In May, when the annual Roots Picnic celebrated the 50th year of go-go, its tribute featured a constellation of go-go stars. But go-go artists who play bouncebeat, a stripped-down, highly syncopated subgenre of go-go favored by younger audiences, were not included.
TOB lead talker “Lil” Chris Proctor was not having it.
“They left us out. They basically told us that we [weren’t] a part of go-go,” he told producer Tone P in an interview on the album 7.04.26 (Deluxe), which was recorded as part of TOB’s appearance on Tone P’s performance and interview series Tha Carry Out. “They erased history by not even just a simple mention … We tired of it. And we not going for that shit no more. … They will respect us, and we demand that respect. And if they don’t, then we gonna take it.”
Now, with the recent and tremendous success of their go-go hit “Shake Dat (I Just Wanna Dance),” which was released on Sept. 11, TOB has essentially done just that. The song, an adaptation of Chicago rapper BabyChiefDoit’s “Ghetto Love Story,” has become one of the biggest hits in bouncebeat history.
With its indelibly catchy chorus, the song is perfectly suited for TikTok and Instagram Reels, capturing the imagination of dancers and anyone else who feels like celebrating feeling good. For the past two months, the viral videos of people dancing to “Shake Dat (I Just Wanna Dance)” seem to transcend age, race, and everything else. Elementary school kids are dancing to it, and so are teenagers and street dancers. Last week, when newly elected District Delegate to the House of Representatives Robert White danced his way to the podium for his acceptance speech, he was dancing to “Shake Dat (I Just Wanna Dance),” too.
By Sept. 17, comedian Davy Ruffin posted an Instagram reel describing “Shake Dat”-mania as follows: “Can we all agree that TOB ‘I Just Wanna Dance’ song is the song of the year when it comes to the go-gos?” he asked. “I’m talking about grandmas, uncles, stepmothers, stepfathers, no offense, even the dead rockin to this shit.”
“Shake Dat (I Just Wanna Dance)” is actually a hybrid of TOB’s original 2006 “Shake Dat Azz” and “Ghetto Love Story.” According to Lil Chris, TOB first started incorporating BabyChiefDoit’s “I just wanna dance” chorus into “Shake Dat Azz” during live shows in July. “We been hitting ‘Shake Dat Azz’ for 20 years, and I knew they was gonna go together,” Lil Chris tells City Paper. “But I’d be lying if I told you that I knew the song was gonna be a smash hit and as big as it is in the DMV and beyond, too.”
Wider audiences first heard “Shake Dat (I Just Wanna Dance)” in late August, when TOB returned for its second appearance on Noochie’s Live From the Front Porch. Two weeks later, on Sept. 12, TOB played at the Gateway Pavilion in Congress Heights as part of Art All Night. By that point, fans had seen TOB’s Live From the Front Porch set and were eager to hear it performed in person. In the days that followed, video clips of the rapturous Art All Night audience singing along to “Shake Dat (I Just Wanna Dance)” went viral.
Lil Chris first realized “Shake Dat (I Just Wanna Dance)” had become something big that night at Gateway Pavilion. “We came out cranking. But when we played that song it was like everyone caught the Holy Ghost, and the whole place erupted,” he says. “I didn’t have to sing, ‘I just wanna dance.’ Everybody else was just singing it.”
Since then, TOB’s performances at the Wharf in October and at last weekend’s Adams Morgan PorchFest have drawn massive crowds while continuing to drive the band’s exposure on social media. Local radio is playing “Shake Dat (I Just Wanna Dance),” TOB was recently featured on NBC4 for the first time, and gigs are piling up. “We were moving and grooving before the song, but we went from playing three to four times a week to six to eight times a week,” says Lil Chris.
As TOB navigates its spike in popularity, Lil Chris is grateful for all the support. “Noochie’s Front Porch was the reason it went viral because that added awareness about the song,” he says. “Also, shout-out to Queen P, because she made the dance that went viral with the ‘I Just Wanna Dance’ challenge …The song went viral, but in this day and age, you need a viral dance to go with the song.”
Beat Ya Feet dancer Porche “Queen P” Anthony is currently touring as the creative director and choreographer for the dancers with Master P’s No Limit & Cash Money tour. In mid-September, she filmed a video soundtracked by “I Just Wanna Dance” with Master P’s dancers, posted it, and went to bed. “The next morning, my phone was going crazy with notifications on IG,” she says. “After that, it was history. The song is just infectious. People love the catchiness of that hook for real.”
Fans—many inspired by Queen P—dancing to “Shake Dat (I Just Wanna Dance)” have posted countless videos, including a dancer in front of Buckingham Palace, another on a beach in Fukuoka, Japan, and Beat Ya Feet Academy dancers in Poland. Meanwhile, TOB has performed for increasingly large crowds. Even ChiefBabyDoit has weighed in on social media, praising TOB’s adaptation of “Ghetto Love Story” by saying, “I fuck with that. That shit hot. Shout-out to TOB.”
As the go-go community takes pride in TOB’s success, many are wondering whether its new hit song can increase go-go’s visibility beyond the DMV. “I think that the momentum and energy from the song is something that’s pushing a resurgence in go-go and bringing go-go back to the forefront,” says Tone P, who previously brought bouncebeat to a wider audience through Wale and TCB’s collaboration “Bait” in 2011. “My hope is that this one makes enough noise that … BabyChiefDoit reaches out to TOB and executes an official remix that can be released by the label.”
Montu Mitchell, owner of the go-go clothing line Mitchcraft, admires TOB’s ability to bring people together. “This song is uniting young and old, Black and White. Everybody can relate to it. I think it might be a once-in-a-generation type of record,” he says. “BabyChiefDoit came here for the Howard University homecoming, and he performed [‘Ghetto Love Story’], but now it doesn’t feel so massive when he plays it. There’s something about the way TOB swings the record in the soulful TOB style. They found the perfect way to deliver it to their audience with their own sound, their own flavor. They really deserve this.”
The group that would become TOB was formed in 2003 by students at Bertie Backus Middle School in Northeast. Lil Chris was the band’s lead talker, and Asa Asuncion, who later went on to become rapper Yung Gleesh, served as its “second mic” rapper. By the summer of 2004, they were practicing daily. They called themselves TOB, for Take Ova Band, and played their first gig on Christmas 2004, at Club Levels in Northeast. Over the next few years, TOB became one of bouncebeat’s hottest young bands. Since then, TOB has remained a popular fixture on the bouncebeat circuit, setting themselves apart with popular originals like 2011’s “No Mee,” as well as distinctive and unlikely covers of songs like Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing,” and Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love.”
The band has also participated in dozens of musical demonstrations protesting gentrification, systemic racism, voter suppression, Trumpism, and the disenfranchisement of D.C. communities east of the river. “We’re gaining new followers, new fans that think we’re a new band, but we been working our asses off for a long time,” says Lil Chris. “We been cranking, playing for good causes, protesting, and doing what’s right by supporting the community. But when you make a song that’s a hit, only the people can tell you it’s a hit. We got one of them songs, a generational song that will never be forgotten about. To have a hit song, it’s a real good thing.”
