Static Disruptors – D.C. Groove [Washington D.C., USA ; Go-Go* (Funk/Hip Hop)] (1982)

1 Comment

• * *Go-go was another word for nightclub, but as a music genre it applies to any funk, R&B, or hip-hop song that features the distinctive go-go rhythm pattern popularized by Washington, DC-based artists like Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers. This pattern uses syncopated mix of kick, snare, and relatively tonal elements like cowbell and congas. It has a loose, loping feel that alternates between high and low pitches.*

  ˝Fledgling go-go rapper Craig Rosen of D.C.’s Static Disruptors will never forget what go-go godfather Chuck Brown said when Rosen asked him to produce his first record. *“I had a cassette of ‘D.C. Groove’ and offered it to [Brown]. He told me, ‘If I take that tape and put it in my pocket, the females are gonna see it and think it’s my music and take it from me.’”*˝

  ˝Rosen, 51, who lives in Los Angeles, claims to be the first white, male hip-hop recording artist on the East Coast. Static Disruptors’ 1982 song “D.C. Groove” preceded The Beastie Boys’ entrée into hip-hop, Cooky Puss, by a year, and Deborah Harry made history in 1981 with her rap on the Blondie song “Rapture.” Unfortunately he can’t lay claim to being the first recorded white male rapper nationwide—-that title belongs to Lee “DJ Flash” Johnson of L.A., whose Rappers Rapp Group released its “Rappers Rapp Theme” in November 1981.˝

  ˝Rosen grew up in Bethesda, Md., and his first on-stage experience was with hardcore band The Enzymes, which included Chris Haskett of Rollins Band fame and Dave Byers, the late guitarist who went on to play with Static Disruptors and Human Rights, the solo project from Bad Brains frontman H.R. Rosen’s tenure with The Enzymes was brief but transformative. After playing two songs with his lyrics at Hard Art Gallery and Madam’s Organ, *“that gave me the bug,”* he says.˝

  ˝Rosen attended college in Appleton, Wis., at Lawrence University, but it was music, not academics, that consumed him. He discovered funk and formed Static Disruptors to play it. He derived the band name from his bland college. *“Lawrence was pretty static and I felt the need to disrupt it,”* he writes via email.˝

  ˝Static Disruptors quit Lawrence in 1980 to play funk professionally. Arriving in D.C. via train, Rosen spotted some graffiti in a Union Station bathroom stall that said “Ain’t no funk like Trouble Funk.” *“I thought it was strong and had to know what Trouble Funk was,”* he writes. The band’s sax player learned that Trouble Funk played every Wednesday in Northwest D.C. *“We went and were changed by it. I heard ‘D.C. Groove’ in my head on the Metro and wrote the song upon returning home that evening.”*˝

  ˝Having decided to play go-go, Static Disruptors first had to learn how. Here, Rosen encountered a bit of serendipity. Walking home from the Metro, he encountered some members of Mass Extinction putting up a Globe poster for a show. *“I told them I had a band and wanted to play go-go,”* he writes. The band’s members seemed intrigued, and volunteered to teach the band how to play in the pocket. *“Three band members came over and sat behind our drums and also showed the guitar players how to lock it in the socket,”* Rosen writes.˝

  ˝Static Disruptors’ next step was recording D.C. Groove. Rosen sold his 3,000-book Marvel comic collection to pay for the record. A college friend provided part of her inheritance from her mother to help finish it. The single’s slipcover features Rosen holding a boombox and looking very badass.˝

  Source/more info on them here: https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/413318/the-story-of-static-disruptors-d-c-s-first-hardcore-punk-and-go-go-fusion-band/

  March 12, 2023 at 3:49 pm

  Reply