Rapper Shock G's legacy from Humpty Hump and Tupac to a 'condom jar' on tour

Shock G passed away on Thursday at the age of 57 leaving behind a long and enduring legacy.

Born August 25 1963 as Gregory Jacobs, he grew up playing music, beginning as a drummer before dropping out of high school to form a DJ crew and eventually going to college to study music.

His father reported that the rapper was found dead inside a hotel room, writes TMZ, and fans across the world are devastated by his passing.

Famed for his work creating the Digital Underground, helping bring Tupac to the music scene, and creating the incredible Humpy Hump, we take a look back on his legacy.

Digital Underground

Shock G formed the hip hop group Digital Underground alongside Jimi ‘Chopmaster J’ Dright and Kenneth ‘Kenny-K’ Waters in 1987.

The group broke out with their single Doowhutchyalike in 1989 and their debut album Sex Packets.

The band was influential in creating new music and impacting the hip-hop genre across their six released albums.

While the group went through many different lineups, Shock G stayed constant until the group disbanded in 2008

Rapper Ice Cube paid tribute to the star and his legacy, tweeting: “RIP Shock-G/Humpty Hump. I remember when NWA’s road manager Atron said he had a group called Digital Underground. He played DOWHATCHALIKE video & I went crazy.

“I had to sample DU on JACKIN FOR BEATS and WHO’S THE MACK. And nobody had a better stage show. A true Bay Area original.”

Humpty Hump

Just as famous as Shock G, were his many alter egos and none more beloved than Humpty Hump, a rapper with a fake nose, glasses, and a nasaly voice.

He was so good at playing the role that many early listeners believed that Shock G and Humpty Hump were different people.

The character made his debut on Disco Underground highest charting song, The Humpty Dance which has become one of the most sampled songs recorded by a hip hop/rap artist.

It boasts over 100 usages in other songs, including those by Will Smith, Public Enemy, Ice Cube, and the Spice Girls, and its legacy is undeniable.

Wild tour stories

Shock G’s legacy wasn’t just music.

He and the members of Digital Underground kept things interesting on tour with classic musician wild tour stories.

He recalled: “We had a contest that it was a pot. Bring your used condoms to the road manager’s room at the end of the night. Everyone who doesn’t put a condom into the jar has to put a hundred bucks in.

“By the end of the tour, whoever had the most condoms in there gets the pot. And the pot was up to almost five grand by the end of the tour. It was a nasty jar. And Pac won that s**t.”

Meeting Tupac

Shock G’s integral friendship with Tupac changed the music genre forever.

He recalled his first-ever meeting with Tupac to Rolling Stone saying: “I’m at the mixing board, and he kind of stood right over me. … He goes, ‘You want me to do it right now?’”

He described listening to Tupac rap for the first time, saying: “Pac just stood there and busted a few rhymes for me. And looked me in the eye, moved around a little bit. Pac’s diction impressed me that I could hear what he was saying.

“One of the songs was called The Case of the Misplaced Mic. He busted something like that and then he busted something that was more political. I hit Atron like, ‘He’s good, he’s good.’”

After that, he brought a young Tupac into the Digital Underground, where Tupac made his debut on ‘Same Song’.

This would give Tupac his first tour alongside Big Daddy Kane, and his first movie role in 1991’s Nothing but Trouble.

“He was on TNT Records [with us] for four years. He was with Death Row for nine months. So do the math,” said Shock G.

Relationship with Tupac

Shock G was central to Tupac’s meteoric rise helping produce his breakthrough hit I Get Around, single So Many Tears and co-producing 2Pacalypse Now , Tupac’s debut solo album.

Years later Shock G revealed that I Get Around had a hidden meaning just for him from Tupac.

He described being worried at the time of producing a song that was about sexual conquests while he was engaged.

Tupac, who ghostwrote Shock G’s verse, wrote the line “just cause I’m a freak doesn’t mean that we could hit the sheets.”

Shock G said on the lyric: “I knew he was honoring [my fiancée] just then. Cause Pac blessed our relationship. And when I got to that line, I could tell that he knew what my struggle was.

“He was the first person in three years to ask for Shock G and not Humpty. He gave me life. Pac freed me with that, man.”

Shock G later called Tupac: “like an old cousin, like a friend, family member.”

In 1995 speaking about his times with Shock G, Tupac said “I look back with the greatest fondness. Those were like some of the best times of my life…”

Last time seeing Tupac alive

Shock G said in 2017: “The last time I ever saw Tupac alive is a magical story that almost sounds like fiction and it’s not.”

The year Tupac died, he bumped into Shock G and money-B at the back of an LL Cool J concert.

They stood at the back of the room and rhymed along to the show together.

Shock G broke down recounting the story to Rolling Stone saying: “And that was the last time the three of us were ever together. The last time me and Mon saw Pac alive. And just when I think about that as a goodbye [crying] … That s**t’s heavy. That’s s**t’s so fucking heavy.

“Me, him and Mon. Backs against the wall in the worst seats in the house. Jumping every word to LL’s show.

“I can’t think of anything else besides that was some kind of angel putting us together to say peace in the right way. You know. Like kids at a concert together.”

He finished: “That was my last vision of Pac, disappearing into the crowd. We all went our separate ways and that was it.”

Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk