pack of Newport cigarettes, it was just tremendous design and execution. Also, if you’ve got people asking if Jemele Hill was playing Eazy-E in your mentions, you know that this type of cultural education is still important.

    4. Gucci Flip-Flop

    I have no idea who this person is, and it doesn’t really matter. A couple different things to note here. Aside from the joke, which I’ll explain in a second, the actual execution of the garb appears to be tremendous. One of the most annoying things about costumes in general is the ability to actually party in them can be tough once props get involved. But my man appears to have no problems on that front, either. Looks sturdy and clean, so let’s ride out.

    As for the item itself, this is hilarious. The now iconic lyric from Future’s 2015 track Thought It Was A Drought took on renewed relevance when news spread earlier this month that Basketball Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen and his wife, Larsa, would be splitting up. One of the reasons cited for the split was her relationship with one Future, which … is and was awkward. Yeah. So, shoutout to Gucci flip-flops. I like that homey completed the look with the hat, too.

    3. LeBron James As Jerome from Martin

    This is nothing short of excellent. We’re not even counting the epic troll job on the Golden State Warriors that his actual party included. Let’s stick to the costume. He dropped a cool $5,000 to have it custom-made, according to TMZ, which seems well worth it, to be honest. I don’t even have the time to delve into the cultural importance of the character of Jerome, never mind the show Martin itself, but there were a lot of characters on that show overall. Jerome was easily the funniest.

    2. Blue Ivy, Beyoncé and Tina Knowles as Salt N Pepa

    Where do we start. No. 1, the costuming is 100 percent perfect. But in case you couldn’t tell from the initial image, Bey took you through every aspect and application of it, effectively creating a look book for her Halloween costume, which is just such a next level idea anyway. She did this via video, which had the song Push It as the background music. Jay Z’s complementary look was excellent, and that one shot of her and Blue apparently just eating breakfast in their costumes adding that family touch makes you remember just how cool they all are.

    1. White Privilege

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BMMTEN3ALwe/

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BMPK_6MAnrJ/

    If both of these hadn’t happened, neither of them would be on the list. But the fact that they both exist made the combo factor impossible to ignore. No. 1, whoever this guy is who found a way to put this all together is a genius. His cape game is also very wavy, it appears. But the Snow White Privilege costume offers a good look, a tad more intellectually, about exactly what the problem with it is. And with character appropriate phrases on her dress (“The Palace Police Never Stop Me”) is particularly well done. Why does it matter? Two words: Jason Walsh.

    Clinton Yates is a tastemaker at Andscape. He likes rap, rock, reggae, R&B and remixes — in that order.