Digital Underground Shock G
August 25th – Digital Underground founder Shock G was born Gregory E. Jacobs on this day in 1963 in Brooklyn, New York.
After relocating to Tampa, Florida from New York City, as a young teen, Shock G formed The Master Blasters, a sound system crew which consisted of three deejays and four MC’s.
The Master Blasters would perform before large crowds at Riverfront Park gatherings on Sunday afternoons.
Eventually Shock G’s reputation as a DJ caught the attention of Tony Stone, Program Director of Tampa’s WTMP radio, who gave the young Shock G a regular radio slot on the city’s top Black music radio station.
Shock G hosted a daily show on WTMP as Gregory Racker, making him the youngest radio host in Florida with a regular timeslot.
Later he would attend Hillsborough Community College where he studied music theory and piano.
It was at Hillsborough where he met the late Kenny Waters a.k.a. Kenny K.
The duo began performing as The Chill Factor and The Four Horsemen.
The two also would perform in several RnB bands around the US, with Shock G serving as the keyboardist.
In 1985, Shock G found his way to Oakland, California where he got a job in a music store.
It was here where Digital Underground was formed.
Along with Waters and Jimi Dright a.k.a. Chopmaster J they formed Digital Underground and released the single “Your Life’s A Cartoon” on Macola Records.
In 1989, Digital Underground signed with Tommy Boy Records and released the classic single “Doowutchylike”.
In 1990, the group’s debut album followed “Sex Packets”, which was almost a hip-hop reincarnation of P-Funk.
The group then put out their smash hit “The Humpty Dance”, which remains a hip-hop anthem until this very day.
“The Humpty Dance” saw Shock G take on the persona of Humpty Hump, an alter-ego that wore a Groucho Marx nose and glasses set with a comedic flare.
Shock G has taken on many artistic personas throughout his career like Rackadelic, MC Blowfish, Ice Michael Boston, The Computer Woman, ButtaFly and Peanut Hakeem.
Digital Underground by this point also consisted of DJ Fuze, Money-B, Schmoovy Schmoov, Ramone “Pee Wee” Gooden and a young Tupac Shakur serving as a roadie, dancer and occasional MC.
Shock G would release nine albums with Digital Underground and become one of the most creative producers in hip-hop history.
Over the years, Shock would collaborate with, or produce music for, the likes of George Clinton, Prince, KRS-One, Mac Mall, The Luniz, Murs as well as co-producing 2Pac’s debut album “2Pacalypse Now”.
Shock G also appeared in the film “Nothing But Trouble” with Digital Underground performing as the world’s first hip-hop band with 2Pac making his professional rapping debut on the song “Same Song”.
Shock G is considered, by many, as a one of the most original innovators in hip-hop history.