Ginuwine is (enjoyably) having a moment; it’s time to revisit the song and video for ‘In Those Jeans’

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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.  

The hook, please:

Looking good plenty tight
Is there room, any more room for me
In those jeans
Really thick, like I like it
Tell me is there any more room for me
In those jeans
Looking tasty really scrumptious
Tell me is there any more room for me
In those jeans
Looking good plenty tight
Is there room, any more room for me

Let’s move on past the clearly rhetorical question here; of course, there is no room for him in those jeans. I’ll bet he and Mr. Rook were in the studio one night and somebody said, “Man, I want to get in them jeans” as they looked at some magazine featuring a woman in very tight jeans. They looked at each other and realized they had a phrase that would be and could be uttered by men near and far and by women letting men know that there was no room for them in their jeans. It’s fun saying. As an aside, people do not use the word scrumptious enough. 

I do wonder if this phrase, “girl is there any more room for me in those jeans?” is the kind of thing that’s funny enough where some women might respond to it because it’s clever. I have no idea, but it definitely sounds like what I used to hear outside of Club 559 in Atlanta. RIP. 

Verse two: 
You are the bomb
Girl, you’re tight to death, baby
I don’t know the words to say to you
All that I know, baby all I know is that
I’m loving what I see and I’m feeling you
I want to know, all I want to know is if
I could have what’s up in those jeans

When you get to stumbling and repeating yourself that’s when you’re really smitten. Ginuwine is smitten; those jeans are really nice. Like, I hope she has more than one pair. Unless, of course, she doesn’t like this kind of attention.

Baby can I have what’s up in those jeans
Don’t get alarmed cause I don’t mean no harm

Technically, this isn’t harmful, per se, but I do wonder if you are this pressed about getting in somebody’s jeans if it doesn’t become creepy. It definitely seems creepy. 

But I love the way you wear those jeans
Levi’s, Prada, Baby Phat, I love them
Love the way you wearing them I love them yeah
Calvin, Iceberg, Sergio, I love them
Trying to get inside of those
Yeah yeah yeah

I guess the question here is one for the ages: Do the jeans make the booty or does the booty make the jeans? Maybe that’s the real question that Ginuwine is putting on the table. Perhaps he, through this song, is digging into his cultural anthropology bag and…you know what, let me just stop right there. He’s not. He came up with a clever phrase that is both nonsensical and hilarious and wonderful and easy for everybody to sing out loud. I still don’t know if the song is entirely about the booty or really about the jeans, but maybe that’s the genius: the not knowing makes it all the more scrumptious. 

Shouts out to Ginuwine. I wonder if he found any room in any jeans or at least got him some really nice jeans to wear.

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Panama Jackson is a columnist at theGrio. He writes very Black things and drinks very brown liquors, and is pretty fly for a light guy. His biggest accomplishment to date coincides with his Blackest accomplishment to date in that he received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey after she read one of his pieces (biggest) but he didn’t answer the phone because the caller ID said “Unknown” (Blackest).

Make sure you check out the Dear Culture podcast every Thursday on theGrio’s Black Podcast Network, where I’ll be hosting some of the Blackest conversations known to humankind. You might not leave the convo with an afro, but you’ll definitely be looking for your Afro Sheen! Listen to Dear Culture on TheGrio’s app; download here.