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While hip-hop was consumed by the hardcore, noisy political rap of Public Enemy and the gangsta rap of N.W.A., Digital Underground sneaked out of Oakland with their bizarre, funky homage to Parliament-Funkadelic. Digital Underground built most of their music from P-Funk samples and developed a similarly weird sense of style and humor, highlighted by Shock-G's outrageous costumes and the whole band's parade of alter egos. Of all these alter egos, Shock-G's Humpty Hump -- a ridiculous comical figure with a Groucho Marx nose and glasses and a goofy, stuttering voice -- was the most famous. Over the course of their career, Digital Underground have featured numerous members, and is notable for launching the career of Tupac Shakur, as well as spinning off side projects and solo acts including Raw Fusion, Saafir, and female singer Mystic. Yet throughout it all, Shock-G has remained at their core, developing the band's sound and style, which they had from the outset, as their 1990 debut, Sex Packets, proved. Their role in popularizing George Clinton's elastic funk made them one of the most important hip-hop groups of their era.
Shock-G (born Gregory E. Jacobs, August 25, 1963) spent most of his childhood moving around the East Coast with his family, eventually settling in the Bay Area of California. He dropped out of high school in the late '70s and spent several years pursuing a life of crime before eventually finishing his degree and going to college to study music. Along with Chopmaster J, Shock-G formed Digital Underground in 1987, and the duo released a single, "Underwater Rimes," that year, which went to number one in the Netherlands. In 1989, the group signed with Tommy Boy, and that summer "Doowutchyalike" became an underground hit. By that time, Digital Underground had expanded significantly, featuring DJ Fuze, Money-B (born Ron Brooks), and Schmoovy-Schmoov (born Earl Cook). Sex Packets, the group's debut album, was released in the spring of 1990, and "The Humpty Dance," which was rapped by Shock-G's alter ego Humpty Hump, climbed all the way to number 11 on the pop charts, peaking at number seven on the R&B charts. With its P-Funk samples, jazzy interludes, and innovative amalgam of samples and live instrumentation, Sex Packets received positive reviews and went platinum by the end of the year.
Digital Underground followed Sex Packets in early 1991 with This Is an EP Release, their first recording to feature rapper Tupac Shakur. The EP went gold and set the stage for their second album, Sons of the P, which was released that fall. On the strength of the gold single "Kiss You Back," Sons of the P also went gold, but it received criticism for its similarity to Sex Packets. By the time Digital Underground delivered their third album, The Body-Hat Syndrome in late 1993, hip-hop had become dominated by gangsta rap, particularly the drawling G-funk of Dr. Dre, which ironically was heavily indebted to Clinton. Consequently, their fan base diminished significantly, and The Body-Hat Syndrome disappeared shortly after its release.
Nearly three years later, Digital Underground returned with Future Rhythm, which spent a mere three weeks on the charts. In 1998, eight years after the group's first release, Digital Underground released Who Got the Gravy?, which reached #91 on the Top 200 R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts. The album intentionally featured several East Coast rappers at a time when the East vs. West rivalry was active, in an attempt to both ignore and ridicule it. The guests included New York City natives Big Pun, Biz Markie, and KRS One
Digital Underground toured nearly every year up until 2008; this consisted of thousands[quantify] of live shows in Europe, Japan, Canada, Australia, and the U.S. While the group's origins lay mostly in Oakland and Berkeley, California, various characters and voices from around the U.S. appeared on the band's albums, while Shock G and Money-B were the only individuals to appear on every album. Other recurring key contributors were David "DJ Fuze" Elliot, and deejay/producer Jeremy "J-Beats" Jackson, who both assisted Jacobs in developing the sound.
Digital Underground's final studio album, ..Cuz A D.U. Party Don't Stop!!, was released on May 20, 2008, although a substantial portion of it was recorded at a live show from 2005. Shortly before its release, the group embarked on an indefinite hiatus. Money-B has stated that Shock G expressed interest in writing a book and exploring music that the latter would deem unfit for the Digital Underground name.
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Sex Packets is a vibrant, wildly funny record that transcends any attempt to dismiss it as mere novelty. Corny jokes, gross-out tales, flights of fancy, and sheer absurdist humor co-exist comfortably, usually within the course of one song. Take "The Humpty Dance," their breakthrough single and timeless party anthem. Within that one song, Humpty Hump spills out countless jokes, spinning between inspired allusions and thuddingly obvious cut-ups, which are equally funny because of the irrepressible, infectious nature of his rap. And he's so confident in his skills, he's sexy, which is kind of what the album is about -- it knows that sex is funny, and sexier because of it. The showiest number, of course, is the "Sex Packets" suite that concludes the album, built around their idea for a drug that creates full-blown sexual fantasies (virtual reality before it was in vogue), but their skill at creating distinctive worlds is just as apparent on the endless party of "Doowutchyalike." These are the things that are buried beneath the band's jokes and an enormous amount of George Clinton samples. Much of the music on Sex Packets uses the P-Funk canon as their foundation (a notable exception being a swinging interpolation of a Jimi Hendrix Band of Gypsys cut on "The New Jazz (One)," a cracking showcase for their team vocal skills). It's so strong an influence, it may seem easy to reduce Digital Underground to the status of mere Clinton imitators, but they take his blueprint, expand it, and personalize it, creating a record that is as loose and funny as anything in the P-Funk empire, and in some ways, easier to access, since the party feels wide open. Few hip-hop albums sound as much like a constant party as this, and years later, it's still impossible to resist.
Digital Underground - Sex Packets (391mb)
or
Digital Underground - Sex Packets (391mb)
01 The Humpty Dance 6:30
02 The Way We Swing 6:48
03 Rhymin' On The Funk 6:16
04 The New Jazz (One) 0:37
05 Underwater Rimes (Remix) 4:23
06 Gutfest '89 (Edit) 5:50
07 The Danger Zone 5:31
08 Freaks Of The Industry 5:38
09 Doowutchyalike 8:51
10 Packet Prelude 0:57
11 Sex Packets 7:21
12 Street Scene 0:33
13 Packet Man 4:41
14 Packet Reprise 1:30
Digital Underground - Sex Packets (156mb)
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If it ain't broke, don't fix it: Sons of the P offers more of the loopy humor and P-Funk fixations that made Digital Underground's debut album, Sex Packets, an instant classic. And if Sons of the P doesn't quite hit the absurd heights of its predecessor's best tracks, it's still a strong, engaging listen and an entirely worthy follow-up. The group doesn't take the title Sons of the P lightly; their George Clinton obsession isn't just manifested in samples, it's everywhere from the extended, chorus-heavy song structures right down to the back-cover art, a P-Funk-style comic strip recasting DU as part of the Clones of Dr. Funkenstein concept. Once again, there are two great singles in the affectionate "Kiss You Back" and the Humpty Hump feature "No Nose Job," which rips black celebrities who surgically alter themselves to look less ethnic. In fact, the group goes in for some overt social commentary on several other tracks as well; "Heartbeat Props" are directed at still-living heroes in the struggle for equality, and "The Higher Heights of Spirituality" is a brief utopian dream. On the other hand, the album closes with "Good Thing We're Rappin'," a full-on pimp rhyme courtesy of Humpty Hump that's a little less genial and a little more Too Short than you might expect from DU. A few tracks don't make much of an impression, but on the whole, Sons of the P makes a convincing case for DU as the rightful spiritual heirs to the P-Funk legacy -- and George Clinton himself even endorses that idea on the title track.
Digital Underground - Sons of the P (375mb)
or
Digital Underground - Sons of the P (375mb)
01 The DFLO Shuttle 5:12
02 Heartbeat Props 7:28
03 No Nose Job 4:59
04 Sons Of The P (Feat. George Clinton) 9:05
05 Flowin' On The D-Line 3:05
06 Kiss You Back 6:11
07 Tales Of The Funky (Feat. George Clinton) 5:31
08 The Higher Heights Of Spirituality 0:48
09 Family Of The Underground 5:47
10 The D-Flowstrumental 4:53
11 Good Thing We're Rappin' 11:34
Digital Underground - Sons of the P (155mb)
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Rebounding, in the charts anyway, from the relative downturn of 1991's Sons of the P LP, Digital Underground continued cultivating its own brand of P-Funk culture on The Body-Hat Syndrome two years later, stuffing what had been the group's first year of silence with a fresh batch of funk-infused rap. Digital Underground's last effort for longtime label Tommy Boy, With the leading single "The Return of the Crazy One," and its accompanying X-rated video, which was reworked for public consumption, gaining positive feedback, the rest of The Body-Hat Syndrome unfurled to less than outstanding crossover commercial acclaim. The album's second single, an anti-racism cultural awareness politico called "Wussup Wit the Luv," featured a solo from Funkadelic guitarist Michael Hampton, as well as a verse and video appearance from Tupac Shakur. This would be the last time Tupac appeared on any Digital Underground release, while lead rappers Saafir and Clee were added to the band's line-up. This album also features "The Humpty Dance Awards", the group's humorous shout-out to the artists who sampled the Humpty Dance prior to 1993.. With a smart balance between old-school, new-school, and their own school sonics, Digital Underground has once again brought funk history to life, passing the torch to the next generation and, above all, having one hell of a good time doing it.
Digital Underground - The Body-Hat Syndrome (478mb)
01 The Return Of The Crazy One 4:39
02 Doo Woo You 7:36
03 Holly Wanstaho 3:35
04 Bran Nu Swetta 4:58
05 The Humpty Dance Awards 4:51
06 Body-Hats (Part One) 1:36
07 Dope-A-Delic (Do-U-B-Leeve-In-D-Flo?) 4:07
08 Intermission 0:54
09 Wussup With The Luv 6:35
10 Digital Lover 4:38
11 Carry The Way (Along Time) 4:15
12 Body-Hats (Part Two) 1:31
13 Circus Entrance 1:54
14 Jerkit Circus 4:51
15 Circus Exit (The After-Nut) 0:42
16 Shake & Bake 4:34
17 Body-Hats (Part Three) 3:07
18 Do Ya Like It Dirty? 4:45
19 Bran Nu Sweat This Beat 0:33
20 Wheee! 5:08
Digital Underground - The Body-Hat Syndrome gg (182mb)
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