Long-time readers are probably thinking, “Gee, Chris’s been
\ndoing a lot of rap reviews lately.” This is what happens when
\nSpring Cleaning comes to the Pierce Memorial Archives (out with the
\nBay City Rollers, in with… well, anything but the Bay City
\nRollers). I’ve been running into albums I haven’t touched for some
\ntime but still hold a special place in my aching eardrums.<\/p>\n
I ran across my battered copy of Digital Underground’s debut
\nalbum
\nSex Packets<\/i> the other day, and immediately I smiled. This
\nwas an album that took out most of the raunch of rap (though
\nthere’s still a little in there for flavor), and replaced it with
\nhumor and – believe it or not – musicianship. All of this is why I
\nwould rank this as the best rap album ever made.<\/p>\n
Digital Underground first hit the scene with their hit single
\n“The Humpty Dance,” which is where I first heard them. (Months
\nlater, I bought this tape on a whim – I wanted to see what the hype
\nwas about.) The rhymes that Humpty Hump blares out are more
\nhumorous than threatening or sexist, which is exactly what Digital
\nUnderground were shooting for on this one. (It still didn’t stop
\nMTV from censoring the brag of Humpty Hump “gettin’ busy in a
\nBurger King bathroom” – gives new meaning to the phrase “getting it
\nto go.”)<\/p>\n
Had this been the only solid performance on
\nSex Packets<\/i>, Digital Underground would have at least secured
\na footnote in music history. Ah, but this is only the beginning.
\nShock-G takes over for most of the album as lead rapper and brings
\na whole new flavor to the raps. From a declaration of what the band
\nrepresents on “The Way We Swing” to a strong anti-drug message on
\n“The Danger Zone” to having fun (no, not
\nthat<\/i> type of fun) on “Hip Hop Doll,” Digital Underground
\nshows they are a multi-faceted and extremely talented group. The
\nparty atmosphere continues on “Doowutchyalike” and “Gutfest ’89”
\n(okay,
\nnow<\/i> we’re talkin’ about that kind of fun).<\/p>\n
The biggest shocker on
\nSex Packets<\/i> is – omigod! – the use of live instruments, not
\nsampled, on several tracks. In just over a minute of performnce,
\nThe Piano Man and Chopmaster J weave piano and drums to create one
\nhell of a groove on “The New Jazz (One),” a groove which I found
\nmyself wishing they had continued to explore. The Piano Man returns
\nseveral times on the album, especially with some free-form riffs on
\n“Doowutchyalike.”<\/p>\n
The last few tracks of the album concentrate on the fictional
\ncreation of the “sex packet,” a synthetic compound that provides a
\nnew type of safe sex. In one sense, I wish this thing really
\nexisted – just think of the hours of relief it would bring college
\nfreshmen. (Hell, not only would I have bought these when I was a
\nfreshman, I’d
\nstill<\/i> be using ’em from time to time.) “Packet Prelude”
\nbegins to build the mood, and while “Sex Packets” is not the best
\nr&b song I’ve heard, the vocal work – whoa, singing on a rap
\nalbum! – is impressive. There is even a slightly humorous take on
\nthe subject on the cut “Packet Man.”<\/p>\n
What’s that? Oh, you don’t
\nlike<\/i> rap? Two words: cram it. In all truth, I was not that
\nbig of a rap fan when
\nSex Packets<\/i> came out, and even I, a person who could find
\nfaults in the Mona Lisa, was left speechless. This is more than a
\nrap album – it merges hip-hop, jazz and r&b into an album that
\nmakes you laugh and makes you think at the same time. Digital
\nUnderground dared their listeners to think – a gamble that is worth
\ntaking.<\/p>\n
Digital Underground has continued to make quality albums, though
\nthey’ve never equalled the success they had with their debut – a
\nfate that a band as talented as this one does not deserve.
\nSex Packets<\/i> may be a starting point for the young rap fan,
\nbut it should also be a stepping stone for checking out the rest of
\ntheir catalog.<\/p>\n
Whew… made it through a review without using a corny line like
\n“you won’t feel like you got screwed listening to
\nSex Packets<\/i>“…<\/p>\n
Oops.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5721],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-35597","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-digital-underground","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35597"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35597"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}