In my limited white-guy mind rap and hip-hop didn’t really ignite until the late ’80s, mainly when NWA became popular in ’87. Musical scholars will also tell you that rap & hip-hop are generally understood to have originated in New York City in the 1970s.
And yet the very first time I associated the word “rap” with musical punch and propulsion was when I heard “The Rapper,” a lame flash-in-the-pan single from The Jaggerz. “The Rapper” was released in January 1970, or nearly 53 years ago.
“The Rapper” was also the first male-composed pop song that could be interpreted as sympathetic to women in a political sense, and even supportive of the nascent women’s liberation movement. It’s basically a “women beware” song that warns of insincere assholes who will turn on the charm spigot in order to get laid any way they can.
It’s my suspicion that the song’s author, Donnie Iris, wrote “The Rapper” out of resentment and jealousy. Iris probably saw himself as the soulful, sensitive type, and he probably became infuriated when he noticed that full-of-shit types were having better luck with women than he was — that hot women were falling for the puerile.
Iris to women of the late ’60s: “Don’t you girls understand that you’re making a mistake by blowing off sensitive soul men like myself in favor of Shallow Hals who have nothing on their minds except dipping their wicks? My song is telling the truth — these seducers are empty vessels, and they have nothing to offer. Please think it over and consider what you’re missing. I’m the kind of Frye-boots-wearing guy you want to go home with, and not those insincere jackals in their polyester shirts.”