Experience Unlimited, also known as E.U., is a funk band from Washington D.C. best known for their 1988 hit single, “Da Butt.” The original group members included Gregory “Sugar Bear” Elliot, Edward “June” Henderson, William “Ju-Ju” House, Maurice “Mighty Moe” Hagans, A.K. Webster, Jeno “Keys” Meyer, Kent Wood, Ivan Goff, and Go-Go Bouncey. The group, founded in 1975 in Washington D.C., released their first album, Free Yourself, in 1977. They had modest success, but the album sold less than 500,000 copies.
The group released their second album eleven years later (1988) titled Rock Yuh Butt. The album included the single “Da Butt,” which eventually appeared on Spike Lee‘s School Daze movie soundtrack. With its promotion through the film, the song reached number one on Billboard’s Hot Black Singles chart and peaked at 35 on the Billboard Hot 100 and 23 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. “Da Butt” eventually sold more than one million records and became the group’s only major hit. Spike Lee also directed the music video for the song.
In 1989, the group released their third album, Livin Large, which featured the singles “Buck Wild,” “Livin Large,” and “Taste of Your Love.” The album peaked at no. 22 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and 58 on the Billboard Pop Albums. The singles “Taste of Your Love” and “Buck Wild” peaked at no. 4 and 7, respectively, on the US R&B chart.
In 1990, E.U. released their fourth album, Cold Kickin’ It, with the singles “I Confess” and “Ain’t Found the Right One Yet.” “I Confess’ peaked at 27 on the US R&B while “Ain’t Found the Right One Yet,” peaked at 72. The group released other albums, including Let’s Go Go Christmas (1995), Make Money (1996), and School Daze Revisited (2008). The group also released live studio albums, including Future Funk (1982), 2 Places at the Same Time (1986), and Go Ju Ju Go (1987).
Over its career, E.U. collaborated with other artists, including Salt-N-Pepa and Maiesha Rashad. The song “Da Butt” was ranked 61 on VH1’s 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders of the 1980s. In 2012, “Da Butt” was licensed for a video game called Dance Central 3 for the Xbox 360, and seven years later, in 2019, group member Sugar Bear performed “Da Butt” with actress Regina Hall at the 2019 BET Awards. Tragically, band members Kent Wood and Ivan Goff passed away over the years.
