I mow my parents' lawn every week on a riding lawn mower. It takes about two hours to mow the whole lawn, so it's a perfect chance for some one on one time with my music. I download A LOT of music and my iPhone is on eternal shuffle. Sometimes I buy a whole album, so I get some songs that I've never heard, and then there are also songs I buy randomly, so I don't know them either. So the majority of the songs I listen to I know, but some I don't. And sometimes, very rarely, but sometimes, I hear an unheard Song that totally, completely floors me. Ones that I have to stop mowing my lawn for a minute and replay it they are so good. Sometimes they make me cry, but I'm always so overcome with joy that I have this song in my arsenal.
Macklemore: You know Thrift Shop, you know Can't Hold Us, you know White Walls, and, more recently you probably know Downtown. But I'm willing to bet that most of you have never heard this song of theirs that I just discovered. So let me show you the song, and let me tell you a bit of why it means something to me. (Just now making this post I just discovered that Macklemore has made a video for this song. This song is so special to me, and the video just amplifies that meaning to me. I would love for you to watch it, and maybe you too can find some meaning in it.)
Macklemore - Wing$
Now, let me tell you why I find this song so... so lyrically profound.
Like I have stated on other occasions, growing up I was pretty tight with my cousins. Now, the cousin of mine that was closest to my age he was like five years older than me. And as myself: an unpopular chubby kid I was looking for anything to sink my teeth into to think was cool. And so I found this cousin: he was athletic, cool, slender, popular-everything I was not. But most importantly to me, what stuck out about him and fed to his coolness was the fact that he owned what seemed like dozens of pairs of Air Jordans.
For all I was concerned these shoes were what made 100% of him him, that jumpman logo gave him god-status. I was still in elementary when my cousin would wear these shoes, so then I was too young to start growing an Air Jordan collection. When I got to high school we had a falling out with my cousins, but that didn't shake the rock-solid belief in me that said you need a pair of J's to be cool. And so I got my first pair. They were white and yellow, and had a little plastic stopper on the laces (my favorite part) and a velcro strap above the laces. I was obsessed with them, I wore them everywhere. Fast forward to me, now a junior in college and have my own collection of Jordans now. My most recent pair I aquired was actually not a pair of Air Jordans, but my point is still the same. They are purple Shaq Attaq Reebok Pumps.
They are my babies. And that's when I heard this song. It's meaning hit me hard: Do I continue my life in this fashion or do I take heed, vanish these lavish shoes from my life? I don't know, honestly at this point I'm still a bit shaken up by the song. Thank you-Tyler.
