Co-Sponsored by the University of Arizona Africana Studies Program

Go-Go means to keep going, and Rap is a form of talk. This lecture by Thomas Sayers Ellis will chart the early history of the exchange between Go-Go and Hip Hop, focusing on collaborations between the two genres of Black noise such as Experience Unlimited’s recordings with Kurtis Blow. It will also define and examine the role of the Grover Washington, Jr., influence pocket (Mister Magic), the percussive grammar of Go-Go, and Go-Go’s function as a resistance tool in the struggle for equality, home rule, and statehood in our nation’s Capitol. Attention will also be paid to the various same-nesses and differences between the Go-Go lead talker and the Hip Hop MC, both as poets, community news-givers, entertainers, and organizers of social sound.