Apr 24, 2021
LOS ANGELES (AP) Shock G, who blended whimsical wordplay with reverence for ’70s funk as leader of the off-kilter Bay Area hip-hop group Digital Underground, has died. He was 57.
Nzazi Malonga, a longtime friend who served as head of security and helped manage the group, said the rapper-producer was found unresponsive Thursday in a hotel room in Tampa, Florida. Malonga said the performer, born Greg Jacobs, had struggled with drug addiction for years.
The group found fame with the Billboard Top 10 hit “Humpty Dance” in 1990, as Jacobs donned a Groucho Marx-style fake nose and glasses to become one of his many alter egos, Humpty Hump. He initially maintained the flamboyant Humpty was a separate person, doing in-character interviews and sometimes having his brother Kent Racker play the part.
Digital Underground Leader and Tupac Collaborator Shock G Dead at 57
The rapper was best know for the classic track The Humpty Dance and for co-producing 2Pacalypse Now
Published Apr 22, 2021
Shock G the hip-hop figure best known for leading classic rap group Digital Underground and collaborating with Tupac Shakur has died.
Shock G was found dead on Thursday (April 22) in a hotel room in Tampa, according to his father Edward Racker. As
TMZ reports, the cause of death is unclear, but apparently there were no signs of trauma. Shock G was 57.
Born Gregory Jacobs, Shock G co-founded Digital Underground alongside Chopmaster J and Kenneth Kenny-K Waters in 1987. Their early singles Underwater Rimes and Doowutchyalike emerged as underground hits, but Digital Underground found mainstream success with their 1990 album