The History of Go-Go: A 6-Step Guide to the Essentials - Washingtonian (2024)

For decades, go-go music has been the District’s most powerful homegrown cultural creation. But lately, its unique pulse has served as a flashpoint as much as a soundtrack. After a neighbor in a luxury building complained about go-go recordings playing outside a Shaw cell-phone store, the #DontMuteDC movement was born—an effort to save not only the beat of black Washington but also the people and places at the heart of it. As the DC Council considers a bill to make go-go the city’s official music, here’s a brief, non-comprehensive look at some of the music and moments that have shaped the genre over its nearly 50-year history.

The live experience is the heart of go-go, but there are plenty of great recordings, too. We asked a couple of experts for their picks. Nico “the GoGo-Ologist” Hobson, who runs Go-Go Radio Live, shared his favorite PA tapes, which are the live recordings that have long chronicled the scene. Kevin “Kato” Hammond, who foundedTake Me Out to the Go-Gomagazine and has played guitar in several go-go bands, lists his picks for studio tracks.

Nico the GoGo-Ologist’s PA Picks (in chronological order)

Trouble Funk, 1981, Duval High School

“Trouble was the first band I fell in love with—the heavy drums were perfect for a kid to jump around and bounce to.”

Rare Essence, 1983, Live at Anacostia Park

“This is my favorite tape—it en­compasses every aspect of go-go you need to know to understand it. This is a boom-box recording, so you can really feel the crowd—the most important aspect of go-go.”

Northeast Groovers, 5/30/93, Wilmer’s Park

“The band [arrived onstage in] a helicopter—it was revolutionary. They were saying, ‘We’re here to stay.’ And they cranked out!”

TCB, 8/2/2002, Hot Shoppes

“They are the band to change go-go, to put go-go where it’s at now. Not that this particular show did that, but this put them on the map. They influenced all of the younger bands of today.”

Junkyard Band, 2/22/19, Nipsey’s

“This is the crankingest I’ve heard in a minute. Junkyard is just pure go-go. They’re older now, but they still play like they played when they were young.”

Kevin “Kato” Hammond’s Classic Singles (in chronological order)

“E Flat Boogie” by Trouble Funk (1980)

“It’s almost like a book—the beginning, a rise in action, the climax, the fall in action, an end.”

“Knock Him Out, Sugar Ray” by E.U. (1980)

This bass-heavy track packs a punch—which makes sense given that it’s about the superstar Washington-area boxer.

“Mer-Sa-Dees” by Little Benny & the Masters (1988)

“This was before I was playing [guitar] for Benny. The singing is phenomenal.”

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Four of the most legendary (now-shuttered) places to see go-go bands.

1. Metro Club

2335 Bladensburg Rd., NE

Also operated as Deno’s and as Breeze’s-Deno’s Metro Club. Owner Daniel “Hollywood Breeze” Clayton hosted still-talked-about shows by Rare Essence, Backyard Band, and others.

2. Classics

4591 Allentown Rd., Suitland

The Maryland nightclub was also a popular venue for male strip shows, so it makes sense that it helped usher in the ultra-smooth, R&B-heavy “grown and sexy” style of go-go in the late ’90s and early ’00s.

3. East Side

1824 Half St., SW

Before Nationals Park came along, the East Side was one of this area’s main attractions, especially with its high-end sound system and spacious dance floor.

4. Club U

Frank D. Reeves Municipal Center, 14th and U sts., NW

Cultural scholar and activist Natalie Hopkinson devotes an entire chapter of her bookGo-Go Liveto this DC-government cafeteria by day, concert venue by night.

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Need more proof that go-go cannot be erased? Check out the incredible runs of these stalwarts. Some have seen their lineups change or gone on hiatus, but these seven groups have long kept go-go going.

Chuck Brown: Early ’70s (after previously playing other types of music) to 2012
Rare Essence: Late ’70s to present
Experience Unlimited: Late ’70s to present
Trouble Funk: Late ’70s to present
Junkyard Band: 1980 to present
Northeast Groovers, Late ’80s to present
Backyard Band, early ’90s to present

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The DC Public Library held a go-go book club this summer, with these titles. (Also try the novelLove-n-GoGoby Michelle Blackwell.)

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	The Beat: Go-Go Music From Washington, D.C.by Kip Lornell and Charles C. Stephenson Jr.	The Go-Go bible: an exhaustive history that even the most die-hard fans will learn from.
	Take Me Out to the Go-Goby Kato Hammond.	One of go-go’s most knowledgeable insiders tells stories from his own life and, in the aggregate, the story of go-go.
	Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate Cityby Natalie Hopkinson	This cultural history details go-go’s inextricable link to the history of black DC and explains how the music—and the District natives who love and perform it—has endured amid generations of change.

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From the ’80s through the ’90s, brightly colored posters advertising go-go shows were stapled to telephone poles all across the region. Made by a Baltimore outfit called the Globe Poster Printing Corporation, they now fetch hundreds of dollars online and have hung in museums. We asked Rare Essence founding member Andre Johnson to walk us through one of its classic signs.

1. Celebrity Hall (also called the Black Hole at a different point in its life) was a big destination in the late ’80s.

2. The Inner City Groovers was one of the band’s many nicknames, along with RE, Essence, and the Wickedest Band Alive.

3. “We’ve been fortunate enough that people know us just by the logo—they don’t even need to see a name,” says Johnson. “One guy told us that our logo was like the Nike swoosh: As soon as you see it, you know what it is.”

4. Globe closed in 2010, but its archive and printing press were acquired by the Maryland Institute College of Art, which still uses the equipment to make new posters.

5. Intact vintage Globe posters are relatively rare, especially because promoters often cut them into pieces after posting them. “They were sliced so people wouldn’t take them down” before the event, says Johnson.

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Timeline credits:Photograph of Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty; Kidd Courtesy of Corie Kidd; School Daze by Everett Collection/Alamy; Be’La Dona by Memories are Worth Keeping Photography; Little Benny by Thomas Sayers Ellis; Chuck Brown by Afro Newspaper/Gado/Getty; Moechella by Jada Imani M; Henson and Hall by Chris Pizzello/AP Images.

This article appears in theSeptember 2019 issueofWashingtonian.