“I don’t strive to be McDonald’s with an identical perfect product every time, but I strive to be a 5-star specialty restaurant, where each dish is different,” says Oakland native Shock-G, Humpty, Rackadelic, or you might even know him as Piano Man.
For over two decades Gregory “Shock-G” Jacobs has managed to consistently offer Hip Hop with several specialty dishes in the form of musical hits. From the production of Tupac’s breakthrough hit, “I Get Around” and co-production of his debut album, 2Pacalypse Now, to his own group, Digital Underground’s “Risky Buisness” featuring Murs. The idea of always providing your fan base with new and innovative music consistently seems some what baffling and difficult. With a new EP titled The Greenlight EP in stores now, Shock G of Digital Underground makes an essential ability of creativeness and dedication look easy. RubyHornet correspondent Ashydakid caught up with Humpty for an in-depth interview encompassing religious views, diets, and Hip Hop. Check it out right below.
Rubyhornet: So The Greenlight EP dropped the 18th of May. On the album you guys have a track called “Sittin On The Hitz”. Do you feel like you guys are really just sitting on crates upon crates of hits that have yet to be released? If so why is that?
Shock G: Lol, well not only meaning “yet to be released” hitz, but also meaning– “Underwater Rimes” / “Doowutchyalike” / “Humpty Dance” / “Freaks of the Industry” / “All in the Same Gang” (w/Westcoast Allstars) / “Same Song” / “No Nose Job” / “Kiss u Back” / “I Get Around” (2Pac w/d.u.) / “Return of the Crazy One” / “So Many Tears” (2Pac; d.u. produced) / “I Got 5 On it” (remix w/Luniz) / “We Got More” (w/Luniz) / “Knee Deep (remix w/George Clinton) / “Love Sign” (Prince; d.u. produced) / “Risky Business” (w/Murs) / –meaning all the gold & platinums that have accumulated over the years, and meaning the songs that keep us touring. We sittin’ on theez hitz, son!
RubyHornet: DU’s last album, Cuz A D.U Party Don’t Stop, was released back in 2008. What do you feel is the “why now” in terms of releasing Greenlight? Is Hip Hop missing that D.U. somewhat bizarre sound?
Shock G: Definitely, but what’s missing even more is these 7 gems from any d.u. fan’s collection. Most of these weren’t “throw-aways” but rather, songs that either didn’t fit a past album’s concept, or songs we didn’t own the rights to release at the time due to copyright issues. At least 4 of them were formerly owned by companies that no longer exist, and the copyright has since fell back into our hands.
RubyHornet: Most people are aware that your music is highly influenced from funk bands/artists like Parliament, and George Clinton. How do you feel the relevance of this resonates with the generation of “popular” music that is listened to today?
Shock G: Prince always stated he was heavily influenced by Little Richard & James Brown. Lauryn Hill always lists Nina Simone as her primary influence. 2Pac’s gurus were Chuck D. and Machiavelli the 16th century Italian writer/philosopher. George Clinton himself lists Sly Stone and Frankie Lymon as influences. What makes it different when we say “I Get Around” compared to when the Beach Boys said it in the 60’s? How is Soulja Boy’s “Crank That”, different from our “Humpty Dance”, different from Morris Day’s “Oak Tree”? It’s all in the delivery and the swagg I guess. P-Funk didn’t have emcees, or sample beats, or scratch records over their grooves, but we do, ya feel me?… Okay, but that’s only speaking about the actual production techniques; your question was more about the philosophies and ideas we write about, true? Here’s my spit about that:
“Thug Life” was an explosive concept, but in Digital Underground our motto was always “Love Life,” cherish it, value it beyond all else. So the challenge we faced in the late 90’s when we wrote most of this Greenlight EP was this: How do we make hip-hop songs that bump without promoting hardness, defensiveness, meanness, or violence, within the current monopoly of gangsta rap? How do we keep the Golden-Era party alive & interesting?
People have sometimes accused D.U. of being a group of sexed-out utopian anarchists, but goodtimes & sex is a great topic to me; it’s why we’re all here. Sex gave us music, it gave us Tupac, Biggie, Jam Master J, and Marvin Gaye, but unnecessary violence took them all away. I always understood the purpose of gangsta rap, to re-enpower the underclass, and yes, after time, society always resets itself; much like an earthquake or volcano resets the earth’s surface. But I personally choose to promote peace by writing, rhyming, and most of all living, non-violently. Green earth, green love, Greenlight!!
RubyHornet: As we all know you have been in the game for quite sometime, obviously a seasoned vet, and influential to many. You’ve watched the game evolve. Looking at its current state what is your analysis? Substance wise and even entertainment value?
Shock G: Hip Hop will always be what it needs to be, and right now it needs to be morally light and materialistic in order to go against what was the norm 10 years ago. As long as it flips the script and rebels against what was formally popular, then it’s still Hip Hop. Ten years ago wining & dining females wasn’t cool, neither was tricking (paying for sex), so in true Hip Hop form, we made that cool. Basically, as soon as the mainstream agrees it’s “this”, that’s when we make it “that.”
RubyHornet: A while back I was on your Myspace and I ran across a blog post about the 10 most intelligent reasons why people should avoid eating meat. So it can easily be taken that you are a vegetarian. This is quite interesting, has this always been a way of life for you or was it brought upon later in your life? How serious or level of importance does this play in your life?
Shock G: I’m 7 years vegetarian now and it really is the shiznit!! ..in so many ways, too! I was reading from a book called “Diet For a New America” (by John Robbins) about certain cultures in Europe, Asia, and Africa where they eat less meat & animal products than we do in America. And the people didn’t get all the sicknesses that we over here believe are a natural part of aging. Heart disease, osteoporosis, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, cellulite, aneurysm, prostate cancer, colon cancer, varicose veins, kidney failure, stomach cancer, dementia, alzheimers, all the shit we think is a natural part of aging? It isn’t; it’s because of what we eat, the modern diet. My dad tried ta tell me “high-blood pressure runs in our family” but no it doesn’t Pops; bad diet runs in our family. lol. Aside from physical advantages, there’s also better karma that comes with sparing the lives of other creatures. So called religious people/spiritual people; how can u be truly spiritual when you contribute to the torture & systematic murder of other animals? ..animals who wish to live and be free just like you do?
RubyHornet: Some may say that you are a man of many names, alias’s. Why is this? We all know that Mf DOOM says that he doesn’t want his identity to be known but if you’re a follower you know. Would you consider all of your names to be sort of a gimmick, or even a facade to cover up who you really are? Or is it that you just want to keep people guessing?
Shock G: Ha, gimmicks? keep ’em guessing? hide my true identity? Those are all great guesses but it’s actually none of the above. I do it simply because it’s fun and entertaining to me. When I’m bored with Shock-G, I go in the studio as Humpty. When I’m bored with Humpty, or even with being an emcee in general, I’ll sit down at the keyboard and become the Piano Man. And on those days when I’m not feelin musical at all, I break out my sharpies and become Rackadelic the cartoonist. It just keeps me from hatin’ my job.
Plus, it lets the listener know which mood & personality to expect. When u see the little “Comedy Central” logo in the corner of your TV, u expect a funny movie, but if u see the “Playboy Channel”, u’re expecting some sex & nudity. So when u see my different names, u know which Greg to expect.
But I could never really hide, because if u google “Gregory E. Jacobs” it all comes up anyways.
RubyHornet: D.U. and yourself have a full discography. How difficult is it to be consistently good and continuing to give your fan base quality material?
Shock G: It’s extremely difficult because “good” is always a matter of opinion; whether it’s one person or a billion people, who can really say what’s “good” art-wise? You can say “popular” yes, but “good” is relative to who’s saying it. When u need a limo, a Ferrari ain’t good.
Musically speaking, “good” usually means “similar to something else you’ve done that we’ve liked”. So I probably missed the mark many times because I strive to paint a different picture each time. I don’t strive to be McDonalds with an identical perfect product everytime, but I strive to be a 5-star specialty restaurant, where each dish is different.
RubyHornet: At any time during your career did you ever have the feeling of not meeting that personal bar of achievement quality wise?
Shock G: Shiiiiiot, every album. Too much genre-variety to be a consistent bump like an EPMD, Gangstarr, WuTang, or Too Short album. Take Sex Packets for instance; if “The Humpty Dance” was good, then “Packet Reprise” was crap, and vice versa. On Sons of the P, if the cold & pimpish “Good Thing We’re Rappin” was dope, then “Kiss You Back” was too sweet & pretty. On this new release, if “Greenlight” is good, then “Same Song Live” is questionable (hee hee)… And that’s just in terms of music style, but another way we sometimes missed the bar was in studio sound quality because we put home-studio 4-track cassette recordings on our albums butted up against 64-track premium $1,500 per day studio recordings. Ha, like on Body Hat Syndrome; “Wussup Wit the Luv” featuring Cleetis Mack & Tupac Shakur, which was done in the plush Westlake Audio in Hollywood, was immediately followed by “digital Lover” recorded on a Teac cassette machine at my house in Oakland. If it has a cool aura about it, we’ll throw it on there.
RubyHornet: These days the majority of upcoming artists have created their “buzz” or somewhat success via the internet. How important is the internet been on the later part of your career seeing that you are already a well established artist and you first came out when people were actually buying cd’s and blogs were barely even heard of?
Shock G: The internet saved us; it kept us in the game when the big companies discarded us. I LOVE the internet. It’s like owning your own radio station or TV channel. But I like that comfy feeling of big companies too whenever we get it.
RubyHornet: With the Greenlight EP slated to drop on the 18th what can your loyal fan base expect and what are you offering to the younger crowd that might have just started to follow you?
Shock G: The Greenlight EP offers a dip into a whole different world musically, the d.u. world, not just different from what’s out now, but different from all other music ever released. Not because we’re soooo different than anyone else in our basic nature, but more because we nurture, cultivate, and package our differentness. We specifically, and confidently, spotlight those things about us that aren’t the same as everyone else, where some artists prefer to spotlight their ability to nail what’s hot & popular. Everyone’s got a unique & weird side, but we go with our weird side on purpose. And that’s one way that digital underground is different.
I always felt I could of just streamlined those aspects about us that sold the most records, like a Dr. Dre or Eminem, and make every song pass a quality test. But then again, that’s McDonalds, and I don’t strive to be that type of artist or producer. I like ta sit back and laff at the possibility of people going “What the fuck is this??” when they first put the album on.
RubyHornet: Where is the next venue that we can be expecting Peanut Hakeem and D.U. to rock, and are you working on any other projects that our readers need to know of?
Shock G: Where u least expect us, that’s where we’ll be. Ya might see us rock an award show on TV, or ya might catch me rockin downtown with a homeless person on the sidewalk. It’s all the same thing ta me, just enjoying this adventure called life, on this little rock they call Earth, flyin’ around the sun wit the rest of us.