The Learning Curve

Last night, before I hit the gym, I decided to switch up my normal workout music selection of the Killer’s and the Black Eyed Peas with something from way back, something a little bit old school; in other words, one of the terribly constructed mix CD’s I made in high school…..

That being said, I learned an important lesson last night, about myself, and just how far I have really come in my music tastes and mix-making abilities. To give you a little idea of what I heard, the mix started out with a little ditty from Shania Twain, perhaps you’ve heard of it, “Man I feel like a Woman” to be immediately followed by Limp Biscuit’s “Rollin,” Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic”…. and then ultimately Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin’.” And, yes, they were all arranged in that order.

Now admittedly, all are great songs in their own right-but, maybe not all together and one right after the other.

As Jay-Z’s well-written lyrics streamed through my mind, I couldn’t help but wonder if the people working out around me realized just how very white I really am. “Big Pimpin’” tells of a man that’s “Comin’ straight up out the black bar-rio,” who “makes a mill' up off a sorry ho.” ……..and personally, I just don’t really know what that means.

In J’s defense, having grown up in a mostly-white, upper class suburb of Milwaukee, I have never even seen a “ho” outside of Pretty Woman, let alone made any money off of her. But then again, I probably wasn’t the target audience for that song anyway.

I still really like it though, so in the future I will just try to put it in a track slot that does not directly follow a white woman whining about a series of her life's inane misfortunes and social foibles.

In the meantime, I am going to file that mix CD under "learning curve" and hopefully we can all forget it ever happened.