Digital Underground

Oakland

Digital Underground formed in Oakland in 1987. Gregory "Shock G" Jacobs founded it with Tampa radio DJ Kenneth "Kenny-K" Waters and Jimi "Chopmaster J" Dright of Berkeley. The image began as militant, a tribute to the Black Panthers, but when N.W.A and Public Enemy rose, Jacobs steered the group toward something more whimsical and upbeat. The music leaned hard on 1970s funk. Under the name Rackadelic, Jacobs drew the covers and cartoon-filled liner notes, in homage to Parliament-Funkadelic.

According to a profile in Contemporary Musicians, Jacobs was working in a Bay Area music store when Dright bought a pile of equipment. Jacobs offered to teach him to use it if Dright would let him make a demo, and that night they recorded four-track versions of Your Life's a Cartoon and Underwater Rimes. The single came out on the TNT label, founded by their manager Atron Gregory, with Macola in 1988. Tommy Boy signed the group the next year.

Sex Packets

The first Tommy Boy release was Doowutchyalike in 1989, an underground hit with minimal radio airplay and the first video to feature Humpty Hump, Jacobs's nasal, rubber-nosed alter ego. The debut album, Sex Packets, followed in March 1990. It is a concept album about G.S.R.A., Genetic Suppression Relief Antidotes, a pill supposedly developed for astronauts. Contemporary Musicians reports that sample clearance problems delayed it. Money-B has said that The Humpty Dance and Freaks of the Industry were among the last songs recorded, recorded because two other tracks failed to clear.

The Humpty Dance reached 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and 1 on the rap singles chart. The album reached 24 in the United States, 8 on the R&B chart and 59 in Britain, and the RIAA certified it platinum on 18 September 1990. Newsday said the group shuffled "the goofy indistinguishably with the avant-garde", and Sounds found it consistently engaging in a way many rap albums were not. Rolling Stone later placed it at number 114 on its list of the 200 greatest hip-hop albums, quoting Shock G on wanting to bridge the gap between Prince and hip-hop. Humpty had a fictional biography in the press kit: Edward Ellington Humphrey III, who wore the big nose after a deep-fryer accident. Jacobs kept the characters apart so well that fans and industry insiders took them for different people, and he also performed as MC Blowfish and The Computer Woman.

Tupac and the P

This Is an EP Release arrived in January 1991 and went gold. It carried Same Song, from the film Nothing But Trouble, and the recording debut of Tupac Shakur, who had joined the group's crew and went on to perform and record with it. Money-B told the Drink Champs that De La Soul had first been wanted for the film, and that Dan Aykroyd saw Digital Underground at a show. Sons of the P followed in October 1991, with George Clinton on the title track. Its lead single Kiss You Back reached 40 on the Hot 100, and No Nose Job was the second single. Shock G said the group was where Parliament left off.

The Body-Hat Syndrome (1993) added the rappers Saafir and Clee. It included The Humpty Dance Awards, a shout-out to artists who had sampled the group's biggest hit, and Wussup Wit the Luv, with a verse from Tupac, his last on a Digital Underground studio album. That year Shock G also produced Tupac's I Get Around.

Later years

Future Rhythm (1996) was the group's first independent release, and Who Got the Gravy? (1998) reached 91 on the R&B/hip-hop albums chart, with guests including Big Pun, Biz Markie and KRS-One. The final studio album, ..Cuz a D.U. Party Don't Stop!, came out on 20 May 2008. The group toured in Europe, Japan, Canada, Australia and the United States nearly every year until 2008. Shock G died on 22 April 2021, and Digital Underground still tours.