Shock G of Digital Underground dies at 57
The group is best known for the hit singles “Doowutchyalike” and “The Humpty Dance”.
Following the tragic deaths of hip-hop icons DMX and Black Rob, comes the sad news that rap veteran Shock G of Digital Underground has passed at age 57.
A cause of death has not yet been revealed, but Digital Underground co-founder, Chopmaster J confirmed the news in a post shared on his Instagram account.
Shock G, real name Gregory Jacobs, started Digital Underground with Chopmaster J in the late ’80s and the group put out albums through the mid-’00s — until dropping their final project in 2008 titled “Cuz a D.U. Party Don’t Stop!”. The group is best known for the hit singles “Doowutchyalike” and “The Humpty Dance” by Shock G’s alter ego Humpty Hump.
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“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,” Chopmaster J wrote. “And now he’s awaken from the fame long live shock G Aka Humpty Hump and Rest In Peace my Brotha Greg Jacobs!!!”
Shock G is also instrumental in the development of TuPac’s career. Pac featured on the group’s single “Same Song,” and Shock G co-produced the late rapper’s debut album “2Pacalypse Now” and his singles “I Get Around” and “So Many Tears.”
“Our cash cow was Humpty,” Shock G. told the Indy Star in 2015. “But behind the scenes, all we did all day on the bus was watch Malcolm X tapes. We’re in that zone of Stokely Carmichael/Kwame Toure. So we were excited about Pac. He was the outlet that (record label) Tommy Boy didn’t allow us.”
Shock G said of Pac in a 2004 interview, “Those who knew him behind the scenes saw a person who was always reading, studying, organizing, and plotting his next move, instead of only the wild person who we all saw publicly. Had we not pulled him on tour in 1990, he had plans to accept a seat as a chairman within a campus struggle organization that had invited him to Atlanta.”
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In addition to Pac, Shock G also produced tracks for artists like Dr. Dre, Monie Love, Raw Fusion, Prince, Mac Mall, Murs, KRS-One, and others. In October 2004, the rapper/producer dropped his first independent album ”Fear of a Mixed Planet’, and noted in an interview at the time that the project was a “chance to speak my heart and mind as Greg Jacobs, instead of only what I think “Humpty”, “Shock G”, or “Piano-Man” should say,” he said.
“They are more-less characters, personalities that I write for, ya feel me? I’m not as smooth as “Shock G”, or as wild as “Humpty”. They were just rappers that I myself wanted to see, emcees that I thought would be cool, so I portrayed them myself, to entertain myself as well as the masses,” he explained.
“My regular personality, Greg Jacobs, is more personal and shy and needs way less attention than “they” do. On the album “Fear of a Mixed Planet” Shock G is named as the artist, but I’m actually just being my regular self “Greg” on a lot of the songs,” Shock G continued.
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