Digital Underground

As mainstream ’80s hip-hop operated in seemingly polarised themes of street rap and political consciousness, Digital Underground specialised in goofball fun. Led by Gregory "Shock G" Jacobs (born in 1963 in New York City), the group took inspiration from Parliament-Funkadelic soundscapes. The clique, having added mainstay spitter Money B and others, emerged in 1990 with Sex Packets. Coated in whimsy, the debut LP featured "The Humpty Dance", a silly sex anthem that doubled as a stylistic mission statement; Shock G's alter ego, Humpty Hump, wore a prosthetic nose and rapped in a nasal tone to distinguish between Shock's typical icy-cool delivery. Digital Underground continued their oddball march with subsequent releases between 1991 and 2008. Most notably, the 1991 EP This Is an E.P. Release produced "Same Song", a track that marked the debut of Tupac Shakur. Before his life took a more dangerous turn, Shakur, like the rest of the world, danced with the Underground.