Chuck Baby, as he's often called on stage,
was born in Gaston, North Carolina in 1935.
The oddest, Go-Go-related thing to happen in America in 1935
was that Porky Pig made his debut.
It's true.
The first major Looney-Tune characters in the short feature
titled, I Haven't Got a Hat.
This is sho' you right and sho' you wrong for two reasons.
In the last 20 years of his life,
Chuck Baby was rarely seen-- this is Chuck Brown.
In DC, they call him Chuck Baby.
He's important because, remember he's the founder,
the blueprint--
was rarely seen without a hat.
In fact, Thomas Sayers Ellis is the only known photo laureate,
and the only photo laureate known
to have taken such a photo.
And that rarity occurred one evening at Joe's Pub
in New York City in 2007.
But no one has seen the photograph,
and TSE never even showed it to Chuck Baby
because Chucky B did not like to be
photographed unless he was wearing one of his signature
hats.
Nor did he like to be photographed smoking.
That day he was doing both.
The late life reinvented Mafioso, godfather of Go-Go,
didn't mind holding a fine, Cuban cigar, posed
for the camera, asked who suggests
the mixture of fine living and power.
But he, too, did not want the youth of the city
thinking it was cool to smoke.
In fact, his persona as the godfather of Go-Go
is a direct rival to the very notion of gangster rap.
One of his great gifts was the way
he could satisfy and balance both local and federal
interests in Washington DC.
Local ambassador and federal folk hero, his mama.
Chuck was country just like the rest
of Real DC, a cool-ass Bama.
In DC, if you don't fit in or if you look different,
we call you a Bama.
And that's just short for Alabama.
It means you're up from the South.
Everybody in DC is a Bama so it's odd
that we call each other that.
So the pronoun "he," instead of "his" works.
His mama played accordion, a little piano, or Chuck
would say, a little piana.
A little piana and blue harmonica.
Man, she could sing.
And she was very religiously inclined,
so much so, her little, "give a fuck, Chuck Baby, don't."
I ought to explain that, sorry.
I know this stuff.
Sometimes the Go-Gos there fights, fist fights break out.
That happens; people smoke and drink and they fight.
And every time the fight breaks out,
the audience starts singing a chant
that goes, (SINGING) Chuck Baby don't give a fuck.
Say what?
Chuck Baby don't give a fuck.
And on the bandstand, Chuck is saying, that ain't true.
You know I love you.
What y'all saying?
And they keep it going, (SINGING)
Chuck Baby don't give a fuck.
Say what?
So the column is fast coming into play.
But in a real way, because Chuck Baby don't give a--
and he made it.
You'll hear the song that he made out of that.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Grew up in the Holy sanctified church.
Chuck left home.
Chuck hobo, Chuck preach, Chuck boxed,
Chuck's went to Lawton penitentiary
all before joining a band, ironically
without a trap drummer.
Think about what Go-Go is, and think
about the fact that Chuck's first band didn't even
have a drummer.
A band called Los Latinos, which he left
to form the Soul Searchers.
And the hidden from hands African-telephone conversation
that exists between Go-Go and Hip Hop.
It is a song called "Ashley's Roachclip" from the LP Salt
of the Earth, not Busting Loose.
Think about that "Ashley's Roachclip," not Busting Loose,
that has become one of Go-Go's most sampled star players.
I would like to add here, out of fact and respect to the members
of the Soul Searchers that "Ashley's Roachclip" was not
written by Chuck Brown.
However, it was written and nuanced
by an albino brother named Lloyd Pinchback, who played saxophone
and flute for the original Soul Searchers,
and who now works in the special collections
section at the Library of Congress,
and continues to play to this day on the local Go-Go scene
with a band known as Proper Utensils.
Yes, there are grown up Go-Go bands,
but the point of "Ashley's Roachclip" is the breakbeat.
And the breakbeat is, in my opinion,
the legal tender of Hip Hop.
Do you hear what I'm saying?
There's a Go-Go song that exists that you probably don't know,
that I think is the legal tender of Hip Hop.
And you've heard it 1,000 times.
But do you know the title "Ashley's Roachclip?"
Probably not, right?
That's how it goes.
And the breakbeat is, in my opinion,
the legal tender of Hip Hop, in the same way that the pocket--
that beat you heard-- is the most important currency
of Go-Go.
Many a Go-Go pocket has become a Hip Hop breakbeat.
Go-Go does the grunt work, and Hip Hop makes it art.
The Soul Searchers were onto something, something
very full and original.
And then something crazy happened.
Chuck Brown heard Grover Washington Junior's
classic song Mr. Magic.
Boom, boom, boom, boom.
Boom, boom, boom.
Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm.
Guitar-- mm, mm, mm.
[MIMICING GUITAR SOUND] Tambourine-- no saxophone--
That beat, that boom-ta, boom, boom--
is a foundation of Go-Go.
And became obsessed with the way it sounded,
the way it was organized, produced,
and most importantly, the beat of it,
the steady pocket supporting the gathering of instruments,
especially the guitar and tambourine.
Mr Magic opened the door for Go-Go
and drummer, Ricky Wellman, who would eventually
leave Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers after Busting Loose
to tour for years as Miles Davis's drummer.
Wellman added the foot and the sock
that Chuck had been having trouble getting
serious drummers to lock into.
No one talks about this, but quite a few drummers
were fired from the Soul Searchers,
or as Chuck liked to say, "son, I'm going to have to miss you."
I love that.
I have so many friends who played for Chuck and they say,
he'd pick up the phone, "hey, Chuck, what's going on?"
"Son, I'm going to have to miss you."
That's so country.
I love that.
For not wanting to play a straight pocket
or any variation of its beat kin all night.
"Ashley's Roachclip."
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Doesn't sound like Go-Go yet, does it?
Doesn't sound like Hip Hop yet.
Sounds like you're driving around the town with just
silk shirt onto your car, leaning,
looking for your lady or your man
or your kids or some poetry books.
Pan wide angle waving at people.
Flute, a flute.
Flute means intellectualism.
Here we go.
Uh!
That tambourine, that church up in their, church.
Now it's summer time.
You're having a picnic with your lady.
Some sushi, some eggs.
But you just got paid.
You're waiting for the Hip Hop breakbeat.
I know you are.
And when you hear it, you got to tell me
what song you know it from.
That's my favorite part.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
A chuckling guitar.
I just sped the blues up.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Peace.
You know it.
Come on now.
It's been in 50 songs.
Made most popular by who?
Eric B and Rakim, "Paid in Full."
Tons of songs.
However, I cannot stress enough the hidden-gem significance
of a song like "Ashley's Roachclip"
from Eric B and Rakim's, "Paid in Full,"
all the way up to J Dilla's "Bass and--" I can't get
internet on here.
You can.
I tried.
I would really love to.
Real quick.
Lovely, Hannah.
So we know the significance of Eric B and Rakim.
We know the significance now in Hip Hop of J Dilla.
Oh, yes.
Sorry.
We know the significance of Eric B and Rakim.
We know the significance of J Dilla.
But I want you to show Dilla's approach
because it's more recent.
It's called "Key and--" I think it's "Key and Bass Duet."
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Whereas Eric B came at it from the breakbeat,
Dilla came through the front door.
The intro.
You missed that change.
Look at that.
Do it again.
That collage.
Up to J Dilla's "Bass and Key Duet."
It has been sampled by the likes of over 50 artists
over several genres, including Moby, OK?
But if "Ashley's Roachclip" is Go-Go's shining gift to Hip
Hop, then Doug E Fresh and Slick Rick's 1985 released "The
Show--" I can't.
If you weren't around in 85, I can't explain to you how huge
that was on the streets.
I mean, when I say "The Show," do we know "The Show?"
OK, now.
Not "La Di Da Di" now, "The Show--" released "The Show"
either saved or destroyed Go-Go.
It certainly transformed the laid back way Go-Go lead
talkers stood still standing behind--
before Doug E Fresh hit "The Show."
This is how Go-Go lead talkers talk.
This is how they did it.
Your mic was on the stand.
You stood up.
I see you back there J.M.W, what kind of shirt is that?
Give the band something.
[LAUGHTER]
But after "The Show," after "The Show," that whole line up--
I'll tell you about it--
came in motion.
Lead talkers went from that to--
that's a whole other part of speech.
Well, they went from noun to verb--
It certainly transformed the laid back way
Go-Go lead talkers stood behind a standing microphone and mic
stand and approached the crowd.
And also opened the door for Go-Go drummers
to move through the third and fourth gears
of the Go-Go pocket with an open-high hat, open high-hat.
Before "The Show," the high-hat remained closed
when it was only used as an occasional mouth, whose
commentary was sliced between beats.
It was the oral moment in the metronomic.
After "The Show," drummers like William "Ju Ju" House--
of EU, and you had Grace Jones.
Grace Jones, "Slave to the Rhythm,"
that's actually a Go-Go song--
fame and Quentin "Footz" Davidson of Rare Essence,
allow their high-hats to talk.
But two cymbal, top lip, bottom lip talk
that added a new currency, which was indeed,
pocket full of coin-like to the beat.
Structurally and stage visually, "The Show"
caused the beginning of the end of the traditional, Go-Go,
linear frontline of horn players who
did dance steps in a tradition of bands like,
the Bar-Kays; Earth, Wind & Fire; and The Commodores,
to name a few.
The days of a James Brown trumpet player,
spinning his horn in unison with Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker,
and St Clair Pinckney side-to-side stage sway were
quickly put to rest by the more open, roaming,
arm waving like some octopus or something--
that's what Slick Rick said on his lecture last album,
waving your arms like it's octopus or something--
of Hip Hop and Go-Go bands as they incorporated more rap
songs into their live shows, also
adopted the footwork of Hip Hop performance, Hip Hop style,
and Hip Hop attitude, including the use
of the n-word, and mad profanity while
free-styling in the pocket.
This is the change from "Busting Loose"
and that pocket post "The Show."