Go-Go...To Die or Not to Die?

Last Chance to go Mainstream

By Von Black

In a small town outside of Boise, Idaho, Trevor Macklin flips through his CD collection and comes across a Backyard recording that he bought online from GoGoRadio's music store. Trevor went to school with a kid from the Washington D.C. area who had nothing but Go-Go CD's in his collection besides Notorious B.I.G., Tupac, Beanie Sigel and Lil Kim. "But he mostly listened to Backyard. He loved Big G to death. Everything else was straight Go-Go," Trevor added. Trevor recalls that Briscoe used to beg his friends from back home to bring a band from D.C. to play out there. He said, "Briscoe swore the CD was no comparison to the live performance." And he was right. If you go experience a Go-Go in person, you will find that your favorite Go-Go songs sound 10 times better live and in person.

Trevor and Briscoe went to school at Boise State, and Briscoe had a good portion of the campus frequently listening to various bands' recordings sent to him from back home. When we asked Trevor which band was his favorite, he couldn't really say, but did admit, "I see why Briscoe called Chuck Brown the Godfather of Go-Go. I can play his CD anytime, even if I have my girlfriend, who doesn't' like Go-Go, in the car with me. She never asks for me to change the music. I don't play it long because I prefer hip hop, but I like to mix it up."

There are people like Trevor all over the world. Go-Go is not their preference over all other genres of music, but they really like its unique sound. It seems that only in D.C. will you find a dense concentration of people who place this music at the top of their playlist. Others love it, but tend to keep it to themselves. This tendency keeps Go-Go somewhat obscure.

Trouble Funk, Chuck Brown, Experience Unlimited, and Junkyard broke through the bounds of obscurity over the years, but neither was able to catapult Go-Go into the mainstream. Chuck Brown, with his Grammy nomination came as close as you can get, but no cigar. Rare Essence on the other hand was able to capture the streets around the world, becoming known as the wickedest band alive, but a lack luster performance behind Ludacris on the Jay Leno show and a legal battle with the rapper Jay-Z may have killed their momentum, not to mention the loss of several members of the band. If none of that is the blame, then certainly their mainstream death stroke came from the studio music they recorded under Uptown Records. It didn't go over well with the fans. Studio Go-Go is like a million times worse than a studio gangster, and it cost them. R.E. never returned to form. However, they are still performing and giving a hot show.

Unfortunately, hardcore Go-Go has proven to be limited to the street market, so bands like Backyard and Junkyard have had some success with Junkyard being favored in clubs as far as Amsterdam but never get the recognition of greatness that they deserve. D.C. has put their best feet forward, yet the Go-Go industry hasn't grown into being a part of what is known outside of D.C. as the "Music Industry". No one would argue with the fact that Chuck Brown was the best overall talent ever to come out of the Go-Go Industry. So, if Chuck couldn't do it, can anybody?!

Sugar Bear was probably the hardest working man in Go-Go; a performer that everybody really loves, but really, what is he doing for Go-Go nowadays? He's still performing, and on October 19th and November 9th he and E.U. will be closing behind Wisdom Speeks, but will Sugar Bear re-kindle his fire and creative juices to lead Go-Go into the "Music Industry Promise Land"? Or, what about D. Floyd, who will be celebrating 30 years of the most explosive performances known to man (taking nothing away from the King of Crank, Buggs of Junkyard). Donnell turns a party into a 'Pea Aye Are Tea Why!!!' And, did I mention he's a prolific songwriter with a library about as long as Georgia Avenue? Will the Donnell re-emerge to put Go-Go on his back and lead it out of the abyss of oblivion since Chuck's death? He certainly has the talent and charisma.

Meanwhile, there are forces trying to throw dirt on Go-Go as brought out by Ronald Moten, and if enough people don't get behind his movement, Go-Go will be phased out by non-native Washingtonians that call the music "heavy percussion music" and are trying to outright ban the beloved home-grown treasure. They won't be able to ban it, but they will greatly limit the musicians from performing the crank that makes 'Go-Go' Go-Go.

There are at least 16 other bands on the horizon that can reasonably be considered in this conversation. Ten of them put on quite a show at the Howard Theatre in September 2013, while the other six, more established bands were either performing elsewhere or in the crowd checking out the new generation of bands poised to step into the driver's seat. But, right now one of these 16 bands affords our considerable attention...Wisdom Speeks.

When you hear the name Wisdom Speeks, you think of spoken word or something like that, when in actuality it is a man with the most well composed band in the city playing behind him. The seamless flow in which this band is able to transition from one song to another is like nothing you've ever witnessed, and their ability to keep a crowd of people on their feet dancing and swaying to music that they have never heard before is quite notable too.

Simply put, Wisdom Speeks has what it takes to put Go-Go in the global spotlight and keep it there. Their sound is big and extremely entertaining. Their music is original, sometimes sounding like everything but Go-Go while at the same time cranking like a mother's father. That's not to say that Wisdom Speeks Band and Show is Go-Go's only hope at this stage in the game, but they're definitely at the tip of the spear. In the next article we'll discuss more about Wisdom Speeks and provide a full review on their latest album release. We'll cover why their entire following is saying, "Wait till the world gets a load of this!"

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