Interview of X for TCB
I spoke with Darrin X, assistant manager of TCB, over the phone and then emailed him questions. He then mailed me a typed response, which is below. I received it on Thursday.

1. When was TCB formed?
In 1997, Reggie aka Polo, lead rapper.

2. The prominence of the Roto-Toms over Congas - why is that? Is it driven by audience demand or prior choice?
Personally, I believe the roto toms evolved into its prominence over a number of years. "Back in the day" Trouble Funk had roto toms in some of their biggest songs and few national rap acts would use Trouble Funk's roto tom beats in their loops, ex: LL Cool J's "Rock the Bells". In TCB's case it's more to do with what band the guys came up listening to, and that band was the Back Yard Band. See every generation in go-go is influenced by what preceded it. Follow me... Rare Essence, which was the band I performed with for about 10 years, had a song called "Work the Walls" back in 1990. That song or that beat is basically the foundation of what go-go is now in the TCB generation of go-go which Back Yard started to use in the early 1990s. So in a sense I have to say prior choice. Because through each level of bands, it comes out more in the music. Example, BYB came up listening to RE, and TCB came up listening to BYB.

3. How do you address the criticism from some that it is because you can't play Congas well enough?
TCB's percussionist ED aka Black Love is a very good Congo player who only has about 5 years of playing go-go. He came up listening to Hot Sauce, BYB's percussionist, who came up listening to Go Go Mickey of Rare Essence. There is like no apprenticeship for go-go, so a lot of these guys learn by ear and can play Congos very well. You have to listen to TCB play a Congo set and that question is moot.

4. How do you address the criticism from some that that's not GoGo at all?
Go back to my explanation in question 2. Roto toms were introduced by older more establish bands, the younger guys just embrace it more. If it's not go-go, what is "Work the Walls"?

5. What musical influences are present in the choice of that style?
I would say 30% BYB and 10% RE and 60% of TCB's own spin that they call the "Bounce Beat"

6. How long has TCB used that percussion style?
For as long as they have been a band.

7. What musical influences are present in the chanted vocals?
TCB uses a lot of original hooks in their music but they do use a lot of rap and underground material from artists such as Mike Jones, Slim Thug, Lil Jon, Crime Mob, and Lil Scrappy to name a few.

8. How do you define your target market?
12 to 24 year olds.

9. Other than entertainment, what purpose does GoGo have?
It provides an outlet for talented young adults to express themselves musically. It provides for a place for young adults to gather like their older counterparts. It allows for any group of people to put a band together and possibly become neighborhood celebrities.

10. What is it about GoGo that makes it so popular?
I think because it is so accessible in a way that you can gather and party with people you identify with and you can do it week in and week out with the same band. That is the familiarity people are drawn to, having your favorite band and partying with them on a regular basis.

11. How do you feel about the fact that it is primarily a local phenomenon?
It is what it is. It's live fan base driven music. It's more of a local cultural thing that anything else. You come up listening to it so you embrace it as your music. Your crew or your hood may be down with a certain band and that's what you get into. We don't sweat it, some people that live in DC don't understand go-go because it came from the streets and it belongs to the streets.

12. Can a group of musicians from outside the DC metropolitan area create a GoGo band that would be considered authentic in the area?
From a national view they would be considered a go-go band or a group that plays go-go, but true go-go fans know real go-go. Jill Scott put a go-go like record on her first CD (my note: "It's Love" is the song he's referring to) and DC go-go bands were rushing to play this record. It's like people outside know what go-go is, they just put their own spin on it. Example... Nelly's "Hot in Here" single is an interpretation of "Bustin' Loose", a Chuck Brown go-go record. I have plenty of examples. It all depends on whom you ask. I personally like national acts trying to dupe the sound; it draws attention to the source in some cases.

13. What do you think about the way PA Tapes are presently sold?
Really it's all about the music. Go-go is so street driven that people will buy one CD and copy it. Before you know it, it is all in the streets. Now, in this day and time bootlegging is more of a blessing than a curse for go-go, it provides exposure in a small market and basically is free advertisement. You cannot really make a lot of money just dropping PA CDs every other week. You're lucky to make back expenses and a few thousand here and there. The streets dictate what's hot and what's not.

14. How often should a GoGo band release a commercial (especially studio) album?
In TCB's case we try to just put out studio versions for radio stations and DJs. Economically, live CDs suit the purpose.

15. What must be done for the tradition of GoGo to be maintained?
More established bands recognizing these younger guys and their audience. Older go-go musicians sometimes say to me "I can't understand the beat" or "they play too much of the roto-toms for me" so they tend not to acknowledge the younger groups. But these guys are packing 3 to 4 hundred people of their target audience in venues on a nightly basis. So there is definitely a market for their style of go-go. Their target audience will eventually grow up and guess who they will relate to? The band they are more familiar with, TCB.

16. How often do you attend performances of other GoGo Bands?
In our circle we are the premier band so a lot of the younger bands perform under us. Our style is what they emulate and put their own spin on so I see a lot of bands at our shows. As far as the more established bands like RE and FF, I am still friends with a lot of those guys so I just go from time to time to hang out. They are performing a different style of go-go.

17. What other GoGo groups and non-GoGo groups did you belong to before TCB?
I have been a member of Rare Essence (10 years), and 911 (2 years). I worked for RnB artists Ginuwine, Dru Hill, and Raheem DeVaughn.

18. Given the large of size of your band and the other support people you have, do you make much money? I partially ask because I want to know is your primary reason for performing to make money or is it a love for the music or something else?
We make money; in a sense we pay our expenses and still walk away with some. For a young band like TCB, we operate like a veteran band. We recognize our value in our market. TCB just started to make money 2 to 3 years ago so for a long time Reggie aka Polo, the band's founder paid for the band to play at any show they could get.

19. How many people are in your support staff, not the venue's staff, and what do they do?
Well there is myself and Ben, Managers. A PA and a monitor board sound man, and lastly an equipment manager.

20. What kind of sponsorships/endorsements do you have?
We have 2 clothing sponsors, Visionz and All Dayz.

21. What do you think about the prominence of cover songs over original material?
What works for one band might not work for another band. Younger bands tend to play cover tunes with their original raps or hooks and sometimes even use original music with cover lyrics. Older groups may take a cover tune and just put a solid go-go beat up under it when it comes to playing radio songs.

22. I have noticed that you have a lot of guest performers, including people from the audience. Why do you and other GoGo bands do that?
That goes back to what I said about go-go being a fan base driven music culture. You see people enough times they become familiar to you and you tend to know your fans like who can rap and who can sing. Bands let these fans perform as a way of showing fan appreciation.

23. How do you feel about how some people associate GoGo with fighting and violence?
We have no control over what transpires in the crowd. We draw our crowd from all over. Go-go is street oriented from my perspective so you tend to get a lot of that element in any given show. Thugs, gangsters, mail clerks, athletes, school students and all people of the sort like go-go. So if you get these people together it's usually nothing to worry about but on some occasions things do flare up, but that is just an unfortunate instance and not part of the go-go culture.

24. What do you feel is the connection between the band and the audience? And how close is it?
The audience demands dictate a band's popularity. The connection goes hand and hand with band popularity and success. If you pack a venue every performance, you can basically say our band is popular. It runs close in a sense that a packed house equals popularity.

25. What do you think of a GoGo, as in the entire performance date at a venue? (I see it as a social, fun, occasion where the band members tend to be friends with many in the audience.)
You kind of answered that in your observation.

26. What is the purpose of the after-performance joning?
That could mean a lot of things to many people. Some do it to reflect with band members and friends on the performance, some do it to mingle with fans and some do it to pick up groupies.

27. How do you define Pockets & Sockets?
Hum... I would say a pocket is a basic solid generic beat with the Congos and cowbell dominating the set. And a socket would be the so-called pocket of the song you are performing, like if you were playing let's say "Brown and White" and you just drop out of the music and have the beat run. Same rhythm, same beat just without the music.

In closing: I feel that go-go has and always will evolve depending on the culture and generation of the people involved. TCB has their own style and can hold their own. Some older people don't acknowledge these guys and they seem to want to hold on to the "Back in the day" mind set. Younger bands embrace what's in front of them, the TCBs and BYBs of their age. They don't try to be like the REs or Lissens. I think they are drawn to the more "mature" style for the money and that some guys are older and can make the transition. When I was a member of Rare Essence, we set the pace for others. We incorporated new equipment and ideas that younger groups fed off. After a while it just seemed like there was a huge gap between a Rare Essence and TCB. Mature bands just went in one direction and started to ignore the younger target audience so younger people started their own culture and in turn older groups couldn't relate. Same music, same concept, but form some instance it's not considered go-go.