March 26, 1990: Digital Underground Release "The Humpty Dance"

March 26, 1990: Digital Underground release their album Sex Packets. According to Greg Jacobs, leader of the Oakland-based hip-hop group, the album was named after a pill allegedly given to astronauts who, due to the nature of zero-gravity life, had to remain celibate, thus giving them the feeling of not.

Jacobs formed the group with Jimi Dright, a.k.a. Chopmaster J, from nearby Berkeley; and Kenneth White, a.k.a. Kenny-K, a disc jockey who had previously worked in Tampa. The group also had Ronald Brooks, a Philadelphia native known as Money-B.

Jacobs, born on Augsut 25, 1963 in Queens, and raised in Tampa where he'd met White before moving to Oakland, had several aliases. As "Shock G," he was the group's frontman. As "Rackadelic," a play on his birth name, George Edward Racker, he was the designer of their album covers, patterning them after the artwork of his favorite funk albums, including those of George Clinton's bands Parliament and, yes, Funkadelic. Certainly, Clinton would have appreciated not only titling an album Sex Packets, but also Jacobs' following of him with space metaphors. Jacobs sometimes performed as other characters including MC Blowfish, Icey-Mike, The Computer Woman, ButtaFly, and Peanut Hakeem.

But it is as "Humpty Hump" -- a character on top of a stage name on top of a legal name on top of a birth name -- that he's best remembered. The song "The Humpty Dance" sampled "Sing a Simple Song" by Sly & The Family Stone, along with Clinton among the developers of funk, and Clinton's "Let's Play House."

The video featured Jacobs wearing "Groucho Marx glasses," horn-rimmed with an oversized nose and mustache. A fictional biography was written for Humpty, the story being that Edward Ellington Humphrey III, former lead singer of "Smooth Eddie and the Humpers," had become a rapper after burning his nose in a kitchen accident with a deep-fryer. Because of the "accident," the character is seen wearing a large nose disguise.

But the song is about not just the dance in question -- "People say, 'You look like M.C. Hammer on crack, Humpty'" -- but about this silly-looking guy's ability to get women. Warning: These lyrics are rated R:

* I look funny, but, yo, I'm makin' money.

* Sometimes I get ridiculous

I'll eat up all your crackers and your licorice
Uh, yo fat girl, come here, are ya ticklish?
Yeah, I called ya fat, look at me, I'm skinny
It never stopped me from gettin' busy
I'm a freak, I like the girls with the boom
I once got busy in a Burger King bathroom

I'm crazy
Allow me to amaze thee
They say I'm ugly but it just don't faze me
I'm still gettin' in the girls' pants
And I even got my own dance.

* People say, "Yo, Humpty, you're really funny lookin'"
That's all right, 'cause I get things cookin'.

* Oh yes, ladies, I'm really bein' sincere
'Cause in a 69 my humpty nose will tickle ya rear.

In spite of such lyrics, "The Humpty Dance" was their biggest hit, reaching Number 11 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100.

The group released 5 albums in the 1990s, and 1 more in 2008. Shock G and Money-B were the only performers to appear on all 6 albums. In between Sex Packets and the 2nd LP, 1991's Sons of the P, there was an EP release titled This Is an EP Release a.k.a. Same Song, released on January 15, 1991. This release marked the recording debut of Tupac Shakur, then listed as "2Pac." But he left after the 1993 album The Body-Hat Syndrome.

Jacobs said he stopped work on Digital Underground because he wanted to explore ideas that wouldn't fit with their theme. He continued music production work until his death in a Tampa motel room on June 10, 2021, at the age of 57, from what the coroner ruled was a mix of alcohol, methamphetamine and fentanyl.

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March 26, 1990 was a Monday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 6 games in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Charlotte Hornets, 97-83 at the Charlotte Coliseum.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Denver Nuggets, 113-102 at The Omni in Atlanta. Dominique Wilkins, "The Human Highlight Film," led all scorers on the night with 36 points.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Sacramento Kings, 116-95 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Phoenix Suns, 121-92 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Houston Rockets beat the San Antonio Spurs, 113-95 at The Summit in Houston. It's now the Central Campus of televangelist Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.

* And the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 101-96 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

There was 1 game in the NHL: The Minnesota North Stars beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-4 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.