Digital Underground
Sex Packets [35th Anniversary Edition]
TOMMY BOY
The onset of the 1990s was a weird era for hip-hop. LL Cool J had already come, gone, and come back again (although he really didn’t want you to speak of it as such); Vanilla Ice, M.C. Hammer, and Biz Markie made comedy rap, intentional and otherwise; the sonically innovative (EPMD’s Business as Usual) and the starkly serious (Public Enemy’s Fear of a Black Planet) bookended the silly (Kid ’n Play’s Funhouse) and the sillier still (Kid ’n Play’s House Party soundtrack). The onset of the 1990s, therefore, was also a great era for hip-hop.
Digital Underground’s debut Sex Packets touched on all of the above, with the added bonus of its goofy rubber noses, squelchy electronics, and respect paid to George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic. Despite its absurdist start in hedonism, food, and hotels-motels-Holiday-Inns, sex as a topic within the broader dialog of hip-hop played second, third, or fourth fiddle to street cred, money, and death by the time of the ’90s. Not only did Digital Underground bring back the absurdity, they were downright goofily Dadaist about it. Lead emcee Shock G directed the charge with a Sir Nose D Voidoffunk–like host of alter-egos, each of whom had their own loosey-goosey voices. The boldest of which carried “The Humpty Dance” and “Doowutchyalike” through slap-slammed rhythms, horny horns, and anthemic party-ball melodies. For the sense of something more serious and psychedelic, they put their pedals to the metal and made like Jimi Hendrix with the flashy “The New Jazz (One).”
Beyond the obvious, still fresh-sounding hits (don’t forget “Freaks of the Industry”), this double LP package celebrating Sex Packets’s 35 anniversary offers the childlike wonder of its 3D gatefold cartoon artwork (very cool), impossible-to-find remixes, and unreleased era-appropriate tracks such as the aptly titled “Blue View.” Hunt this version down—it’s a worthwhile investment in the past and (hopefully) future of adventurous hip-hop beyond the pale.
