1 City, 1 Sound, 1 Movement

While the participation by females in Go-Go is the exception, not the rule, Pleasure Band has been a mainstay for years. Emerging onto the scene in 1988, under the guidance of long time Go-Go circuit staple, Charlie Fenwick, Pleasure was the very first all female Go-Go Band. As an award winning group, Pleasure gained national attention as the touring band for Salt n Pepa in the 90’s and most certainly set the landscape for other females to join not only in Go-Go, but in the music industry as a whole.

Having toured extensively throughout the nation, Pleasure has graced the stage of such prestigious venues as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. The contribution to 1 City, 1 Sound, 1 Movement , “Do Me”, will illustrate what these ladies are made of. Pleasure Band, the sweethearts of the Go-Go industry, may be an all female band, but they can certainly hold their own with the fellas.

The name Jas. Funk, is synonymous with music in Washington, DC. James “Funk” Thomas is held in the highest esteem on par with legends such as Chuck Brown and Benny Anthony “Little Benny” Harley, both of whom Funk has worked with. Jas. Funk’s career has spanned decades.As the son of the first female manager in Go-Go, Ms. Annie Mack, and the older brother of Rare Essence founder, Quentin “Footz” Davidson, Jas. Funk was around music his entire life. But Funk’s story is different. Besides being an Icon on stage performing as lead talker with Rare Essence, Proper Utensils or Chuck Brown, Jas. Funk is a legend behind the turntables as well. With an affection for the tried and true R&B music and the Blues of the 60’s and 70’s, Funk is co-host with Captain Fly of the Saturday Morning Old School House Party on 89.3 FM, WPFW where he has a legion of loyal listeners.

As a youngster, James Funk would sneak out of the house to go see Chuck Brown and other musical groups in clubs throughout the city as DC was a very musical town during that time. He studied the music as well as the crowd. It was then that a DJ was born. DJing between sets of the Soul Searchers, Funk was encouraged by Brown, himself, to start a Go-Go band. Funk spoke to his brother Footz, who along with three friends had formed the Young Dynamos, a group playing mostly R&B. It was soon after that, the Young Dynamos then became the legendary Rare Essence.

The sound and style of the music of Rare Essence is defined by the exposure that Thomas and his brother, Davidson, were exposed to as children. Thomas details, “Rare Essence came up in an era where I came up, right after big bands. I was the oldest. By my brother being in the house, there was always music in the house. There was always a band around our house. So we came up with bands, vocal groups, doo wop groups, funk bands, big bands, so all of that kind of music ebbs through our career- you can hear the different genres of the different music- blues, all that.”

James Funk was instrumental in the development of Rare Essence as they developed their own style and enjoyed success with “Body Moves”, “Roll Call” and “One on One” among other hits over the years. Funk later joined Proper Utensils and had a major hit with “Rumpshaker”.

Contributing to the 1 City, 1 Sound, 1 Movement soundtrack, James Funk has joined with former Rare Essence member David “32” Ellis Sr. on the track “1-4 (We Love That….!).” Whether on stage, on the radio, or on the wheels of steel, there is no doubt that James Funk will continue to maintain his legendary status for many more decades.

And out of the nation’s capital emerged DJ Dirty Rico. Raised on the streets of a city where the hustle and bustle creates melodic sounds, Rico was destined to fall in love with music at an early age. Fresh out of high school and armed with a passion, Dirty Rico began to pursue any type of job that would provide him with the exposure and experience in the music industry that he longed for. He soon began arranging sound equipment for local bands and, while attending Howard University, began DJ’ing in the Washington Metropolitan area’s hottest nightclubs.

In 1991, DJ Rico took his career to the next level when he became a part-time DJ/Mixer at WPGC 95.5. Under the influence of radio greats, such as the legendary Donnie Simpson, Rico’s presence at the station grew as he became one of Washington DC’s most influential DJ’s, on-air personalities and even an assistant producer for Simpson’s show.

There is not a community within earshot of WPGC that DJ Rico has not touched in one way or another. His passion as a community activist has enhanced his reputation with the youth as a mentor and a role model who speaks on the importance of education and self respect. Dirty Rico is also well known for the experience that he offers party-goers while he not only enjoys the music that he plays but has a unique way of keeping the dance floor packed. This has caused his followers to deem him “The Noisemaker”.

After 19 years of service with WPGC, DJ Dirty Rico has taken his passion and loyal listeners to an online venture, GoGoRadio.com, where he has much more creative control. Within this platform, Rico has the freedom and ability to speak from the heart thus taking him to an even higher level reaching out to more fans.

DJ Dirty Rico is featured on the soundtrack to the documentary 1 City, 1 Sound, 1 Movement on the track “Congas vs. Timbales, hosted by DJ Dirty Rico featuring Bojack and Go-Go Mickey.

With the nation embroiled in such difficult times, music is especially key in bringing people, communities and even the country together. Dirty Rico is ready to make it a “Noisemaker Nation” and with the loyal following he has, we may soon see “In Noise We Trust”.

Garvey got his name from a friend who added “Garvey” to his first name Marcus and as a tribute to his first release “The Chosen One”, Garvey the Chosen One was aptly named. Having released 11 cds since 2004, he knows firsthand that hard work and dedication pay off. Sharing the stage with such greats as Young Jeezy, Fabolous and Soulja Boy, he credits Big G, Carlos (of Backyard Band) and Chuck Brown with showing him the path to success. “Big G was the first one who really put me on the radio. I have been doing the intro for his radio show for 5 years.”

“The market in Washington DC is different than any other market. It’s starting to build so much. I’ve been through a lot of stuff in my life and music is what took me out of the street. It’s about working hard. You have to have a good work ethic to be successful in life. The newer fans now appreciate my work ethic. As a matter of fact, we put the CD ‘Hard Hat Area’ in Downtown Locker Room stores and it outsold Mariah Carey. ”

Garvey elaborates, “ You have to put the work in. I have a passion for the whole industry. DC can do it like Atlanta and New York and I want our people to see that we can do it. People have been stealing Go-Go for so long that it’s time for our own people to use it. Take the Go-Go and mix it with Hip Hop.”

And when it comes to the actual business side of it all, he adds, “It’s one thing to talk about the streets in your music, but you can’t apply that to your business. It scares a lot of executives away. They think ‘If I put a million into you, how do I know that you are not going to do something wrong?’ and you just can’t mix street and business. I like to watch all of the successful people and they know you can’t have that street mentality when you’re doing business. I always try to set a good example of how to carry yourself in this business.”

Following Hard Hat Area Volume 1 with the impending release of his latest CD, The Hottest Winter Ever, Garvey’s goal is to release music that lasts forever. “For example, Tupac, I could go and listen to his very first album that he ever put out and it would sound as good as it did back then. None of his music is disposable. We don’t get that too much anymore with music. It is so important to be yourself in your music. People have to buy into me, not buy into me trying to rap like Jay Z. They already have Jay Z.”

Garvey, who was asked by Shorty Corleone to appear on a track, “Work Dat”, with Sugar Bear of EU for the latest soundtrack coming out to support the documentary entitled 1 City 1 Sound 1 Movement, was “Astounded. I was a baby, but I know what Sugar Bear has done. It’s a good feeling to know that I have done a record with Sugar Bear.”

This 27 year old father of 16 month old, McKenzie, shares, “I want her to be proud of her dad.” He is certainly giving her a lot to be proud of, adding, “I haven’t even done my best work yet.”

Producer, Composer, Musician and DJ are a few of the hats that Rico Anderson wears. A prodigy who has come of age, he was born and raised in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

While in high school, a chance meeting with New Edition/BBD member Michael Bivins started Rico on his professional journey in the world of entertainment.

Anderson moved to Los Angeles, CA and joined Bivins’ label, BIV/10 Records, which had a distribution deal with Motown. As a staff writer and producer, he produced several hits for the label’s artists who included Boys II Men and Bell Biv Devoe.

By this time Anderson had become a well credited talent in the music industry. From Los Angeles to New York City, artists from both coasts sought his production skills including Fat Joe on the Rucker Park Access 155th Street DVD Soundtrack. Anderson continued churning out hits by producing hometown R&B vixen Mya’s hit song “Free” and furthered his career by producing mega super star Will Smith’s single “How Da Beat Goes”.

In early 2008, Anderson relocated to Washington, D.C. to establish the independent record label Triple Team Entertainment, LLC. He then produced the mix CD, This Is How I Feel about Hip-Hop, featuring Fly Byrd, Bee Bop, and Tre from UCB Band. Anderson followed the success of this project by releasing his next mix CD, Warning Shot with Triple Team Entertainment’s newly signed artist, Garvey “The Chosen One”.

In 2009, Triple Team Entertainment’s first retail distributed album by Garvey “The Chosen One” entitled Hard Hat Area was released. The single “Lock It Down” was critically acclaimed and on Dec. 5, 2009 Junior-Middle weight boxing champion of the world Paul Williams used “Lock It Down” to enter the ring and defeat Martinez live on HBO Sports in front of 20 million viewers.

Anderson chose to expose some of the hottest rappers of Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia (DMV Area) in 2010. This put local artists next to national artists on his mix CD entitled A-Game Vol.1 following with the release of Wheel of Fortune, a mix CD featuring Garvey “the Chosen One”.

Most recently, Anderson has lent his genius mixing skills to the soundtrack for the upcoming documentary 1 City 1 Sound 1 Movement.

Like King Midas, Anderson has proven that whether in LA, New York or DC, anything he touches will turn to gold.

David “32” Ellis, Sr. first burst onto the DC music scene in 1980 as one of the original members of the Junkyard Band. With most of the members under thirteen and hailing from the rough Barry Farms Housing Project in Southeast Washington, DC, these young men had no money for instruments. Being entrepreneurial, they reached out for plastic buckets and horns and any other “throwaway” item that would make music. This creativity paid off for Ellis and the band as Junkyard was signed to a record deal with Def Jam and had appearances in two films, D.C. Cab, which starred 80’s icon, Mr. T and “Tougher than Leather” starring the legendary Run-DMC.

Under Def Jam, Junkyard’s “Sardines” and “The Word” were released. “Sardines” appeared on the Def Jam 25th Anniversary CD set and has also been named Best Go-Go Song ever. This affiliation with Def Jam afforded Ellis and his band mates to play the legendary Apollo Theater and tour the nation opening for bands such as Guy, Salt n Pepa and many others.

After nearly 20 years, Ellis left the Junkyard Band to pursue opportunities with Northeast Groovers, who, at the time, was one of the most sought after bands as they played shows nearly every night of the week. Performing with Northeast Groovers gave Ellis the opportunity to fine tune his vocal skills to perfection before he left to join Rare Essence, dubbed “The Wickedest Band Alive”.

Launching a solo career in 2008, Ellis released his highly anticipated debut album 32nd Street, which featured the single “On a Hunnit” which enjoyed radio success locally. The second single “Let the Lil Girl Dance” also enjoyed local radio play. The warm reception of these two singles earned Ellis status as Featured Artist of the Week for local radio station WPGC.

As a solo performer, Ellis has opened up for quite a few national acts including Nas. Adding songwriter to the list of accomplishments, the talented Ellis not only wrote every song on his debut album, but followed that trend with the release of his sophomore album 31 + Tax which was released in 2009.

Ellis most recently appears on the soundtrack to the documentary 1 City, 1 Sound, 1 Movement, where he is reunited with former Rare Essence powerhouse, James Funk. Their contribution to the project is a single, “1-4 (We Love That….!)”

While continuing to pursue his solo career, Ellis has rejoined with Northeast Groovers as the lead rapper and 2nd mic, simultaneously, a process that has never been done before in the long history of Go-Go. He is also currently writing songs for other artists as well as co-hosting an internet radio show on GoGoradio.com from 1pm- 5pm Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. His affiliation with the various bands as well as his solo career, has earned Ellis and his co-hosts 4 million listeners across the globe.

As one of the most sought after percussionists in the DC music scene, Eric “Bojack” Butcher has spent over 30 years in the game. In this span, he has played with such legendary bands as Little Benny and the Masters, Junkyard Band, Class Band, AM/FM and Rare Essence, with whom he currently plays.

At the tender age of eight, Butcher took some old paint buckets and formed the group Trash Connection, which is where he started to perfect his craft. He then was introduced to the congas and then as his talent progressed, Butcher placed his focus on the timbales and the roto tom. He joined Junkyard Band and enjoyed his first taste of national success. Junkyard was signed to Def Jam at the time and had two hit singles with “Sardines” and “The Word”.

Butcher went on to join Rare Essence in the early 1990’s and, somewhat of an experimentalist, wanted to add something to the traditional realm of percussion in Go-Go. He chose to spotlight the use of timbales to add a more pronounced Latin percussion flavor to the heavily percussive feel that Go-Go is known for. By adopting this method, Butcher was able to enhance the Latin sound that the Godfather of Go Go, Chuck Brown, brought from his days with Los Latinos.

While with Rare Essence, he enjoyed success with “Overnight Scenario”, which was liberally sampled by Jay-Z for his song “Do it Again (Put Ya Hands Up)”, and two notable singles “Body Snatchers” and “Get Your Freak On”, which both charted on the Billboard Top 100.

As a co-founder of both 911 and Familiar Faces with Rare Essence band mates, Donnell Floyd and Derek Paige, Butcher and 911 gained notoriety with the hit “Brown and White”.

For the soundtrack to 1 City 1 Sound 1 Movement, Butcher collaborated with Rare Essence band mates Charles “Shorty Corleone” Garris and Milton “Go Go Mickey” Freeman on the highly anticipated track “The Congos vs. Timbales”.

There is no doubt that for the foreseeable future, Go-Go will most definitely benefit from Butcher’s contributions as a trendsetter on the DC music scene.