Gregory Jacobs, the charismatic, affable Digital Underground rapper-producer who performed as Shock G and Humpty Hump, was found dead Thursday at a hotel room in Tampa, Florida. Jacobs’ father confirmed the musician’s death to TMZ, though a cause of death remains unknown. He was 57.
“34 years ago almost to the day we had a wild idea we can be a hip-hop band and take on the world through it all the dream became a reality and the reality became a nightmare for some,” Digital Underground’s Chopmaster J wrote on Instagram. “And now he’s awaken from the fame long live shock G Aka Humpty Hump and Rest In Peace my Brotha Greg Jacobs!!! #digitalunderground.”
Over the course of six albums — most notably 1990’s Sex Packets and 1991’s Sons of the P — Digital Underground expanded on Parliament-Funkadelic’s bouncy, elastic funk and outlandish, occasionally goofy stage personas and costumes to become a singular hip-hop group. “A Digital Underground show was like a vaudevillian variety show,” Chopmaster J told Rolling Stone in 2017. While the group went through numerous lineup changes over the years, Jacobs, who co-founded the collective, always remained at the center before disbanding the group in 2008. He assumed various identities, but none more famous than Humpty Hump, the fur-wearing braggadocious rapper whose “Humpty Dance” remains a paragon of classic hip-hop more than 30 years later.
Tags:
Best guide to hip hop, soul, reggae concerts & events in San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles & New York City + music, videos, radio and more
Ledisi
Sunday, Apr 14 @ Fox Theater, Oakland
Steel Pulse
Thursday, Apr 18 @ UC Theatre, Berkeley
Mario Hodge
Saturday, May 4 @ Moose Lodge, El Sobrante
10 members
49 members
19 members
46 members
© 2024 Created by Ren the Vinyl Archaeologist. Powered by