MOM
“I Am an Animal” is one song by Ja Ja Ja that really sticks in my memory. I also like “Mom”, where the singer is answering her mom about: “When’re you comin’ home, when’re you comin’ home, when’re you comin’ back home?” I thought it was just about a girl who had gone off to college or something, but once I realized that Julie Jigsaw had made her way from Dallas to Germany, it made more sense.
Several days later, the band had laid down two more tracks, “Katz Rap” (“Cat Rap”) and “Mom”; these were released in 1982 as their first single on Ata Tak Records. This earned Ja Ja Ja and Julie Jigsaw recognition as the first female rapper in Europe. (“Katz Rap” came out the year after Blondie’s pioneering single “Rapture” was released). A later single called “Graffiti Artists International” was the first song in Europe to talk about graffiti artists. Mel Jefferson was the engineer for the Ja Ja Ja music; he later worked with the Sugarcubes and Björk.
(February 2012)
