Digital Underground

Digital Underground was an alternative hip hop group from Oakland, California. Their personnel changed and rotated with each album and tour.

Digital Underground's leader and mainstay was Greg "Shock G" Jacobs (also known as Humpty Hump); Shock G formed the group in 1987 with Jimi "Chopmaster J" Dright of Berkeley, California, and Tampa hip-hop radio deejay Kenneth "Kenny-K" Waters.

Heavily influenced by the various funk bands of the 1970s, Digital Underground sampled such music frequently, which became a defining element of West Coast rap. As "Rackadelic", Jacobs designed album covers and cartoon-laced liner notes, in homage to Parliament-Funkadelic album designs. Digital Underground is also notable for launching the career of member Tupac Shakur, as well as spinning off side projects and solo acts including Raw Fusion, Saafir, and singer Mystic.

Following the release of their "Doowutchyalike" single and video in the summer of 1989, the band gained popularity with their song "The Humpty Dance" in 1990. Digital Underground toured nearly every year up until 2008; this consisted 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 and U.K. appeared on the band's albums. 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.

Sons of the P

Sons of the P is the second album by American rap group Digital Underground, released on October 15, 1991. The album featured two hit singles, "No Nose Job" and "Kiss You Back", both of which were written by, and featured the lead vocals of Greg Jacobs (a.k.a. Shock G/Humpty Hump), and the latter of which featured multi-layered choruses and background vocals sung by Boni Boyer, who briefly worked with D.U. shortly after her stint with Prince's Sign of the Times/Love Sexy band. It is sometimes mistakenly reported that Kiss You Back was co-written & co-performed by George Clinton, but his name appropriately appears in the writers credit due to a sample of "(Not Just) Knee Deep" by Funkadelic. He did however actively participate in the writing and recording of the title track "Sons of the P", to which he also contributed vocals, and which marked one of the earliest studio guest appearances by Clinton on a Hip Hop release, preceded only by Kurtis Blow's "Magilla Gorilla" released in 1986. Both the album and the single "Kiss You Back" were each certified Gold by the RIAA.