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OPINION: Ginuwine’s kinda-sorta ode to the derriere (or maybe just jeans?) is exceedingly ridiculous in all of the best ways.
Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Ginuwine—the famed singer and dancer (birth name Elgin Lumpkin; I love that name.) who brought us hits like “Pony,” “Differences,” “Same Ol’ G,” and a genuine (see what I did there?) plethora of others—is having a bit of a moment. Spurred by his dancing at his concerts, social media and the Blackosphere’s ability to turn anything into some foolywang, Ginuwine shows up on my social media timelines way more than I’d expect. I’m not complaining, mind you. I’m a Ginuwine fan. I purchased many of his albums with my hard-earned college refund checks. See? A fan.
Well, since he is having a moment and can’t stop, won’t stop doing interesting dances all up and through my platforms, I figured now is as good a time as any to revisit one of his—how shall we say this?—more ridiculous songs: “In Those Jeans.”
Guys, this song is nonsense. I love it. Like it could be a song about booty or just nice jeans. It’s all on the table.
So let’s start at the top. “In Those Jeans” is a song from his 2003 album, The Senior. It’s co-written by Ginuwine and Harvey “The Rook” Hester. It is, at its core, a song about wanting to, well, get into the pants of some woman that he saw from his car. But it’s not just about wanting to get into her pants—her jeans—but that she is wearing those jeans, which kind of implies that the woman he saw is draggin’ a wagon. That thang is thangin’. She got an onion. (He directly implies this as he states, “you made a thug wanna cry something terrible…,” which I can only take to mean she has an onion booty. WARNING: DO NOT GOOGLE ‘ONION BOOTY.’ I THOUGHT URBAN DICTIONARY WAS GOING TO BE THE FIRST HIT, IT IS NOT. ZOMG.)
Actually, let’s just go on ahead and have some fun with the lyrics. My goodness is this song fun.
Verse one:
Got on my ride seen you from afar
And I couldn’t stop myself from looking hard (staring)
He is enamored by what he’s seen. You see this scenario play out across the world on a daily basis I’m assuming. The good thing is he doesn’t sound like he’s being a creep and approaching. He’s just caught up. Let’s hope he doesn’t go creeper. We call that foreshadowing.
You wore these jeans
Girl, you wore these jeans and you
Made a thug want to cry something terrible
See, onion booty. Unless she just really, ya know, looked good in those jeans and doesn’t have an onion. The video is a bit of a crap shoot; not a single woman in the video looked like she had an onion, though I do appreciate the model with a pair of pants just hanging around one ankle. That is art. Largely though, they just had on nice jeans. Perhaps he’s just really passionate about jeans.
I had to have, have you for myself baby
You don’t know what those jeans do to me
Make me want to get down on one knee
You’ve got that thunder
And it only makes me wonder how it feels
To get up in those jeans
Oh those jeans
So this woman’s jeans or her derriere (jury is out) has him ready to propose. Now, the fact that she has that thunder makes me think that he’s speaking about her rump, but he seems to be a really, really big fan of the jeans she’s wearing. Maybe jeans are his fetish.
