Stop whatcha doin', 'Cause I'm about to ruin...

[matt j]

....your day. Must have been overshadowed by DMX's death, but Shock G (aka Humpty Hump aka several other aliases) passed away back at the end of April.

There was a month back sometime in 90 or 91 when I played Sex Packets (concept album!) over and over and then it vanished from my collection. I have no idea what happened to that cassette. Shit.

He liked his oatmeal lumpy. Still amazed they bleep the "Burger King" bathroom now.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBsjggc5jHM

[Hot Pepsi]

The Humpty Dance is the jam.
RIP

[Nefertiti2]

funny, but pretty antisemitic to my eye.

[diggedy derek]

I absolutely love Humpty Dance. It's really incredible. Some of the lyrics are remarkable.

But I did wonder about that, Nefertiti, and that line about "grab 'em in the biscuits" which ain't great. He's playing a character in that song, but still, not something to celebrate.

[matt j]

Hmmm... I've never seen/heard that myself, and if it's mainly the Groucho Marx disguise, then I genuinely don't know. (Is that not a recognized thing anymore?) There is literally nothing negative in the lyrics about the way he looks (instead he celebrates and reverses it). In the context of 90s hip-hop, I'd have had a hard time picking much out as anti-Semitic here. (And there is a lot to pick from in 90s hip-hop.)

In Humpty Dance, the 'grab in the biscuits' line is (of course) quoting a different song which has the lyrics in this context:

"Just act a fool, it's okay if you drool,
'Cause everybody's gonna strip, and jump in the pool,
And doowhatwelike, yeah, and doowhatwelike.
Homegirls, for once, forget you got class,

See a guy you like: just grab 'im in the biscuits!
And doowutchyalike.
Now, red, white, black, tan, yellow, or brown,
It really doesn't matter, we can all get down,

And doowhatwelike, yeah, and doowhatwelike.
From a pink-skinned yankee, to a blue black southerner,
Ditch digger or a governor,
Just doowutchyalike,
"

Which is mainly a 'you thought it would be dirty, but it's not really' joke.

He invented an entire backstory for Humpty (apparently repeated by Casey Kasem verbatim?). Shock G (undisguised) sings back-up in the video there, and Shock G's brother says that at live appearances he'd sometimes dress up as Humpty.

Digital Underground as a whole, of course, deeply problematic lyrics in many other songs, and introduced Tupac, so... you know, ymmv.

[Lang Spoon]

I was getting Sir Nose d'Voidoffunk vibes from the character more than anti-semitism.