Looking at the title of this post, you’d think we were talking about a song from the G-funk era of the mid-90s. But alas this Pittsburgh band was talking about a different kind of rapper. And they added a Z at the end of their name, not because they were from the streets (maybe they were, who knows) but because they wanted to separate themselves from the band, The Jaggers. (And in the future, Mick & Bianca)
The Jaggerz were indeed a one-hit-wonder hitting #2 in March of 1970, kept out of the #1 spot by Bridge Over Troubled Water. That would’ve been a tough one to knock out. Only a group like the Beatles could and they did with Let It Be. But I digress. The Jaggerz may have only one hit but their leader, Donnie Iris, would go on to several Top 40 hits in the 80s. Nevertheless, this out of nowhere track was one of the best of the year and they sold over a million copies of this 45 to boot.
The song was about a sleazy dude who loves to ‘rap’ to the girls which back then just meant talking. But a ‘rapper’ as described by the Jaggerz is a guy who loves to hang out in bars (or a bus, or a grocery store?) hitting on chics trying to get them to sleep with them. Imagine Larry Dallas at the Regal Beagle – that’s a rapper. (How did he get any chics?)
And while I think the song is cool, the lyrics are incredibly dated. For example, he wants someone to sock it to. If you watched Laugh-In, you could dig it. Someone reading those words now thinks he wants a chic he could beat up. Then there’s also the cheesy line he utters, come up to my place for some coffee or tea or me. I need a shower just writing that. What I don’t get is that the singer is talking about this rapper with disdain until the last line where he pins it on the girl.
He’s got you where he wants you, girl you gotta face reality.
What the hell does that mean? Now it’s her fault that she might get raped by this sleazebag? Oh wait, maybe he’s trying to signal the girl like, ‘Hey he’s trying to screw you. Wake up. Get out of there. Pour the hot coffee in his face and run’. Maybe the band saves her after all and that’s what all the applause was at the end.
Turn up that fuzz guitar, soul clap along with the chorus, and give that rapper a cowbell…
7 Inches of 70s Pop 
porky
/ June 20, 2012when this song came out I had just learned what rape was so I was confused; did he want to talk to her or rape her? Talk to her and then rape her? Weird. Great sounding record though.
I well-remember their follow up “I Call My Baby Candy”; it got a lot of local airplay but apparently didn’t do much nationally.
CL
/ January 1, 2015Still a great song, fellas ..