Well, I feel like I need to add a new feature to Virtual Bomaniland, so I’m going to discuss an old school “classic” every Thursday. Some will be albums I love that everyone loves. Some will be those that were once considered part of the canon but now have been forgotten. Others will be classics that were never that damn good in the first place.
No fancy title. Just the Old School Record of the Week.
This week–Digital Underground’s Sex Packets.
igital Underground had a strange musical life. They were technically a group, but Shock G was the only person signed under DU. Their first album was a visionary classic, but they could never do a true repeat because sampling laws changed to make a production like Sex Packets too expensive for the sales hip hop records generated in those days. And they are considered by many to be a one-hit wonder because “The Humpty Dance,” a novelty record, trumped everything else in their catalog in terms of notoriety.
But outside of the Shocklees, Vietnam Sadler and DJ Muggs, you’ll have a hard time finding anyone as good as patchwork sampling as Shock G. Guys like Dre and Kanye West were great at finding the perfect break to loop, but Shock and those folks were fantastic and chopping those samples up and throwing other samples before, after, over and under the backbone of a track. Sex Packets is a masterpiece in that respect. Shock took a stack of P-Funk records and gave them fantastic new life. Check “Doowhatchulike” and see how he scratched in so many layers and did so while creating a leaner sound than the Bomb Squad would. You can hear the same thing on “The Humpty Dance.”
Another gigantic plus for this record–“Freaks of the Industry” is still one of the greatest sex joints ever. Shock was even kind enough to let Money B get a verse, and he handles it. Shock’s last verse is some of the greatest stuff ever made and comes with one of the best closings…
“After the ride/put my clothes on and walk outside/and before anybody had a chance to speak/I say yo, ‘don’t say nothin/I guess I’m just a freak!'”
Might not sound like much to you from there, but throw that in with that killer bassline and moaning sounds that work subtly (in fact, more subtly than Marvin Gaye’s “You Sure Love to Ball”) and you’ve got somethin’ serious.
But here’s what makes this album eternal–its storylines are absolutely absurd but still totally believable.
True story–me and Lord Amaru were in his office talking about that album, and he mentioned how he was upset that he didn’t get to attend “Gutfest ’89,” a festival immortalized in a song of the same title. Years later, he learned that the festival didn’t exist.
“You know,” he said, “I figured I would have known about that. I was in San Jose, so someone would have told me about that. But it sounded so real.”
I responded, “wait, it was fake? The packets were real, right?”
The packets are the infamous sex packets. According to Shock, they were created by some doctor and could recreate the euphoria of sex. I figured that some crackpot doctor had come up with them. I doubted they worked, but I did believe someone had come up with them.
Of course, no such thing has ever been created.
And if you didn’t know, Shock and Humpty were the same person. Most of us know this already, but don’t act like Shock didn’t have you fooled for years. He would even show up in concert dressed as Humpty with his brother, who looked much like him, pretending to be Shock.
But it all sounded so damn real while sounding totally unrealistic. Every bit of this album is like that. It’s a really bizarre trip through a science fiction incarnation of Oakland. Absolute genius from start to finish.
But all we know is “The Humpty Dance” these days. In ’97, The Source named Sex Packets as one of the 100 greatest albums ever. If someone began to do such a list now, it’s unlikely Sex Packets would make it. That’s okay. I mean, the album is 16 years old, and it dropped during the infancy of hip hop’s album era.
Here’s the problem–I doubt people would even consider it. It’s easily one of the greatest albums ever made and one that shouldn’t be forgotten. Had Shock not had to dramatically change his style because of the change in laws, there’s no telling what the group could have done (especially with Tupac in tow). They made some great songs after Sex Packets, particularly “Good Thing We’re Rappin,” a favorite among those who luuuuuve to do nekkid cartwheels.
But they never recovered. Cypress Hill suffered similarly, but their stoner sound was more easily transferred to synthesizers and they became the patron saints of stoner white boys everywhere.
Either way, Sex Packets is an amazing record, one you should check if you haven’t already. Lemme know if you’d like to.
14 thoughts on “Old School Record of the Week”
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I was born in the Bay Area where Digital Underground hails from and they were legends. If you put on “Freaks of The Industry” at any party in the Bay Area the dance floor gets live! And people go crazy! That song is the signature song for all DJ’s to play at their parties to end the night or mid-way through the party in the Bay Area. Coming up Digital Underground was the ISH! I vividly remember watching The Local Black OWned TV Station “Soul Beat” late in the night and “The Box” (Where you ordered videos) and Digital Underground and Too Short were always the most requested. Gotta Luv The Bay!
Dude? Man I got a scratched up copy of the CD in my car. I was in high school and my french teacher had it on tape. She gave it to me, a good deed I hope to repay her for once I win “Deal or No Deal.”
Man I always thought the packets were real and “Gutfest 89″ had me wishing i could go to ‘Gutfest 1999” when I grew up.
I loved DU…but “Freaks of the Industry” was basically my theme song from 1995-2000. I remember that one time Hampton came down to BR to play Southern…and all of a sudden the Human Jukebox started blowing that Donna Summer “Love to Love you” bassline part of “Freaks”…n-words went crazy in Mumford Stadium. I haven’t seen SU’s student section that crunk before than, and I haven’t seen it that way sense.
But the jam for me was the title cut, with the piano intro..that shit was cool as hell. It was almost Prince-esque how it sounded..
**sigh** i miss that CD..i have to go get it, for a third time.
Funny you bring this up: this record has been in my head for the past week. That’s it. Gotta get another copy.
“If you’re hungry, get yourself something to eat. If you’re dirty, then go take a bath…”
Digital Underground considered old school = I am officially getting old. Funny thing is though, the BET/MTV crowd considers “Hard Knock Life” to be old school.
DU sound like they had a blast making this album, and I remember them all over The Box and K Day. Good times.
History will not look back fondly upon what happened to hiphop somewhere between 1989 and 1993. Sex Packets was fun. Raunchy…but not nasty. I still remember the first time I heard the extended version of dowhachulike(sp) when it faded out..and then faded back for the album version.
Dag…now I gotta go dig thru that box and find my CD. I know it’s around here somewhere.
“Freaks of the Industry” — Damn. Just damn.
You brought back some memories by mentioning Sex Packets. You couldn’t take a foot anywhere on campus during my freshman year of college without hearing someone bump that tape and/or cd.
Hmmmnn…I suggest we hold a national protest and skip work until someone actually figures out how to do a “Gutfest” that wouldn’t have women protesters burning down the faciltity!
Until “Sex Packets” are actually sold like drugs…keep banging y’all!
Don’t really remember the full album getting play like that in the Northeast. The Humpty Dance as a single and video were inescapable, but my personal fave is Doowutchyalike. If that song doesn’t make you shake your ass, something is seriously wrong with you. This post actually forced me to try and remember what I was listening to in 1990 (around the time that Sex Packets was released), with limited results. There were a lot of classic joints released that year, but most came several months after this one.
I hear this was big in Texas, especially around Puerto Rico.
I remember “Humpty Dance” (not even sure if it’s on the album you mentioned), and the Groucho Marx looking fellow. About it… Will take a listen…
Yes Kirk…they also loved themselves some No Limit out there in Puerto Rico, Texas!!!!!
Stop bullshittin’ me Fred. No Limit never got outside of the greater Atlanta Metro area, and they only got there because of WCW.
However, No Limit does have a number of albums that are at or near the record for consecutive weeks at the top of the Man-Sheep Love chart for Nepal, GA.
WCW…
BTW Kirk..I went copped the Dusty Rhodes DVD set…but they still didn’t have the footage of Dusty gettin his eye gouged by the Road Warriors that day….but I digress…
Man-Sheep Love chart..man No Limit harder than that N**** Steven Segal…