The Deal: Go Go's not just for girls anymore -- Chuck Brown stirs it up with old-school funk, sound and style.
The Good: Mash up George Benson, Chuck D., James Brown, Parliament/Funkadelic and Sly and the Family Stone in the same glass and shake well. For the last two decades, Chuck Brown has been keeping his hometown of D.C. rocking with his brand of mixed-up soul/blues/Latin/jazz and hip-hop he calls Go Go. He's the only guy in musical history to mix scat singing, hip-hop and schmaltzy lounge jazz in one concoction as he does in "Theme From The Godfather." "Eye Candy" sounds like the JB's fronted by Bootsie Collins. Now in his mid-seventies, Brown's still got the snap and savvy to mix the old and new without messing up either. "We Come To Party" has Brown rapping like a sewn together version of Soultrain MC Don Cornelius and Barry White over a frenetic Latin beat replete with snappy horns.
The Bad: There's nothing new about the music that Chuck Brown is doing, but it's the way he ties it together that makes it interesting.
The Verdict: Even if you don't like hip-hop, you can't resist this stuff. It's more like a mix of old school R&B and soul blended with hip-hop with the meanness taken out and infused with a healthy sense of humor. Brown will be at Amos' SouthEnd on June 16.