Humpty Hump killed it!

90's Music Videos West Coast Rap All Stars Hip Hop 90s Old School NWA California

The West Coast All Stars was a posse of hip-hop artists from the west coast of the United States, best known for the 1990 anti-violence posse cut "We're All In The Same Gang."
Members included Def Jef, Eazy-E, Michel'le, Tone-Loc, Ice-T, JJ Fad, Young MC, Above The Law, Digital Underground, MC Hammer, King Tee, Oaktown's 3.5.7, Dee Barnes with Body & Soul, Dr. Dre & MC Ren and others.
It was nominated at the 33rd Grammy Awards in 1991 for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.

Between Humpty Hump from Digital Underground and Kane-guitarist Dennis van Leeuwen

Neither did I…

until the story got out about the "wide stance" that the Senator likes to keep in the bathroom. Now, I am all for freakiness, the mile high club (which for those who are curious, I am a member of the club, having gotten brain on a flight from Oakland to NYC from a girlfriend and got the box from another girlfriend. Being 6 foot 4 and 270 pounds, airplanes are not the most spacious place to "have the box lunch", but the bathroom, with the woman sitting on the sink is the best option that I have found… If there are others, I would love to hear them…) and other sexual proclivities, but once you get famous, you have to curtail your public actions.

I just saw the movie The Bank Job. Again, not to spoil the plot, there are pictures of a royal family member (female) getting the Burger King treatment from two black dudes. While freaky threesomes are the things that good dreams are made from (no, I have yet to be that fortunate in my life, but I subscribe to the Jimmy Valvano motto, "Don't give up, don't ever give up") you have to only have these things in the privacy of your own home, where you get to control the climate of the situation.

Now on to my real subject that I had on my mind… Digital Underground.

This is the group that is widely credited for bringing Tupac Shakur to the mainstream audience. More to the point, they represented a non-gansta rap voice in hip-hop during the nineties. They rapped about non serious things that were amusing and sometimes thought provoking. I was driving to Napa today and I was listening to "Freaks of the Industry" I was driving along, singing the lyrics, when some of the words struck a chord with me.

Say you're G'in' [G'in'?]
Nobody else is seein'
And the freak that you're wit' is in front of you,
Bendin' over naked, and she's leanin' on the dresser [Ooh yeah]
You're lookin' at her from the rear [Yeah] She looks just like Vanessa [The right stuff]

Uh uh, not Vanessa with the singer career,
But the X-rated video queen,

Know what I mean? [Uh huh] A'ight, here's the scene:
You're lying on you're back with your head on the edge of the bed,
The booty's two feet from your head:
Should you: A, take the time to find a condom,
B, you walk right over and you pound 'em,
C, tell her that you want her love,
Well the answer is D, [D], all of the above.
So you're freakin' [freakin'], the furniture's squeakin' [squeakin']
She's tweakin', sayin' that she's weak in the knees.
Cheek to cheek, and pound for pound,
You're taxin' it and waxin' it and workin' it around,
'Til the booty starts makin' that clappin' sound,
Which is cool, but your friends are chillin' in the other room.
The clappin's getting louder, you don't want them to clown you,
In this situation, what do you do: [What?]
A, you, plain and simply, back up off her
B, you hit it just a little bit softer,
C, you take it out and put it in het butt,
Well, D is what I do, so, yo, listen up:
I put a towel on the floor by the two inch gap under the door
Now they can't see me any more.
Check the locks so they can't clock, but they can listen.
There'll be no bargin' in and there'll be no dissin' [Dissin']
Gettin' back to my mission, break out the whipped cream and the
cherries,
Then I go through all the fly positions:
My head under her leg under my arm under her toe.
She says, 'I like it when you scream, baby let yourself go.'
I hit it and split it, lick it and quit it.
After the ride, put my clothes on and walk outside,
And before anybody gets a chance to speak,
I say, 'Yo, don't say nuttin', I guess I'm just a freak!'

What do you really do in those situations? If I lived alone, I would kick out my friends and let the freak show begin in earnest. If you can't kick them out (maybe because they pay rent or something like that…lol) then you really are faced with some sort of dilemma. Two things come to mind when I think about this song and the issue.

1. You gotta hit it softly. Once, I was with my BC, and I was beating the living stuffing out of the box, and her roommate is right next door, her room only separated by a pocket door. Actually, I really don't care, since sex is a primal quality we share with animals, but she kinda did, so I backed off, and hit it softer and turned up the music
2. Another time, I was chillin with my boys and one of them gets lucky and retires to his room. I go back to watching the TV and talking shit, like I normally do. All of a sudden, someone was terrorizing the box like Osama Bin Laden cuz his partner was clearly audible above the TV set. There is always that initial level of awkwardness, but we are adults and wished we were there (without the audience or friends around) beating it up like the Hamburglar

   All I got to say is "Play on Player" and "Piano man take us outta here…

The Battle of the Brews features over 20 local breweries, some highlights being North Coast, Anderson Valley, Bear republic, Russian River and Moylan's.  On top a good selection of beers, expect there to be a good selection of food as well.  This is fairly standard, good beer, good food, what makes this stand out from any other beer festival?   Two words:

Digital Underground

Now they may be out of the spotlight, but as anyone who has seen them live can tell you, Digital Underground can rock a party.

For more information you can check their website or contact Dave for tickets at dave @ dmjlaw.com.  The party kicks off at 5:30 at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, so move quickly if you want to attend.

Let's get stoopid! 

So yesterday I posted a horrific music video featuring the 1986 Los Angeles Dodgers. Someone then informed me of the fine video above. Right now everyone in Dallas/Fort Worth has Jason Kidd-fever with the Mavericks recent trade. This isn't Kidd's first stop in Dallas - he was originally drafted by the Mavs in 1994.

1994 was also the year that Kidd made the mistake of recording a rap song with Money B of Digital Underground. The list of basketball players who thought they could rap is long:

• Shaq
• Kobe
• Ron Artest
• Tony Parker

But this effort (if you can call it that) might be the worst of them all. Would Mark Cuban have been as willing to part with $17 million to get this trade done had he heard this rap first?

THE REAAAAAAAL (c) Prodigy

RELATED: Dallas Penn Doesn't Care About White People. Keep doing your thing E, melanin or not.

Passion of the Weiss had a great post today about Digital Underground, whose great funky songs are largely forgotten by those who did not happen to be in high school or college when they came out in 1990.

One of the members had the only decent hip-hop radio show available where we grew up, and we used to listen to it to hear something, anything in hip-hop. Ah, a childhood in the provinces.

Anyway, Passion of the Weiss has "The Humpty Dance," "Freaks of the Industry," and "Doowhutchyalike."

My favorite has always been I Get Around, which features a young 2Pac.

Click below for an mp3 and buy Digital Underground on Amazon and iTunes.

Mp3: Digital Underground, I Get Around.

5. NAS - REPRESENT

NAS was huge as soon as Illmatic came out. Fresh out Queensbridge (also home to Mobb Deep), NAS would help transform hip-hop into Gangsta rap. If you were to map out the lineage of this music he'd be in the center, the bridge from Big Daddy Kane and Rakim to 50 cent and Jay-Z (although Jay-Z would disagree). Most people would have put "life's a bitch" as the selected single, but I've always felt this track has something more.

4. A TRIBE CALLED QUEST - OH MY GOD w/ Busta Rhymes

Tribe is the epitome of that early 90s hip hop sound; uplifting lyrics and soft beats. And while the rest of New York would soon abandon it in favor of hardcore rap, Tribe would stay true to its origins, releasing 5 albums until their eventual break up in the late 90s. Their influence can be seen on many modern artists including Common, Blackstar, and Lupe Fiasco. There's tons of singles I could have selected for this (scenario, bonita aplebaum, can i kick it, etc.) but I wanted to see a bit more of early Busta. Plus the videos a throw to spike lee's Do the right thing (1989).

3. THE BEASTIE BOYS - SO WHAT'CHA WANT

Already established, the Beastie Boys were capable of doing of producing a variety of sounds. While Paul's Boutique was a step away from the cheesy, early hip-hop of License to Ill, check your head was the return to the NY sound. Mostly, I find it amazing that three white, upper class, jewish kids stayed relevant for so long.

2. THE NOTORIOUS BIG - JUICY

You can't talk about 90s hip hop, or any hip hop, without talking about BIG, his explosion onto the scene changed everything. Thanks largely in part to Puffy's melodic beats, Biggie's rhymes about drugs, would become more acceptable and gangsta rap was born. Now there's two types of rap, BB and AB, before biggie and after biggie (I know you Tupac fans would disagree but lets remember, he wasn't always gangsta, I do recall a small stint with Digital Underground.)

1. THE WU TANG CLAN - C.R.E.A.M

And then there was Wu-Tang. While everyone was rapping about parties and black power and anything else, Wu Tang was telling tales of New York's dirty underbelly. They were gangsta rap before there was gangsta rap and no one did it better. Anything off of 36 chambers could have worked for this post but I chose cream because Cash still Rules Everything Around Me.

There's a lot of other artists and songs that could go on this list. Please post other songs you like, I'd love to see them. AND GO WATCH THE WACKNESS, IT'S GREAT.

A'ight, stop whatcha doin'
'Cause I'm about to ruin
The image and the style that ya used to.

Yeah, that's about right.

As I pace at vacation's starting line, what in my wandering mind should appear but Digital Underground's 1989 rap classic, "The Humpty Dance".

It's one of the genre's best, no doubt. First of all, the fact that it introduces a dance gives it a leg up on the competition. Songs in that category have a great track record. Better yet, the Humpty Hump dance doesn't require significant skill:

It's real easy to do. … It's supposed to look like a fit or a convulsion. … Ya got it down when ya appear to be in pain.

Check out the lyrics now — or wait to play the music video from YouTube embedded below because you'll have few if any problems understanding the lyrics. They aren't obscene, not by my (liberal) standards anyway. But they sure as hell are depraved. Delightfully so, in fact. I'll excerpt some of my favorite turns of phrase in a bit.

DU, from Oakland, had a humorous persona (they disbanded in 1996). "The Humpty Dance" features Humpty Hump, the pickle-nosed alter ego of Shock G, the band's front man. Humpty, "pronounced with an 'Umpty'" :) , has the sex-hungry braggadocio of many rappers. But unlike so many, he doesn't take himself seriously. Not one bit. And his delivery is comical.

"The Humpty Dance" grabs the whole enchilada — or should I say pickle — with first-rate music. Humpty's rapping finds ample breathing space between a pumping bass line, augmented with see-saw synth, and sizzling horns. The beat is pure funk. It grabs immediately and is both persistent and pervasive (to coin a phrase).

The video, which follows, doesn't do "The Humpty Dance" justice. That wouldn't have been easy.

I've embedded the video here, though, because — surprise — it comes complete with audio, enabling you to hear this gem without leaving QC.

To me the best thing about "The Humpty Dance": It's played strictly for laughs. It's high-larious …

Yo ladies, oh how I like to funk thee.
And all the rappers in the top ten, please allow me to bump thee.

…

I'm crazy.
Allow me to amaze thee.
They say I'm ugly but it just don't faze me.
I'm still gettin' in the girls' pants
And I even got my own dance

…

First I limp to the side like my leg was broken
Shakin' and twitchin' kinda like I was smokin'
Crazy wack funky
People say "Ya look like M.C. Hammer on crack, Humpty!"

And the shoutouts are cool:

Black people, do the Humpty Hump, do the Humpty Hump
White people, do the Humpty Hump, do the Humpty Hump
Puerto Ricans, do the Humpty Hump, just keep on doin' the hump
Samoans, do the Humpty Hump, do the Humpty Hump

So do you like? Hope so! Oh, here's what I take is a professional review (more professional than mine anyway).

Let's get stupid!

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"Cruisin Down the Street with My Six Fo"

"Do the Humpty Hump"

Evah Fan (Website).

I gotta tell you that I'm lovin the concept, being a DJ I have come across plenty of songs that I've wanted to share with others. Unfortunately other than having them buy the CD solely on my recommendation or illegally download the song (something that I would never endorse) I haven’t really found a good way do this… until now!

So I’ve taken the liberty of uploading a couple of songs that I’ve remixed or extended for play in the club. Most of them stem from the original being just way too damn short to get away with playing or from the “No Rap Rule” we have. So keep in mind that these songs were intended to be played in a strip club and have hot stripper chicks dancing to them while they play… hehehe

Admittedly I’m no professional when it comes to remixing a song, but I’m kinda proud of what I’ve been able to do so far, and inevitably whenever I play one in the club someone always asks about it. Always makes me feel good when something I did just to satisfy the curiosity of rather I could do it or not gets me a little praise from total strangers. I’m generally a shy person, but when you get me in the DJ booth I love to show off, and in a gentleman’s club if you can get the customers to shift their attention from the ½ naked woman on the stage to the 300 lbs Mexican guy in the DJ booth… you’ve gotta be doing something!

Anyway, without further a due… here’s my MuxTape and the play list:

http://th0r4z1n3.muxtape.com/

And as long as I'm giving out "Twitter Plugs" don't forget to check out my tweets @ http://twitter.com/Th0r4z1n3

On The Line – Fono [DL]
[audio=http://www.rthawkins.com/music/ontheline.mp3]

Underwater Rimes – Digital Underground [DL]
[audio=http://www.rthawkins.com/music/underwaterrimes.mp3]

A Strange Education – The Cinematics [DL]
[audio=http://www.rthawkins.com/music/strangeeducation.mp3]

Keep The Car Running – Arcade Fire [DL]
[audio=http://www.rthawkins.com/music/keepthecarrunning.mp3]

More To Live For – After Midnight Project [DL]
[audio=http://www.rthawkins.com/music/moretolivefor.mp3]

See These Bones – Nada Surf [DL]
[audio=http://www.rthawkins.com/music/seethesebones.mp3]

Hysteria – Muse [DL]
[audio=http://www.rthawkins.com/music/hysteria.mp3]

10,000 x 10,000 – The Myriad [DL]
[audio=http://www.rthawkins.com/music/10000X10000.mp3]

For All These Years – Northern Room [DL]
[audio=http://www.rthawkins.com/music/foralltheseyears.mp3]

Candyman

I remember when I first realized how old I was: I was on Napster (when it used to be free) looking for a song by Slick Rick, and I couldn’t remember the name of it. So I figured that I would just pop into the rap chat room and ask. Everybody in there claimed to “know” old school, so I tried to explain how the song went, and was met with “Slick Rick? Who’s that?” “I wasn’t even alive in the 80s” “I thought you meant old school like Dr. Dre - G Thang!”

Fuckin’ twerps! I was still listening to that album at that time.

Anyway the song I was lookin’ for was Slick Rick - I Shouldn’t Have Done It and apparently they won’t let me post it in my blog, so you have to click the link to see it, or just enjoy this other video

Slick Rick

Boyz II Men, ABC, BBD: "The East Coast Family"...

Bell Biv DeVoe

At the playground, ya knooooow...

Another Bad Creation

Boyz II Men

Bum stickity bum stickity bum bum...

Das Efx

Yes, that's really Nas...

MC Serch

Look closely, see if you can find 2Pac dancin' in the background. Oh yea, I never forgot where ya came from Pac...

Digital Underground

Oh yea, and before he was a porno star, check out Son Doobie...

Funk Doobiest

And of coarse, who could forget the first Rock/Rap colabo…

Run DMC

Super Cat

Heavy D

Man do these videos bring back alot of memories... to be young again.

P.S.

Oh yea, and who could forget the biggest rap rivalry of its time: Dr. Dre & Eazy-E

Dr. Dre

And the reply...

Eazy-E

2Pac Ft. Digital Underground - I Get Around

Whatever happened to these kind of videos? You know, the ones where you just randomly pick people and bring your cousins to the video shoot to be in the background (i.e Summertime, Juicy, etc. LOL) IMAO at 1:10 mark where the lady starts chasing 2Pac (R.I.P)

Watch the video: Deconstructing Digital Underground: Do Me, Baby! from jeff on Vimeo.

Crazy88Since88 says this is NSFR (Not Safe For Ramadan)