[GOGO MUSIC PLAYING]
(RAPPING) We're going to try something new.
Because we don't know really what to do.
So we're going to try something--"
Lead talker, keyboard, bass drum, verse.
Freestyling in a real dark club on a weekend.
Everybody been to the bar.
This brother's name is Anwan Glover.
He's one of the actors on the TV show The Wire, Slim Charles.
(RAPPING) This year I ain't drink--
I ain't drink no Cristal.
Because they talk about Cristal too much,
so I drink the Dom P and the XO, and the '92.
So all ya'll niggas, I just feel--
No congas yet.
Wait for the congas.
(RAPPING) Listen up.
[INAUDIBLE] for the uptown crew.
Uh, yeah, hey.
Feel it.
This is how we're going to twist to them.
Fuck!
What.
Yeah.
Listen.
I remember back in 1988 when I first stepped on the stage,
I didn't give a fuck about [INAUDIBLE]
rocking the motherfucking 38, but motherfucking slugs
in the gate.
Had to get my own way out.
Never crossed my [INAUDIBLE].
[INAUDIBLE]
No doubt.
Now I got a [INAUDIBLE] for you.
[INAUDIBLE]
So what is a go-go pocket, and why can't anyone else
do it like DC?
And is this fact, the fact of the feel of it,
the homegrown vibe of it, the real reason
why go-go has not, as they say political considerations aside,
gone national?
The two people probably responsible for the pocket
are the drum and the conga player,
and the DC conga players play on a four set.
Two congas and two smaller junior congos, not bongos.
A go-go pocket is a conversation,
a grammar between these two types of drummers.
Here's a quick history lesson on the conga players
who have helped shape and define the deep percussive
fabric of the DC pocket.
As stated earlier, the first recorded in studio pocket
was played by Gregory "Bright Moments"
Gerran on "Bustin' Loose."
Gerran used a two set, and after touring
with the Soul Searchers, split to play with Gil Scott-Heron.
To our knowledge, he has not played go-go since.
While the Soul Searchers were away enjoying the success
of "Bustin' Loose" a young band named Rare Essence,
also known around town as the Baby Soul Searchers,
added the two--
It's true-- They used to open for and copy,
and they actually copied and conquered.
Added two junior congas to their pocket,
and with Tyrone "Jungle Boogie" Williams hitting the skins,
more percussive definition was added
to the basic home base first gear pattern made popular
by "Bustin' Loose."
Milton "Go-Go Mickey" Freeman replaced Jungle Boogie
and continued to expand what could and could not fit
into the pocket.
The Junkyard Band, a group of youngins from the Barry Farms
dwelling in Southeast DC emerged playing buckets,
tin cans, and toy horns, and after appearing in
Def Jam's "Tougher Than Leather" and recording two singles--
"Sardines" and "The Word" for Def Jam Records--
had the nerve to abandon their plastic homemade instruments,
graduating themselves from a pocket to what they
coined as a socket.
So after that, after that the pocket was old folk's business.
Old people in the go-go, Chuck Brown and them,
they danced slow.
They come in the club.
The youngins come in ready to go.
So the pocket wasn't good enough anymore.
So Junkyard Band created something called the socket.
Played by a young fellow named Wink or Winko,
The Junkyard-- the J Y B, Junkyard Band, socket,
and the murder of their drummer Heavy One
constitutes the end of the Golden Age of go-go.
I'm going to let you hear Junkyard on the buckets
and then I'm going to let you hear a Junkyard socket.
It all started 1979.
Two groups of nappy headed dirt poor youngins,
down in the projects, Barry Farms, Southeast Washington DC.
One group, led by none other than himself, The Heavy One.
Another group led by Buggs.
Both groups, playing on boxes, buckets, and can,
didn't know what they were doing.
Just having some fun.
Even the drum set is made of buckets and crates.
[GOGO MUSIC PLAYING]
Come on, Big Daddy.
In 1980, came Derek McCray.
He brought together the two groups, Heavy One's group
and Buggs's group.
He made one group.
They called it Junkyard Band.
They called him Big Daddy.
They took the band out on the streets of DC,
performing all around.
Became a tourist attraction.
Became a commercial attraction, playing on boxes, buckets,
and cans on the streets of DC.
(SINGING) Here's a story about the Junkyard Band
that started four years ago.
We were playing in the alley [INAUDIBLE]
in Southeast Barry Farms.
Southeast Barry Farms.
The Junkyard Band--
They had a Radio Shack Casio.
You can hear it in the background.
[GOGO MUSIC PLAYING]
The public started loving it.
We were finally getting our [INAUDIBLE]..
And when sitting [INAUDIBLE] Foot loose Rob, Little
[INAUDIBLE] and Reeses.
It's mostly chitlin buckets.
[GOGO MUSIC PLAYING] [INAUDIBLE] It's the Junkyard Band!
You feel all right?
This it.
Now imagine that.
Five years later, we grew up.
We listened to hip hop.
Hip hop's everywhere.
We want to be hard.
We want to be tough.
We about to be in high school.
Girls don't like buckets.
The pocket is old.
We got jobs now, fresh gear.
So usually that'd be like, well, do what you want to do.
You're going to suck anyway because you're just some bucket
players.
But these kids took over the city.
[GOGO MUSIC PLAYING]
Give me a socket, [INAUDIBLE].
Whoo!
Right from the old school.
That cowbell.
[INAUDIBLE RAPPING]
Congas.
Lead talk.
What if that's a prosody?
What if that's a rival to iambic pentameter?
[INAUDIBLE RAPPING]
Four-- congas.
Talking that talk.
In a foot.
[INAUDIBLE]
"Bustin' Loose" was both a blessing and a curse,
because it took the Soul Searchers out of DC
for more than a year.
And they returned, they discovered
that their sound had been duplicated
and watered down, musically, for the consumption
of young bodies and young ears.
They heard aspects of themselves everywhere,
in EU, Rare Essence, Trouble, who became Trouble Funk.
Oh.
Yeah.
That's a great song.
Who had become Trouble Funk and who
has signed with Sugarhill Records
and released the now classic hybrid of golden age
go-go meets early rap "Pump Me Up."
Everybody knows that song.
Pump, pump me up.
You got to hear that real quick, hold up.
That's a big deal.
I hated the song, but you know what?
New York-- this is a go-go song that I hated,
but New York, hip hop people loved it.
[GOGO MUSIC PLAYING]
That's a busy pocket, right?
It's not even a pocket.
It becomes what we call crank.
Like, machine like.
The vibraslap.
You hear the timbales going crazy in there.
Very street, right?
Very jungle, actually.
Just in the activity of it.
But check it out.
This is a Sugarhill Records release.
This comes right after "Rapper's Delight."
Pump, pump, pump, pump me up!
Bass.
They actually don't try to rap.
So you know the youngins hated them, if they say--
It's well-organized.
Pump, pump, pump, pump me up!
Like the man with the super S on his cape,
we gonna jump to the funk like we got no way.
Very Sugarhill.
We weren't having that in DC.
They loved it in London.
As well as in all other bands, those bands
were using as opening acts.
Truth be known, the city rejected
Chuck Brown on his return and the future of go-go struggled
for quite a few years on the live circuit until, of course,
he found the perfect studio and live
blend with "it don't mean a thing,
if it ain't got the go-go swing.
It go doo wop, doo wop, doo wop."
Chuck Brown remade Duke Ellington's classic.
And that just took the city back over.
And only he could hear it.
Only he could hear in the jazz licks and scatting riffs
of "Moody's Mood for Love" the rhythm of a famous woodpecker
pecking wood and hidden in Porky Pig's "A-b-b-b-b that's all
folks."
Chuck loved to sample cartoons.
The feeling of a brand new groove.
But go-go's smooth sound of a brand new groove
didn't last long, and the effects of the CIA sponsored
crack epidemic and the influence of gangsta rap
soon took hold of the streets in Washington DC,
and the pocket under attack spoke back,
and more and more homegrown go-go rappers
like Fat Rodney, Vinny D, Rapping Reds, and Stinky Dink
made weekly appearances with specific go-go bands.
And it wasn't all male energy either.
In fact, in 1986 to 1988 Meshell Ndegeocello,
then known as-- we all know her, right?
Then known in DC as Michelle Johnson,
rapped and played bass for Little Benny and the Masters
and released a single titled "Who's
that Knocking at the Door."
It's hard to find that single anywhere other than on wax,
but Ndegeocello did revisit her go-go roots on a CD "Cookie:
The Anthropological Mixtape" with a song
called "Barry Farms," a narrative of experience
over seductive go-go beat that reroutes the usual male energy
by regendering and redefining go-go's
so-called freak-a-deak zone.
It's one of the critiques of go-go
and hip hop is the high masculinity.
But listen to what Michelle--
Right, who's queer, but who came up,
cut her teeth in go-go bands.
The only female musician in those days
did with go-go sound.
The narrative is a bit rated x.
A bit adult, so you know.
[GOGO MUSIC PLAYING]
So go-go music is party music.
He slowed it down because it's love time.
Cuz you know there no love songs in go-go.
Size 'em on up.
[SINGING]
She was about 17.
Just young and fine.
She had the kind of kisses that made you sad.
You never hear women macking on women in go-go songs.
She liked to flirt with me, then act like she didn't know me
when her friends came around.
But I didn't mind.
Because when her friends weren't around,
Shorty and I, we'd hang out real tight; just sit up and talk.
But one night she wanted to see just how far it could go.
Just how far I would go.
She couldn't love me without shame.
She only wanted me for one thing.
But you can teach your boy to do that.
Can you love me without shame?
I need you when I feel pain.
You like ot mess around.
Stop it before we get to the nasty part.
So for a while the pocket struggled
to find new patterns and conversations with itself
to match this newfound hip hop influence boldness.
Michelle represents one aspect of that boldness.
Tupac came to DC and performed with go-go bands.
Scarface of the Ghetto Boyz was a frequent stage presence
at Backyard Band shows.
Biz Marquee and Cut Master Cuvee dropped the single
"To My Boys," A roll call-ish go-go beat dedication
song that pays homage to Rare Essence
by saying the names of go-go members White Boy Funk
and Foote.
While a student at Howard University,
Sean Combs heard go-go but gave up
on it when he was rejected during a dance audition
by Rare Essence.
It's true.
Puffy tried out to be a backup dancer for a go-go band
when he was in college.
And then when they rejected him he turned off
from go-go, and years later when Rare Essence went to New York
to record for Andre Harrell, Puffy
rejected all their singles after he was big.
It was a big deal.
So he put his foot in go-go's ass,
and the street knows him for that.
Years later, the Puffy produced Biggie Style would influence
a whole generation of new go-go rappers, including
Los, of Backyard, who made the song
"Warning" by Biggie a weekly staple at backyard
shows in 1996 and 1999.
I would play it, but we're running out of time.
As the hardening surface of go-go,
fueled by the proximity of Baltimore
and the hit series The Wire, continued
to borrow from hip hop, there was really a go-go love song
until Chuck Brown, in search of a way to again re-establish
his mafioso-like ambassadorship and in a rapidly changing DC,
released the Chucky Thompson produced
"We're About the Business," which
featured a clean and steady and spacious cover of the love
theme from the film The Godfather.
May play that.
Let me try it.
It's the closest go-go has come to a love song.
[GOGO MUSIC PLAYING]
You can see where that's going.
That's important because that's produced by Chucky Thompson,
who was actually a part of--
Puffy didn't realize he had, in his crew,
someone who he had met at Howard,
who was a big Chuck Brown fan.
And he worked with him for years.
So anyway, I can tell you that story.
But blah, blah, blah.
OK. whole gen-- da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
His mafioso ambassadorship like [MUMBLING]..
Thompson, who played congas and keyboards
during the beginning of the bucket age of go-go,
left DC and honed his craft as a member
of Bad Boy Entertainment's hit man team of in-house producers
during the 1990s.
Thompson, who produced that song, right,
Thompson's production of Nas's "One Mic" in 2002
is legendary, as it was conceived
during a short beef between Nas and Jay-Z.
The music rises and calms, rises and calms, on the three,
and "One mic, all I need is one mic."
Rises and calms like the moment before a fight,
the fight itself, and the not so calm afterwards.
The marriage of go-go and hip hop
finally came home in 2007 when Thompson and Chuck Brown
released "Chuck Baby" with Chuck's daughter KK holding
down the hype spot, flowing sort of like Eve, above a bouncing
beat pushed by horns and riddled with the referencing
punctuation of plastic buckets.
So when Chuck turned to Chucky Thompson and said,
give me something new.
Give me something different.
Chucky Thompson turned back to his roots and said, Chuck,
I want you to use the buckets in your song.
And Chuck was like, what?
This is what came.
This is what happened.
Listen underneath.
Maybe he created the sound, but he didn't create the bucket.
[MUSIC - CHUCK BROWN, "CHUCK"]
That's the bucket.
Taking the place of the congas.
Well baby girl K, tell me what cha do.
[INAUDIBLE]
And Chucky B, let them know what we do.
I used to say I would never not in my days,
never change my ways.
Too good at getting away with all them games I played.
Smooth walker, slick talker, anything I did,
get out of a jam quicker than MacGyver, ya dig?
I think I'm sprung now.
I seen a dude up town who makes me want to settle down and have
his son now.
He might be the one now.
I can't explain it myself.
I let my daddy Chuck Brown.
I've been around the world from London to Chicago,
but I ain't never met a girl like you.
Shorty take a look into my eyes.
Said she heard I was a crazy guy.
I hit and run, the Georgie Porgie type.
You like to kiss the girls and make them cry.
I told her, don't believe the hype because I'm cool.
Enough about me.
Let's talk about you.
I want to get to know you and make you my boo.
It's all on you--
Here we go!
Chuck baby, don't give a what.
And she said.
Chuck baby don't give a what.
And he said.
Chuck baby don't give a what.
And they said.
Chuck baby don't give a what.
And you said.
Chuck baby don't give a what.
That ain't true.
Chuck baby don't give a what.
I love all of you.
Chuck baby don't give a what.
You know what I do.
Chuck baby don't give a what.
So I shoot a couple of jokes.
He laughing, he giggling.
Tell by the look in his eyes, he know I'm feeling him.
So that's the height.
That's the last amazing Chuck Brown
song before his death, produced for him and Chucky Thompson.
I'm looking at the time.
So I'm going to kind of stop right there.
But don't go.
We're going to do Q&A. I'm going to read a poem.