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West Street Mob is mostly known for their 1981 definitive B-Boy classic “Break Dance (Electric Boogie).” Despite the label owners’ Joe and Sylvia Robinson’s son Joey Robinson Jr. being in the group West Street Mob was one of the lesser known acts on the Sugar Hill label. “Let’s Dance (Make Your Body Move)” was actually a cover of Portland, Oregon’s jazz funk band Pleasure’s “Let’s Dance.” Reggie Griffin’s vocoder work on the single presaged the auto-tune in rap by almost three decades. The Mob had three more songs that were the most popular singles of their catalog with “Mosquito (A.K.A. Hobo Scratch,)” “Get Up And Dance,” and “I Can’t Stop.” West Street Mob’s short output became essential to the growth of hip-hop, New York City’s club scene and more proof of Sylvia Robinson’s acumen for music as she produced all of their songs. Griffin, who is the nephew of jazz legend Clifford Brown, was also a member of the group Manchild that Babyface was a part of before The Deele. Griffin went on to form a couple more eponymous bands and has worked with a variety of artists including Boyz II Men, Chaka Khan, Phyllis Hyman and The Isley Brothers among others.
