To many outside of the Washington, D.C., area (or "ureah" as we would say), go-go seems like some random localized fad whose percussion-heavy beat is often unbearable after a few minutes of listening. To those of us, though, who grew up with the music, it is as much a part of who we are as hip-hop is to New Yorkers. Unlike hip-hop, however, go-go featured men playing live instruments, which is something Washingtonians love to point out.

Many outside of D.C. only know the popular songs that went mainstream like 'Da Butt,' made popular by D.C.'s Experience Unlimited (EU), or Salt N' Pepa's early hits 'My Mic Sound Nice' or 'Shake That Thing.' There was a whole go-go culture that began in the '70s with Chuck Brown's 'Bustin Loose' and continues today.

Go-go's trajectory mimics hip-hop in that it began as party music, music of expression by young men who primarily used it to connect with their peers. It was music for us and by us. Coming of age in the '80s, go-go was at the heart of the D.C. social scene. We laughed, did naughty dances, met boyfriends and girlfriends there, sweated out our new relaxers and asymmetric haircuts. And a fight was pretty much the worst thing that could happen. It was pre-N.W.A., and life was a party.

And although over the years, go-go has diminished in stature, plagued by violence and the lack of young men willing to learn how to play an instrument (why learn how to play when you can now sample any instrument you need?), go-go remains near and dear to Washingtonians, and this week, we lost one of the greats. A local legend.

Anthony Harley, 46, a Washington trumpet player better known as Lil Benny, died in his sleep on May 30. He helped pioneer go-go music as one of the founding members of the popular band Rare Essence. He went on to start his own band, Lil Benny and the Masters, who were demigods to D.C.'s youth culture during the mid-'80s. Lil Benny was Jermaine Dupris -- short but large in go-go circles.

He was an extraordinary talent. The Go-Go Hall of Fame inductee had a powerful, distinctive voice that led the band's vocals on fast-paced songs. And he could play two trumpets at once.

"When you look at go-go from a historical standpoint, Little Benny, he stands out as one of the founding fathers," said Kato Hammond, founder and editor of Go-Go Swings magazine, a go-go version of The Source.

"I saw this guy playing a horn in the parking lot and told him, 'Let me see that thing. How do you play this?' " Lil Benny told Hammond's magazine. That impromptu lesson led to a teacher named Mr. Harrington, who took Benny to Walter Reed Army Medical Center to play with a group known as Mr. Harrington's Little Giants of Jazz. On his way home from practicing one day, Benny passed a house where he heard fellow teenagers playing music. He knocked on the door, and the musicians let [Lil Benny] show them what he could do. "He played 'Hollywood Swingin' " on his horn, and when he finished, they asked him to play it again. They would later form the band Rare Essence.

"Little Benny helped put the District's own musical genre on the map," said D.C. Mayor and native Washingtonian Adrian M. Fenty, adding that he "will be remembered for his lifelong contribution to go-go."

Recently, he had been playing regularly with Chuck Brown, "the Godfather of Soul," including a show the night before his death. When word spread of his death on that hot Sunday, you could hear Benny's 'Cat in the Hat' blaring from cars everywhere as they rode down city streets. The end of an era, Lil Benny will be missed.

"Take it away, take it away, take it away."