Digital Underground: C/D?

Shock/Humpty = Outkast's "poet/player"?

Shock/Humpty = Outkast's "poet/player"?

J0hn: I went around for weeks afterwards saying "[annoying thing] will not free Mumia!" I coulda argued w/said sign-holder but what woulda been the point...

shock G's site looks amazing, i wish my connection speed were higher :(

I love how he gives options AB and C and then always picks D so its like a song full of trick questions and booty.

Also, I am "The one who put the satin on yr panties." I Get Around is classic as well obv.

They really were fucking great..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa-X8D1K998&feature=related

missin you Humpty

nice streatteam there bud

http://www.pr-inside.com/money-b-of-the-digital-underground-releases-r1432263.htm

or: money isnt everything, shakey

Underwater Rimes was recorded when Shock was still in Tampa, I believe.

And 2 Live Crew were still in Cali.

Both groups M&D'd by Macola.

Then they swapped states/legacies.

I've only heard Sex Packets and whatever singles got played on Sirius 43 Backspin when that channel existed.. Based on this I don't see how they're anything but classic.

I miss the radio edit which censored non-swears: I once got busy in a***********bathroom I'm crazy allow me to amaze me they say I'm ugly but it just don't phase me I'm still getting in the*BARKBARK*and I even got my own dance

on good days, "Kiss You Back" is the best single of the 90s

So can anybody explain to me why the cassette version of Sex Packets is different/better than the CD/Vinyl.

dj harvey opened w/ some awesome house mix of 'doowatchulike' last nite lol

http://mp3skyline.com/rid-0x1bac2-house-arrest_-_version-1.0--ha001--mp3-download.html
this mayb

Reason I'm asking is I came across a torrent of it today and it piqued my curiosity, here are the notes.

- Sex Packets Pro Cassette Transfer Version -

"There is only one version of this classic - the cassette version.
For this I bought an unopened tape and sent it to a pro transfer and mastering service to record it to cd. If they aren't gonna release it, I'm gonna give it away. This IS the version you memorized back in 1990 (if you're my age) if not do your homework son because this is the shit."

maybe it has the og 'freaks of the industry' or something? the freaks 12" i have has both the cd one & one that heavily samples the first part of 'love hangover'

Dropping this off the CD was criminal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pw5OdbMuwU

I assume it was for running time. Could you put 80 minutes on a cd in 1989? Shame it hasn't been rectified, but deluxe remasters are still rare in hip hop.

The other dropped cuts are "Sound of the Underground" and "Tribute to the Early Days"

Yep Yep, appears to have 3 extra tracks and and unedited version of 'Gutfest 89'

From an Amazon review:

This CD does not contain all of the songs from the original album.

Another reviewer mentioned that the original casette of Sex Packets had three extra songs and a full version of "Gutfest." Well, if you just want "The Humpty Dance" then this CD is fine. But know that if you're getting this current version of Sex Packets, you aren't getting the real thing. Some of the songs missing are fantastic and superior to some of the tracks which do remain on the CD. Also, the missing complete 8 minute version of "Gutfest" explains more about its concept in fuller scope and allows the groove to set in better - it was a funky highlight on the cassette issue, but here it seems irrelevant and awkward.

If I'd realized the CD was missing the original songs and sequencing, I wouldn't have paid for it, I would have just downloaded the tracks. I advise you to do the same, and wait for someone to acquire Tommy Boy=(now defunt)'s original version to reissue as the whole album in its entirety.

That said, "Humpty Dance" is one of the funniest, wittiest songs ever, as well as extremely funky. "Dowutchalike" is equally funky.

The "Sex Packets" theme of the rest of the album is okay, a kind of juvenile attempt at creating a George Clinton-like concept, but overall it's just sort of silly, unexceptional joke and nothing more. And not until the bouncy "Packet Man," built around a Fred Wesley sample, does the concept really do anything musically entertaining, making it all worthwhile.

Several songs are missing from the mix, as I've said. I remember one called "Hip Hop Doll" and my one of personal favorites "Tribute to the Early Days."

As it stands, 4 stars. But the complete version of the original cassette tape, if you ever can find it, is worth 5.

yeah, the LP didn't have all the cassette tracks either (or even a short version of Gutfest), I didn't hear them until a few years ago off some mp3 blog. bless you, some mp3 blog

Excellent synopsis of The Humpty Dance here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humpty_Dance

The classic Regulate synopsis was taken down last autumn, inspiring this excellent retort: "Active banana is a humorless idiot and should stop ruining funny, informative articles in non-serious subjects. Getting laid/smoking marijuana might also ease his anal-retentive tendencies." Wikipedia got beef.

http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=82861

Despite the fact Mr. Hump is by most standards not a very attractive man he still manages to find himself in situations where women allow him to rummage around in their trousers

sex packets (cassette version) has finished downloading

very happy that control + F yielded no "dud"

Shock G passed away.

Fucking fuck THIS.

Yeah I’m shaken up. I’ve long admired him.

Owned Sex Packets on cassette in 1990, haven't listened to it in more than 25 years...but "The Humpty Dance" still pops into my head first thing in the morning once a week at least. These guys really were like no one else out there — Shock G's influences were obvious, but he was a for-real visionary.

Just that first album alone is all over the place in the best way. I mean, MC Blowfish

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru7RVQs3P6o

Sons of the P is one of my favorite albums ever. This is devastating news.

If this is still there it should become a shrine.

https://oaklandnorth.net/2012/08/31/giant-head-prop-from-digital-underground-tour-stored-in-east-oakland-parking-garage/

RISOTP

RIP what a talent

r-h-y-m-i-n on the funk forever

spoke to my people & the words are: Greg wouldn’t want us crying for him. he would want us to toast & have joy. Greg was in pain he is now in that better place. my words are: but we were all kids together. so i’m crying for him. crying for all of it #SHOCKG rest in peace 🙏🏽 pic.twitter.com/jKEDBklehC

— Danyel Smith (@danamo) April 23, 2021

great to remember MC Blowfish, what an amazing weirdo

Shock G was part of the era to me as a child that rap stars were more like super heroes. It holds a dear place in my heart. The way it was packaged, introduced , & the way imagination/aliases/characters were valued. We lost that later on in the game. Rest In Peace Legend.

— Statik Selektah (@StatikSelekt) April 23, 2021

RIP, Sex Packets was such a key album for me and my friends back in the early years of high school. The sense of humor and playfulness was really key and kept us coming back. For all the rappers and producers that were sampling P-Funk back then, I can only think of a handful that were as good at these guys at capturing the essence of Clinton's world-building and playfully inhabiting characters.

statik selektah and jvc2.0 both otm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcEM8b7lnNE

"Can only think of a handful that were as good at these guys at capturing the essence of Clinton's world-building and playfully inhabiting characters."

Yup. Tbh he was just fun AF. His songs and imagination just brought me lots if happiness as a teenager. And still do actually. I need more ppl like that.

It's weird how all the p-funk stuff seemed like ancient mystical history when that record came out but 'aquaboogie' was released only 12 years before 'underwater rimes'

Like some indie band now coming out now and honoring the long forgotten GAPDY history of 2009.

It's true, but there was nowhere to find this music. I remember reading about Maggot Brain and other Funkadelic records sometime in the mid 80s, and it might as well have been describing something in King Tut's tomb.

Yeah, I remember reading about Clinton, Parliament and Funkadelic as reference points, but (especially in central Illinois) there wasn't a lot of opportunity to actually hear it. My first big exposure was, sadly, 1994's PCU after which I went out and picked up this, which was literally the only P-Funk the campus store had at the time:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51AVeIKajEL.jpg

So, I came to Digital Underground several years before I came to Parliament/Funkadelic, but both gave me a really similar sense of playful exploration and just starting to crack into wholly imagined worlds.

yep that's the only one i ever remember seeing

yeah that's the one I eventually got from bmg or columbia house

Now this is a thread

I once went to Rakim’s house, and on his studio wall, he had an amazing poster-sized cartoon of himself on top of a giant cement block, crushing all the other MC’s beneath it. At the top, it said “The Master Poet.”

When I looked closer, I couldn’t believe my eyes. #ShockG pic.twitter.com/YWkCLJXJuz

— J.PERIOD (@jperiodBK) April 23, 2021

Friend of mine is a rare book and record dealer. Many years ago he found what appears to be a Digital Underground demo tape. D/l available here

an absolutely huge figure. just about as underrated, as well. literally the man who put 2pac on.

rest in p.

I said it already but while its great that shock g introduced Tupac, saafirs first album (saafir debuted on body hat syndrome) is one of the great underground/leftfield/weird/experimental rap albums of the 90s. Admittedly not heard it in at least 20 years but I'm sure it's still good.

this demo tape is fascinating, thanks!

My pleasure! Friend has a lot of gems.

I love the song where it was clearly like "we need to make a Tone Loc song"

shades of Girl I'll House You by the Jungle Brothers in another one

Huh, I don't really remember P-Funk being particularly obscure or hard to find when "Sex Packets" came out. Was it? Who was the first to sample P-Funk? De La did it pretty prominently in '89. EPMD was around the same time. MC Hammer was a bit earlier, right? "Groove Is in the Heart," iirc I knew who Bootsy was by then. Dr. Dre was pretty much the bookend apex of P. Funk in hip-hop, wasn't he?

i hung out with humpty/shock g recently backstage of a pfunk show drinkin and smokin trees and i told him my name was chaki and he said he liked that and did a rap about chaki!

― chaki (chaki), Tuesday, 11 March 2003 20:52 (eighteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

man that demo tape

mc blowfishhhhhhhhhh

De La sampled “not just knee deep” but it was one of like 1000 samples on 3 Feet High, while p-funk was like a foundational element of DU and was always mentioned in stuff I read about them. I grew up in a county that is 95% white with a 0.5% black population 7-10 hours away from Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago, and Detroit and had no family or friends in any of those places so had zero soul/funk/r&b exposure if it wasn’t on MTV or American Top 40. At least we knew how to mail order records by the punk bands we read about in Thrasher magazine.

That bass sound in "Humpty Dance" is one of the best riffs ever in music and was always a big WTF is that when I first heard it. Sex Packets was a big party record in college.

I mean, the fact that Humpty as a persona was ‘uncool’ enough to mimic the bass line — like we all do when we’re trying to approximate something about a song we like — is what made him/them all the cooler. A ‘check this shit out!’ move.

When I was a kid, I wanted to buy Sex Packets so bad. I loved the Humpty Dance and the album cover was so tantalizing to me. But I had just been through an ordeal with my parents where I had bought GNR Lies under their noses and it didn't end well, so I was kinda laying low with my music explorations. I really didn't think I could swing Sex Packets.

So I kinda forgot about them until now, although I've definitely seen them get praise on ILM and elsewhere. I'm listening now and this stuff is great. I wish I'd gone for it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CODmEYahzCv/?igshid=1gqzghw6nywtn

peace, man... wow, that is a seriously long game.

That demo tape definitely isn't Digital Underground - Shock G doesn't rap, sing or play on it - but it's fascinating hearing a no-name group (who don't quite have it together yet) try out so many styles of the moment, as upmiss says. Mon shouts out "Mac Mone" and "DJ Goldfinger (with the 24 karat cuts)," which was Fuze's name in the early days, and there's a second rapper on a couple of tracks, so this is very probably MGM, Fuze and Money's early trio with Mac Mone.

(Relistening while typing: he mentions MGM, Mac Mone and Goldfinger in the Delicious Vinyl-sounding track as well as the long shout-out section in the second-last track. That's definitive enough for me!)

It could almost be 1987, with the very just-post-electro style of most of the tape, or the more 1988-ish songs at the start might have been recorded later. Goldfinger/Fuze auditioned to do one showcase for Tommy Boy as a fill-in on the strength of liking the first DU single, from 1988. When asked to go on tour in Europe bcz DU's regular DJ was still unavailable, he insisted that Money B getting to join was his condition, as the two of them were a group: that was in time for Mon to do a couple of hype-man vocals on Doowutchyalike in 1989, so I'm guessing the trio MGM reduced to the duo Raw/Fusion during 1988.

thanks for sharing, tabes and pal!

damn sic bringin the knowledge like nardwuar

Thanks sic! My friend literally found that as an unlabeled tape in a box.

He also has an early demo of Tupac's Changes that he found in the same box. Pretty sick.

Latter one is definitely and unmistakably Pac, btw.

The cassette of Sex Packets had a couple of exclusive (and a couple more exclusive-ish) tracks, including this one by Fuze & Money alone - absolutely sounds in the same style as that demo tape, right down to ending the song by just shouting out other members of Digital Underground for ages.

Great obit, with illuminating biographical details:

https://www.vulture.com/article/obituary-shock-g-digital-underground.html

Bootsy gave a memorial statement to Rolling Stone, which they excerpted and interjected:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bootsy-collins-digital-underground-shock-g-tribute-1160570/

That vulture piece is excellent.
Played by 12" of humpty dance yesterday and was shocked at how huge that bass is.

my buddy treblefree located a copy of and uploaded the "ultragroove" remix of 'no nose job' for your listening pleasures.

Looks like there’s Shock G solo piano on the way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4WOOUd1Msg