Artist:Digital Underground
Song:The Humpty Dance
Album:No Nose Job: The Legend of Digital Underground
The 1990 single The Humpty Dance was the only big hit for the rap group Digital Underground. One of their other songs charted so they are not a one hit wonder. The leader of Digital Underground was Gregory "Shock G" Jacobs. He was born Aug. 25, 1963 in New York City but he grew up in Tampa, FL. Jacobs started out playing drums. But when hip hop started, he turned his drums in for turntables. His first group was called Master Blasters. He DJd for a while and then travelled around the US. He decided to return to Tampa and learn to play piano at Hillsborough Community College. While there, he started working with DJ Kenneth "Kenny K" Waters and they worked in several groups. After Jacobs got married, he and Waters moved to Oakland, CA and they formed Digital Underground with Jimi "Chopmaster J" Dright. Jacobs' main influence was Parliament/Funkadelic. He called Digital Underground's music Rackadelic. After releasing singles on a small label, Digital Underground signed with Tommy Boy in 1989. At first, Jacobs wanted to record politically charged music. After Public Enemy and N.W.A. became popular, he decided to use humor to sell his music. And that's when he started wearing a false nose and glasses on stage and started calling himself Humpty Hump. It worked because The Humpty Dance reached #11 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album Sex Packets was certified Platinum. It's considered to be one of the better rap albums of the era. The Humpty Dance has been sampled plenty of times. Digital Underground toured a lot and their albums sold OK. But radio just refused to play them. This was not unusual for rapper. This comp is a good intro to Digital Underground's music. They recorded four albums for Tommy Boy. Jacobs recorded a couple of solo albums and had success as a producer. The sampling of Humpty Dance generated plenty of money. Jacobs died from an accidental drug overdose on Apr. 22, 2021 at age 57. Here's the video for The Humpty Dance by Digital Underground.
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