I'm Gonna Get You Sucka Big Fun You Dropped A Bomb On Me Gap Band

I'm Gonna Get You Sucka Album: I'm Gonna Git You Sucka soundtrack (1988)
Big Fun Album: Gap Band 8 (1986)
You Dropped A Bomb On Me Album: Gap Band IV (1982)
by Gap Band

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!"

The Gap Band have some big fun under the sun on this track, the lead single from the 1986 album Gap Band 8. Big Fun is very repetitive, with lead singer Charlie Wilson mostly repeating the lines, "I'm gonna need you" and "Wanna have big fun" throughout the 6:49 run time. Wilson says there's a meaning behind the groove. "In 'Big Fun' the message is that you can have a good time without taking drugs or pills or anything," he told Melody Maker.

Big Fun was written by their producer Lonnie Simmons and engineer Rudy Taylor, who also did a lot of songwriting for the band. Simmons produced The Gap Band in their early '80s heyday when they had hits with songs like "Early In The Morning" and "Burn Rubber On Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)," but had taken some time away from the band before returning for Gap Band 8.

"Big Fun" didn't get much attention in America, where the band is from, but it's their highest charting song in the UK, where it went to #4.

The Gap Band have always made club-ready songs that play well on the dance floor. "Big Fun" is no exception, capturing the sound of 1986 with lots of keyboards, drum machines and samplers. It's a departure from the stone-cold fun of their earlier hits but stays true to form with heavy bass and live percussion.

This song was written by Lonnie Simmons, Rudy Taylor and Charlie Wilson, who were the songwriting nucleus of The Gap Band. Charlie was the lead singer (his brothers Ronnie and Robert - who died in 2010 at age 53 - were the other core members). Simmons was their producer, and Taylor was their sound mixer and also contributed to the songwriting.

"You Dropped a Bomb on Me" has long been a soundtrack favorite, so it's been featured in the films Next Friday and Brooklyn Rules, on TV programs including Mr. Show, on the 1984 Grammy Awards broadcast, in commercials such as one for the network Animal Planet, and in video games including Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. To say nothing of its use in sporting events! In American football, a game-winning touchdown pass is often called a "long bomb," so it makes sense that "You Dropped a Bomb on Me" would make appropriate celebration music. Teams that have used the song at home games include the Jacksonville Jaguars (NFL), Florida Gators (college football) and New York Mets (baseball). It was often heard on the radio station 850 WEEI during The Dale and Holley Show as a phone effect.

You Dropped a Bomb on Me is a popular feel-good dance song, but it's actually quite heart-rending: The girl meant everything to the singer ("You were my pills, you were my thrills, you were my hope, you were my smoke"), but then she "turned me wrong." So the "bomb" is not a good thing - more likely a breakup that came out of nowhere and devastated the poor guy.

The Gap Band were originally known as the Greenwood, Archer and Pine Street Band in 1967, in their hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. They eventually settled on the shorter name, and as a band comprised of three brothers, were marketed as an R&B version of the Bee Gees.