As I spend the day reading posts on Facebook and Twitter, I start to think about how technology has changed the way that we are able to communicate and how different the opportunities and responsibilities are today that journalists have. When I first started writing in 1988-89, I had to write out a story, then type it on a typewriter or word processor and then turn it in for editing. I used a lot of white out back then!
This reflecting today prompted me to look back at all of my old articles that I had written for other publications such as Straight From the Street, RapMasters, Word Up! and Dance Music Authority to name just a few. As a writer based out of the Washington, DC area, it was always my goal to write about DC’s homegrown music, Go-Go, which at the time did not have much of a national audience although it did garner some attention by too few prominent record labels. If memory serves me right, Def Jam, Island and Polygram may have been the only ones, that is until Spike Lee released the movie “School Daze” and “Da Butt” by Experience Unlimited was unleashed on the nation prompting a dance craze and renewed interest in Go-Go.
The following story is a repost of a story that appeared in Word Up! Magazine in probably 1993 or 1994, but reading back through it, it just goes to show that the more things change, the more they stay the same… Now, take yourself back to 1994 and enjoy..
This article was entitled “The New Face of Go-Go Music” and was Da Flavas Spotlight story. I wrote:
Go-Go has been a very profitable business for Washington, DC, the music securing national as well as international acclaim providing a source of employment for many people. The major players, who have been in the Go-Go industry for over a decade, enjoy the success of playing an average of four nights a week all year, and that’s basically in the Washington metro area and on the black college circuit. It is an extremely profitable facet of the music industry.
Despite being some of the hardest working musicians in the music business, however, Go-Go artists aren’t being recognized as they should. Reason include not having support from the major labels (the bands basically have formed their own independent labels), the existence of only one distribution company to distribute the product and the threat of violence that has, to a degree, wrongly been associated with Go-Go.
This heavily percussive call-and-response music, which was created by Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers, has been around for at least a decade and a half. Some hip-hop artists such as Doug E. Fresh (I’m Getting’ Ready”), Salt N Pepa (“Shake Your Thang”) as well as Questionmark Asylum (“Love, Peace and Soul”) have teamed up with Go-Go artists and have enjoyed the success of these collaborations. Salt N Pepa has even employed an all-female Go-Go band, Pleasure, as their touring band.
But, this fall (the fall of 1994), a lot will be changing. Not only will there be new product from the bands, but Go-Go itself will have a “new attitude” according to members of the various groups. Key people in the industry, from managers to promoters to club owners, have been meeting to change the climate. But the music will still be suffused with the same raw beats that the fans love and the bands claim as their roots.
Warren “Pooh” Weems, background vocalist for the Junkyard Band, who are putting out new product and displaying that old Junk feeling with the buckets, sums it up concisely when he explains, “We (Junkyard) are out for whatever. Everybody’s trying to pull together and stick together, then get love with the band members and promoters, then the public and our friends. You can’t just come to shows with people who may not even have the $10 or $15 to get into the show and (have to) borrow it. Why would you go to a place and pay all your money to have fun and then you get into a fight and it’s all over?”
Those who are not as familiar with Go-Go may think that it is all the same, but it’s not. Like hip-hop, Go-Go has various styles and bands coming out in their own unique way. According to Lorenzo, keyboardist for the Huck-A-Bucks, one of the newer bands on the scene that has a pretty clean vibe, “a lot of fans comment that they were surprised that a band could come out without profanity and make it really work.”
The group, who released Chronic Breakdown, consists of eight members ranging in age from 16 to 20. Rob “RJ” Folson, keyboardist, explains that age has to do with the name. “Huck-A-Buck is a slang term from the old school meaning ‘young buck’. We use a lot of funk in our grooves and a lot of jazzy type stuff. We do some steppin’ as well as playin’ music. It’s kinda hard to do your dance steps and have your nice funky groove going at the same time. You’ve gotta really work at that.”
Northeast Groovers, a band surrounded by controversy, has hits and radio success as well. “Since we brought out a new sound and created a more national type of Go-Go sound, we started being looked at more, and people just looked for little things to critique,” states Lamont “Mo” Perkins. As far as Northeast Groovers style, he continues, “We add more dimension to Go-Go as far as an R&B flavor. It’s a Go-Go flavor, but we put more music and more singing on top of it. That’s what makes us different. We don’t just beat all night.”
The Backyard Band, a 10-member group from Northwest Washington, has a self produced album which is scheduled for release this fall. Carlos claims, “Basically, we party up for the fellas. It’s hardcore.”
Weensey quickly interjects, “We do a little something for the olders, you know, like mothers and fathers so they can hear us. We go back in time.”
Hot Sauce maintains, “We try to put out positive messages.”
Proper Utensils, which has an all-star veteran cast including James Funk, Little Benny, Roy Battle, Mike Hughes and Mike Muse are on the verge of releasing a hot double-CD set. One disc will be live and the other will be studio cuts.
And then there is Chuck…Brown, that is. After returning from touring Japan, Chuck will be working on a gospel album. He recently produced and appears on Questionmark Asylum’s “Love, Peace and Soul”, a strong hit which received favorable response.
With every band having released something new for the fall, Go-Go has remained a viable art form which broadened its horizons as a result of the new, more supportive climate for the music. Like rap, it has survived a history of misunderstanding and media snobbery that accompanied its arrival to show that as a grassroots art form, it is here to stay.
And 18 years after this article was first released, the music still survives…
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