Go-Go: The D.C. Sound Finally Gets Its Documentary
Set to air on TV One this Sunday, just in time to close Black Music Month, writer Bianca Gregg sat down with Howard University Professor and Culturalist Dr. Natalie Hopkinson about the history of Go-Go Music, being featured in the documentary, and the culture.
On Sunday, TV One will air their documentary “The Beat Don’t Stop” which focuses on the origins and legacy of Go-Go Music in the Washington D.C. area.
With influences of Funk, Dance, and Afro-Latin beats, Go-Go has been coined the music of the people. As with Hip-Hop, it’s became a tool to voice social stances and tell the stories of the community at large. As a result, Go-Go has been at the center of gentrification, controversy and targeting by the police while at the same time, flourishing as an art form with the people.
BALDWIN had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Natalie Hopkinson who will be featured in the documentary. Dr. Hopkinson is a music historian and author of Go-Go Live: The Musical Life & Death of a Chocolate City.
BG: What compelled you to participate in the ‘Beat Don’t Stop’ documentary?
DR. NATALIE HOPKINSON: Over the years since I’ve been writing about Go-Go music, which has been for about 20 years now — a lot of people have tried to start documentaries and I always tried to help because I’m happy when people are interested in the topic.
However typically, the documentaries never get finished and TV One being a Black-owned station, invested their resources in completing this documentary and I’m happy that it will actually see the light of day.
BG: As an academic and writer, what attracted you to this specific genre of music?
DR. NATALIE HOPKINSON: I was first attracted to it while I was a Washington Post reporter and I covered art, specifically local art. If you are talking about the D.C. area and you’re talking about art, you can’t ignore Go-Go.
Unfortunately for a lot of reasons that you will see in the documentary, it has not always been considered an art form. However, I always believed it was one of the most amazing art forms that speaks to our heritage as African descendants. It’s very compelling to be there and experience this music live and actually seeing the community that has been built around it. It’s honestly an endlessly fascinating topic I will never get tired of.
BG: Gentrification was one of the huge reasons the “Don’t Mute D.C.” Movement started. Do you see any parallels between that movement and the uprising we are seeing across the nation?
DR. NATALIE HOPKINSON: Absolutely! Go-Go was the fire in the streets last year. People came out because there was an attempt to silence the music by gentrifiers in a historically Black community that had been gentrified and Black people were being pushed out of D.C. Twenty-thousand Black people had been displaced and at this point, the attempt to expel the music and the culture was the last straw.
Don’t Mute D.C. was spawned out of the anger of the people. They watched the defunding of the education system, the defunding of the communities and housing as well as being pushed out. Coming after Go-Go was coming at the Black people of D.C. The uprising is still going and the soundtrack to it is Go-Go. When Muriel Bowser showed the “Black Lives Matter” mural she played Chuck Brown “Bustin Loose.” That was the soundtrack to that moment. The music itself is resistance and it’s a part of the resistance going on in DC and across the country.
BG: I’m actually happy you mentioned defunding because that has been a hot button issue in recent conversations about law enforcement. I see a lot of people do not understand what it means to defund and assume it means to abolish but the fact is across the country, education systems have been defunded more than once, community programs have also been defunded and as you mentioned, housing also.
DR. NATALIE HOPKINSON: Lalah Hathaway had the best tweet about that. She said “Ya’ll act like defunding hasn’t already been happening to your schools.” And I felt that. It’s about defunding and demilitarizing. This is apart of the whole conversation, Go-Go as a genre has been criminalized by the police. They had a Go-Go report and they administered surveillance on conga players, which was extremely offensive. Those laws that criminalized Go-Go were still on the books until February of 2020 when Go-Go became the official music. It’s about the music but it is also about the people.
BG: Can you share one of your most memorable Go-Go moments?
DR. NATALIE HOPKINSON: It’s hard to share just one but I will tell you about my most recent moment.
I was part of the Don’t Mute D.C. from the beginning. I helped create a petition from my office at Howard University and that petition received signatures from 94 different countries! Ninety-Four countries showed support and it was like a global outpouring of support for the music. We also had a follow-up Go-Go called “Go-Go for Justice” at United Medical Center. The city council had voted to defund this hospital which was the last one in one of the Blackest wards in the city. Hundreds of people came out to party and support. It was a beautiful event and it ended up changing the vote that had already been made so the council decided to save the hospital. That was a year ago and I think about what would have happened had the hospital been closed with Covid-19 disproportionately killing Black people. That has to be one of the most significant things to happen around the music because it literally saved lives.
BG: What do you hope audiences will take away from “The Beat Don’t Stop” documentary?
DR. NATALIE HOPKINSON: First of all, I hope they are inspired to go see a live show because there is no way to communicate what it is without the live experience. I want them to know there is an amazing cultural force that has sustained generations of people and generations of entrepreneurs, and I hope they come away feeling proud as a people.
We are able to do this under some of the most unimaginably horrific circumstances but we are still resilient and creative. I hope it makes people feel good and feel proud.
Hear more from Dr.Natalie Hopkinson and others featured in “The Beat Don’t Stop” documentary airing Sunday June 21st at 8pm on TV One. I would like to leave you all with a powerful statement made by Dr. Hopkinson in our interview.
“The gift of Black music is community. From Negro Spirtuals, to Jazz, R&B and The Civil Rights Movement, to Martin Luther King Jr. and other activists, Black music has powered a lot of movements. I feel we must celebrate it and protect it at all cost.” -Dr. Natalie Hopkinson
