I'm Gonna Git You Sucka

Album: I'm Gonna Git You Sucka soundtrack (1988)
Charted: 63
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Songfacts®:

  • This is the theme song to the 1988 movie I'm Gonna Git You Sucka; it played under the opening credits. The film was written and directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans, who also stars in it along with a cast of familiar faces that includes Isaac Hayes, Jim Brown, Chris Rock and Bernie Casey. A less familiar face in the film is Ja'net Dubois, who sang The Jeffersons theme song.

    The movie is a spoof on blaxploitation films, with many of the stars famous for their work in that genre. The song plays it straight, warning about how crime doesn't pay, even mentioning the crack epidemic. As the movie gets rolling though, we learn that the tough guys in the film are looking to break up a gang selling gold chains, which have become a scourge. The film led to In Living Color, Keenen Ivory Wayans' transgressive sketch comedy show that often skewered musicians in biting parodies.
  • It was Eddie Murphy who came up with the title "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka." He and Keenen Ivory Wayans were kicking around ideas for a blaxploitation spoof years earlier when he suggested it. When Keenen decided to develop the project, he made sure to get Murphy's OK.
  • The Gap Band had their big hits in the early '80s when their unique brand of funk caught on with tracks like "You Dropped A Bomb On Me" and "Burn Rubber On Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)." They were a lot less popular by the late '80s but had secured a legacy as musical innovators whose sound evolved into new jack swing, which was just starting to emerge in 1988. That's the sound they used on this track and on a single they released the following year called "All Of My Love," which gave them their last #1 R&B hit.
  • The "Dirty mutha... Don't you say that!" bit is a nod to "Theme From Shaft" by Isaac Hayes. In that song, Hayes sings, "Shaft is a bad mother..." before his backup singers cut him off, saying, "Shut your mouth!"

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