Comic Underground

It's widely known that Shock G of Digital Underground drew all of the artworks used for their early 12"s and albums, so it shouldn't come as any surprise that as well as being a gifted producer and dual personality emcee,  he's also a pretty good artist too.
But I was completely unaware that he had produced a comic book that never saw publication, and only recently have some of his original sketches from 1999 come to light.  The comic was called The Assholes: Hole Invasion and personally I found the content particularly amusing (see image above for a good example!).

Further images and information can be found here.

Digital Underground - Underwater Rimes

I don't know about you, but if a few years ago someone had asked me the question "What was Digital Underground's debut single?" I would have responded with 1989's Doowutchyalike.  Well, despite owning most of Digital Underground's early material, and considering myself a fan of their early work, I'd have been completely wrong because it was actually a 12" called Underwater Rimes that was released in 1988.  The b-side is a track called Your life's a cartoon.
This 12" was actually pretty big in Europe and hit the #1 spot in Holland, but here in the UK it seemed to pass us by, which might explain my ignorance to it's existence!

Now with hindsight I should have known better.  If I'd checked the cover of their debut LP Sex Packets I would have noticed that track 5 is shown as Underwater Rimes (Remix).  Well you can't have a remix if you don't have an original to remix, so I should have known that an original mix existed somewhere.  If I'd had the internet in 1990 I would have been digging around to find this, but instead it had to wait until much more recently.  Still, that's the beauty of the internet, nothing is beyond our reach and many old gems can be uncovered if you dig for long enough.

Now, the thing that really stands out with this 12" is the style in which they rap when it's compared to the production.  Production wise it's exactly what you'd expect from early Digital Underground and sits perfectly before their follow up single Doowutchyalike which was released a year later on Tommy Boy once they'd been signed.  But the vocals are a different matter, because despite the fact that this 12" was released only a year before Doowutchyalike, the rhyme styles certainly sound much earlier and similar to what other west coast groups were doing around 1988. 

There was clearly a lot of evolution in those 12 months, but what I find most interesting is how far ahead of the game Shock G's production was at that time, whereas their rhyme style needed to catch up in order to properly compliment it.  Thank god it did, as in 1989 I don't think there wasn't anything else as creative and innovative coming from the west coast.
Keep in mind that in 1988 most people were listening to PE, NWA, Rakim, Kool G Rap, Kane (add on), none of whom had a sound anything like Digital Underground.

Like most of Digital Underground's early material, Shock G illustrated the cover under his graffiti pseudonym 'Rackadelic'.  To this day, Shock's artwork for their early releases is still very distinctive and has stood the test of time, it doesn't look dated and it's instantly recognisable.

Now here's a bit of nerdology for you.  This Underwater Rimes single later spawned a character called MC Blowfish (aka Shock G, aka Humpty Hump).  There is a video for a track by MC Blowfish that was done in a cartoon style identical to the 12" cover (MC Blowfish is the one on the right).  It's not available on PooTube and I only have a 30 second clip of it (which I may upload to our YouTube channel if I ever get time).  But like I said earlier, anything is available if you dig around the net long enough, so its probably out there already just waiting to be found.

Download the full 12" (Hotfile 30mb)
http://hotfile.com/dl/120619736/7e0be68/Digital_Underground_-_Underwater_Rimes.rar.html

Blogwatch - June 2011

(What a great rework of a classic King T album cover)

Well, another month passes us by and as the weather starts to heat up, so does my monthly round up of all the best features from across the many blogs and websites that the internet offers us.  June was a pretty good month with a variety of gems:

Masta Ace Interview
This was written a couple of years back, but I've only just stumbled upon it and as its a timeless interview it's just as interesting today as it was back then.  Ace reflects on some of his back catalogue, Kane getting dissed at his own birthday party, working with other artists and a whole bunch of other ish!  Get stuck in.
http://www.unkut.com/2008/08/masta-ace-the-unkut-interview/

Big L's brother insists the movie will be released this year
For any Big L fan, this documentary is long overdue.  L's bigga bro gives the low down on what we should expect when the documentary is finally released.
http://www.sohh.com/2011/05/big_ls_brother_still_street_struck_despi.html?

King Tee - Going Way Back
Money B (you know, the guy from Raw Fusion and Digital Underground) does a regular radio spot on Rapstation.com called Going Way Back where he only plays material released before 1999.  This month he caught up with west coast legend King Tee from the Likwit Crew.  Check out his podcast for an hours worth of classic King Tee cuts and an interview.  For the full track list follow the link.
http://moneyb69.podomatic.com/entry/2011-06-15T02_01_49-07_00

DJ Lord Ron - Black Moon Dedication
DJ Lord Ron of the mighty Zulu Nation has put together a nice little Black Moon dedication mix.  It's a free download and worth checking out if you're a Buckshot fan.
http://preservingtheculture.wordpress.com/2011/06/20/preserving-the-culture-mix9-by-d-j-lord-ronblack-moon-dedication-6-20-11/

Shock G - Talks about every Digital Underground LP incl. 2Pac's debut

Legendary producer Shock G talks to Vibe about the last 2 decades of his career and gives an unprecedented insight into the early days of Digital Underground and how it all began. 
He talks about each and every album, the influences, the problems, the whole lot, and some of his tales will come as a surprise. 

To think that Doowutchyalike came out in 1989 kind of shocks me now.  Pretty much everything else at that time (except the odd love song by Big Daddy Kane) was so hardcore and street, it makes you wonder how it ever happened.  In fact, Kane should have a took a leaf from the Digital Underground book when they released Kiss You Back, a cheesy love song that actually worked and was fun.

Hats off to Shock G.  One of the true legends in the game who is still bringing us dope beats.

http://www.vibe.com/photo-galleries/full-clip-shock-g-runs-down-digital-undergrounds-entire-catalogue-2pac