Digital Underground surfaces to rap and rock

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

Shock-G, better known as Humpty Hump, and fellow members of Digital Underground will perform late Monday night at the Pipeline Café. The Oakland, Calif.-based hip-hop crew formed in 1987 and gained its greatest success with "Sex Packets" in 1990. Digital Underground 10 p.m. Monday Pipeline Café $20 479-6007, 589-1999

And while you're at it, ever wonder what happened to Digital Underground? Uh-huh, the Oakland, Calif.-based hip-hop collective whose funk-tinged musings "The Humpty Dance" and "Kiss You Back" became radio hits in an early '90s rap world gone full-blown gangsta.

Well, stop watcha doin', 'cause I'm about to ruin the peace of mind you've enjoyed for the last 10 years.

The rap crew now most famous for giving a pre-Suge Knight/pre-"Poetic Justice" Tupac Shakur his first break on vinyl — before he left after one EP for greater fame and glory — is in Honolulu for a Monday night show at the Pipeline Café. And oh yeah, Humpty Hump himself, Shock-G is still rockin' the fake schnozz with the D.U. crew.

Formed in 1987, Digital Underground gained its greatest success with the 1990 album "Sex Packets," which skillfully blended the funk-rap of the day with clever, flat-out funny lyrics miles away from addressing the issues of, say, Compton. Songs were typically interpreted by Shock-G in a variety of costumes and characters. The most famous of these was Humpty Hump, who wore a Groucho Marx-style fake-nose/mustache/glasses combo and rapped about how he was "ugly, but it just don't faze me."

Digital Underground continued to notch semi-hit albums and singles on the R&B/hip-hop and dance charts before all but dropping into obscurity somewhere around 1996. More recently, Shock-G and D.U. partner Money B. played host — along with porn everyman Ron Jeremy — on "Sex And The Studio: Episode One," a DVD series that promises the experience of watching "your favorite rappers interact with your favorite adult stars."

Treach from Naughty By Nature, Warren G., fellow funk-rap veterans De La Soul and (surprise, surprise) Snoop Dogg are among the hip-hop stars sharing their profundities with the porn stars.

Deep stuff? Fo shizzle.

Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8005.