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# Shock G
- URL: https://www.jamesreeves.co/shock-g/
- Published: 2021-04-23T17:55:16.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-15T03:49:25.000Z
- Author: James A. Reeves
- Tags: Influences

Shock G died yesterday. As the years pile up, maybe you become accustomed to your influences passing away. But this one hit me hard. I grew up with Digital Underground. I copied the cartoons from their albums into my middle-school notebooks, and I memorized their lyrics; my brain still carries them around thirty years later. 

I was fourteen when my neighbor scowled at my meager collection of pop-rock cassettes and gave me a mixtape with Boogie Down Productions, Stetsasonic, and Digital Underground’s “[Doowutchyalike](https://digitalunderground.bandcamp.com/track/doowutchyalike?ref=jamesreeves.co)“—a sprawling nine-minute party that began with Shock G’s affable delivery: “Now as the record spins around, you recognize this sound. Well, it’s the Underground.” It was the sound of someone inviting you into a new world, and Digital Underground’s world was a mad sci-fi cartoon that swerved from cultural satire to psychedelic transport (“[The DFLO Shuttle](https://digitalunderground.bandcamp.com/track/the-dflo-shuttle?ref=jamesreeves.co)“) to speculative cyber-sex, from stern warnings about addiction (“[The Danger Zone](https://digitalunderground.bandcamp.com/track/the-danger-zone?ref=jamesreeves.co)“) to rapping fish (“[Underwater Rimes](https://digitalunderground.bandcamp.com/track/underwater-rimes-remix?ref=jamesreeves.co)“) to paying respect to our heroes while they’re still with us (“[Heartbeat Props](https://digitalunderground.bandcamp.com/track/heartbeat-props?ref=jamesreeves.co)“).

Digital Underground was a direct descendant of [Parliament-Funkadelic](https://www.vice.com/en/article/pgkxkv/george-clinton-explains-the-future?ref=jamesreeves.co)‘s 1970s Afrofuturism. It’s a strange sensation, encountering the original material after the remix, sample, or homage. But Shock G went beyond borrowing or recontextualizing. While everyone else was looping “Flashlight” and “Atomic Dog,” Digital Underground’s second album, *Sons of the P*, featured [George Clinton](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/07/09/how-george-clinton-made-funk-a-world-view?ref=jamesreeves.co) in one of his first appearances on a hip-hop record, and Shock G’s multi-tracked alter-egos carried the spirit of Starchild and Mr. Wiggles through the 1990s. I’m grateful to Shock G for introducing me to music that could be simultaneously bonkers, wise, and mythic—and for priming me to appreciate Funkadelic, [Drexciya](https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2017/06/drexciya-infinite-journey-to-inner-space?ref=jamesreeves.co), and the programming of the [Electrifying Mojo](http://jamesr323.sg-host.com/mojo/?ref=jamesreeves.co). I can think of no better introduction.

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#### [Digital Underground – Tales of the Funky](http://jamesr323.sg-host.com/radio/Tales%20of%20the%20Funky.mp3?ref=jamesreeves.co)

###### Sons of the P | Tommy Boy, 1991 | [Bandcamp](https://digitalunderground.bandcamp.com/album/sons-of-the-p?ref=jamesreeves.co)

[http://jamesr323.sg-host.com/radio/Tales%20of%20the%20Funky.mp3](http://jamesr323.sg-host.com/radio/Tales%20of%20the%20Funky.mp3?ref=jamesreeves.co)