Getting Down to the GoGo Sound. An Interview with Joey Negro.

Getting Down to the GoGo Sound. An Interview with Joey Negro.

23 April, 2012
by: TomArmstrong

Tom Armstrong discusses Washington DC's GoGo scene with top crate digger Joey Negro.

The cluster of influential musical movements which sprung up in the USA during the 1980s can be pretty accurately mapped geographically. For example, in New York they had hip hop, Chicago gave birth to house, and Detroit to techno, while further south, Miami had freestyle. Something that's often overlooked however is Washington DC's GoGo scene. Sitting somewhere between the raw energy of traditional funk, the street sensibilities of the emerging hip hop scene, and the creative musicianship of jazz, GoGo is an almost forgotten, certainly under-appreciated sub-genre of funk, characterised by a continuous hard beat, heavy percussion and a call-and-response vocal structure.

Although the beating heart of the scene was in DC's clubs, where bands would play continuous party jams to frantic crowds, the scene also produced a wave of recorded material from artists like Trouble Funk and the godfather of GoGo, Chuck Brown. With waning popularity and the emergence of new trends however, many of these records became long-forgotten gems lying undiscovered in dusty record shops.

Cue self-confessed “trainspotter record collector” Dave Lee, known to the world as Joey Negro: producer, DJ, label boss and all-round music buff. Lee has recently curated a compilation on Z Records documenting some of the best and most important GoGo music on record. “I've always been a collector of GoGo, I've always found it fascinating,” he tells me on the phone, “and there hasn't been a compilation of GoGo or anything to really highlight that scene for about 20 years. Many of these tracks have never been on CD let alone on iTunes and all of that kind of stuff”.

With Washington DC as its nucleus, GoGo managed to break out and even enjoy some international recognition in its heyday. “There was a big hype in the UK,” Lee remembers. “Back in about 1984, Island Records signed a few GoGo acts, including Trouble Funk, and they really made a big effort to try and break it in the UK. They flew journalists over to go to Washington to the parties, and there was quite a lot about it in the press.” Of the clubs in the UK, he says: “if you were going to somewhere like the WAG club you'd hear GoGo records mixed in with rare groove and early electro or rap. Right up until the early '90s.”

While culturally popular, commercial success never came GoGo's way in the manner of other burgeoning movements of the time. The problem with its sustainability, Lee tells me, was its inability to produce chart hits: “house and hip hop had some monumental hits, records that crossed over into the charts and you just couldn't ignore. There was one [GoGo] track, Little Benny and the Masters, that just scraped in the top 40 but didn't really get any radio play”.

Digging a little deeper however, you find that its influence stretches further than may first be apparent. GoGo formed the basis of the late '80s / early '90s New Jack Swing era, and a number of huge pop hits, most notably Beyonce's 'Crazy in Love', were produced by Washington natives to a backdrop of pounding GoGo beats. 

Over the years, Lee's compilations, including the superb BritFunk and The Soul of Disco, have become staples in the discerning music lover's collection, so I'm interested to tap into his selection methods. “I let my personal taste take a back seat sometimes,” he tells me. “When I'm listening to old records I'm trying to separate my attachment to them, my memories of hearing that record out in a club,” adding finally with a laugh, “some things have dated well and some things haven't!”  

GoGo Get Down is released May 7th on Z Records.

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TomArmstrong