COMIN' FROM WHERE I'M FROM
Thirty years after Chuck Brown's success, a new
crop of D.C. artists may (finally) take go-go global.
By JANELLE HARRIS
Published: March 24, 2008
Mambo Sauce lead vocalist Alfred "Black Boo" Duncan and Yandy Brown crank it up at The 8x10 in Baltimore. (Sam Friedman)
Welcome to D.C., the nation's capital. Chocolate City is full of contradictions - privileged elitists with old money and even older political power craft their self-serving agendas in one quadrant, and working-class folks faithfully sweat, pray and scratch lotto tickets in the other three. Monuments in touristy northwest leave camera-toting foreigners awestruck, while makeshift memorials in southeast mark the places where street violence claimed yet another life. It's a serious city; it's a happy city.
From this environment comes go-go, the greatest musical movement you've probably never heard of - at least, not by name. 2008 marks exactly three decades since Chuck Brown, the genre's undisputed godfather, ascended to the #1 spot on the Billboard R&B charts with "Bustin Loose." That kind of recognition could have sparked national go-go mania. Instead, the music still sticks close to home, adored by Washingtonians but virtually unheard of by folks beyond the Mason-Dixon line.
 As hip-hop gives everyone emcee dreams and music instruction is snatched out of public schools, go-go has managed to preserve actual musicianship. Driven by intrinsic Africanisms like call and response and heavy percussion, go-go blends bass and snare drums, congas, timbales, and even cowbells, into one massive, danceable rhythm. If you've bounced to Beyonce's "Crazy in Love," sang along with Amerie's "1 Thing" or did the kick step to "Rollin' With Kid 'n' Play," you know a little somethin' somethin' about the sound. But, those are only pop samplings of the real vibe, as authentic to the funkiness of go-go bands like the Northeast Groovers as Shaggy is to real reggae. One song can last for 15 minutes, but time is never a factor for adoring fans. The meanest looking thugs dance; the prettiest girls sweat their hair out. When it comes to the beat, it seems that everyone throws aside their pretensions. Watching the audience respond to the chants of the vocalists, one thing is certain: there's life in the music.
"The go-go crowd here is so big that, a lot of times, bands that are successful get content. It kind of makes them feel like they're already stars, when really they're just local stars. So, they never even try to attain anything else," says Christian "Lil' Chris" Wright, keyboardist for Mambo Sauce, one of the District's newer bands. "That's what helps us do what we're doing because we're not stuck in that same frame of mind."
Theirs is the next generation of go-go. New school bands like Mambo Sauce, TCB, and the Publicity Band are quickly expanding on the legacy built by bona fide legends who've taken the music across state lines like the Backyard Band, Rare Essence and Chuck Brown. Aside from being a hero throughout the metro area, Brown has enjoyed considerable crossover success. His name may only elicit a glimmer of recognition to someone in New York or Chicago, but rattle off a list of his biggest hits - "I Need Some Money," "Go-Go Swing," "Run Joe" and, of course, "Bustin' Loose" - and the light bulb usually goes off. His success has been something few, if any, have been able to recreate. But, times are steadily changing. In January, Mambo Sauce entered Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart at #95 with "Welcome to D.C.," the same chart pioneered by Brown in 1978 before any of the band's seven members were even born.
>>NEXT: Isn't go-go just a bunch of cover songs?
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