Digital Underground - The Body-Hat Syndrome

Looking For a Digital Lover? (Rating: 8 out of 10- -4.0 stars)

After two full length albums, and an EP, Digital Underground hits their fans for their third full length "Body Hat Syndrome". As a group, they introduce three new members: Clee, Dirty-Red, and Saafir. Digital Underground keeps up those Paralament and Zapp samples that they have used throughout their career. As usual, Shock G., Humpty Hump, and Money B, handle most of the vocals throughout the album. Saafir appears on most of the songs as well, as his unique voice and rhyme style makes a great addition to this album.

D.U. has some weird concepts behind their album that can be very funny. Most of this album revolves around sex. As usual, Humpty Hump becomes crazy as hell on "Return Of The Crazy One". A few easy standouts would be "Holly Wanstaho" and "Brand Nu Swetta". "Dope-A-Delic" shows Shock G. at his best from a lyrical standpoint.

More than likely, fans who were looking for pop singles such as "Dowhatyoulike", and "The Humpty Dance", won't find them on this album. You will find an album full of goofy tracks. Some of them too goofy that they make absolutely no sense, towards the end. "Shake And Bake" and "Jerkit Circus" sounds very similar. And I won't get into how bad "Whee!" sounds like. Also any fans who are looking for any Tupac appearances, will only find him on two tracks: "The Humpty Dance Awards", and "Wussup Wit The Luv".

Big fans of D.U. will be impressed with this album. It's sort of like other D.U. albums, but without any pop/radio friendly singles, as mentioned earlier. They're still goofy and funny with their songs, and thats all they need to be to impress fans like me. Peace.

Lyrics: A-
Production: A-
Guest Appearances: N/A
Musical Vibes: B

Top 5 Tracks:
1. Holly Wanstaho
2. Dope-A-Delic (Do-U-B-Leeve-In-D-Flo?)
3. Bran Nu Swetta
4. Wussup Wit The Luv
5. Doo Woo You

Honorable Mention:
1. Body Hats
2. Digital Lover

May 13, 2008

Makes you want to hide underground.....

Even with a cameo from 2pac and 20 tracks, they couldn't save this album. With way too many skits and intermissions, this album made me long for the days of old. The only track I enjoyed was track 2. It probably was one of the tracks left over from Sex Packets. I only recommend this album if you own all the other LPs. Myself I found it a garage sale for $1. So I got my moneys worth, make sure you get yours.

Here is a quick rundown of the tracks:
1: A sampled Too Short joint weak, but I didn't skip it.
2: enjoyed this one
3: Holly what?
4: okay, didn't skip this one.
5. Lame skit with samples of 90's hip-hop.
6. Body Hats mini series. Yikes
7. Dopey
8. Intermissions, to give us break from this LP?
9. An attempt at message rap
10. Digital lover didn't live up to the hype
11. Reminds me of Das Efx..
12. Body hats part no thanks
13. Another skit
14. Jerkit Circus come on, sounds like a guy from Onyx.
15. Another skit
16. I think MC Hammer (Soft & Wet) helped with this sound
17. Body hats again, couldn't we just combine all 3.
18. Impressive turntables
19. Short but cool beat
20. The sound you make when you realize the LP is over.

Happy listening...

November 6, 2006

History

Kudos to Ted for good dissection of what happened to rap. Things, unfortunately, won't "get back to balance"... All of that is now history, just like D.U.'s great work and the rest of artists mentioned (true greats). Music industry eats its own children. It is all about money, not art. Enjoy it while it lasts. Fortunately, time hadn't distroyed this stuff, yet. Buy it while you can. November 1, 2005

Something worth checking out for mid 90's e.c. hip hop fans

I remember when I found this disc used somewhere. I was into a lot of the current rap artists at the time-Nas, Wu, Fugees, Erick Sermon, etc. I knew DU were the group that had the Humpty Dance hit back in 1990 and I had heard that Tupac Shakur was their roadie back then. I wanted to see what they were doing now in this 93 release.
The beats are actually pretty good, and although the rhyming isn't as hard hitting as some of the artists I mentioned above, there is still a lot of originality in Humpfrey's style that makes it a fun album, and witty too.

Tupac Shakur actually guests on one or two tracks here, and the best part is that there is a collage of photos of the group and their fans and friends from various places printed in the cd booklet. In there, I remember seeing a few funny photos of Tupac with the Digital Underground, and I thought it was great to see him as a normal person, and not as the hyped up stereotypical gangstar that he became, the way the Source magazine used to hype up the battle with him and Notorious BIG really made me sick. They were the only magazine that covered hip hop in my city then, and they would come off looking and sounding like the tabloid rag of the rap music scene. My friend Kevin was really caught up with the whole east coast-west coast battle thing then, I told him a few times that it sounded like a bunch of garbage, that Tupac was just a really good actor, as seen on Juice, or Poetic Justice. He wasn't as tough as that when he was attending art college in New York, or touring with the Digital Underground. I think he elevated this thug mentality because he wanted to get respect, and get rich, etc. He never had the skills of the more mature m.c's, but he could show a macho ganster image with the best of 'em. I think he was a really bad role model when he hooked up with Dr. Dre and Death Row, and he must have felt that his life really was like Juice or something, but I think that despite being totally wrong about the realness behind the whole east-west coast battle thing and the tragedy that eventually happened, I still think it could have been prevented if any of the people, including the rappers, their record companies, and especially the magazines like source, had ANY INTELLIGENCE WHATSOEVER.

I think Tupac, suffered from low self esteem, because he could have taken his talent in acting and music to any direction he wanted, but he just didn't have the sense to do so. I hate source magazine. That thing is destroying hip-hop, and black culture, because it hypes the most sensational stuff, and makes people like my friend Kevin(a talented guy in his own right) devote their whole attention span to following that trash and believing whatever they print. But never questioning the motivations, or the character of the ones who show us such bad behavior. And to think, it was all for money, so that the record companies anonymous shareholders, could get rich in the best way possible. Doesn't anyone in the industry there have any brains anymore? Like wow. Let's hype this gang stuff for all it's worth, and see what happens. Exploit hip-hop to its fullest potential. Nice. That's why I thought it was all lies. And to think the Source is ran by a white guy who actually is supposed to LIKE hip-hop. Is he on crack or what? He printed interviews from Biggie's and Pac's camps, almost pitting them against each other for all the fans to read. It was EXACTLY like the way WWE and all the wrestlers go at each other. He totally made a killing off all those articles, but in the end, both of them were dead. You'd think they would have learned their lesson by now, but they still choose to focus almost all their time covering all the sensational, controversial, lame-ass rappers, and completely shutting out all the good ones with true talent. Fortunately, there's still the internet, but I'm actually afraid to watch Rap City in Canada here since I started listening to hip-hop again, because I have seen how saturated the scene has been with all these new guys, waiting to get shot I guess. But this time hopefully, the record companies have some sort of plan to prevent the cash cows from getting murdered again. (Get them to record as much as possible for posthumous releases?)

I apologize for the negativity, but I think those of us who were following that sh*t back then need to speak up, and tell the truth of what it really was all about. If you are really interested, go listen or download Low End Theory from Tribe Called Quest, or get the Fugee's first album, Blunted on Reality, to see what real east coast 90's hip-hop was about. Or Jeru the Damaja, or Pete Rock & CL Smooth's T.R.O.Y. Anything from Gangstar(Guru and D.J. Premier) is awesome, especially the beats premier makes. And as far as Dr. Dre is concerned, you should check out the amazing album from the D.O.C. he produced in 89, I think. I know that is absolutely ancient, but if you knew how talented an mc the D.O.C. was, you'd thank me for this(kicks Run DMC's behind). And Dre's beats, though old school, are right on. Plus, it's the only album D.O.C. made, because he damaged his throat badly in an auto accident, and they tried to do an album in 94 that really sucked, because Dre wanted him to do some horror movie type vibe to go with his fried vocal chords. He sounded like Miles Davis, and it had all the G-Funk/Horror movie Dre loops under it and was terrible. I don't think anyone in their right minds bought that, except out of sympathy for what was once one of the most talented west coast rappers ever. Also, one last recommendation, if you don't already know. Slick Rick. The guy who Snoop claims influenced his style. I actually haevn't heard his first two albums, but I owned Behind Bars, in 94, and it was produced by Prince Paul(De La Soul, Gravediggas). There are some amazing tracks on there, ones that really show why he is considered one of the best in east coast hip hop rhyme styles, and the beats are harder hitting and more current than his earlier stuff, I would imagine. He is or was in jail for trying to shoot his cousin for cheating with his wife I think, but I could be wrong. He's actually not a gangster, (or wasn't in the 90's at least), just some guy with immense skills who lost his cool over his wife. Apparently, Snoop gets all this respect, and gets off for all these charges, while Rick just rots in jail, always getting parole refused for lame reasons too.

Anyways, here's to hoping that someday things will get back into balance in the mainstream, with the true talent rappers getting the respect they deserve, and the lame ones getting ridiculed and or punished. P.S. I know that a few of the rappers I mentioned above may or may not have sold out since the mid-90's, but please don't hold that against them, or their earlier stuff. I can't explain what makes people in the music industry act so stupid, whether it's payola, the devil, stupidity or what, but I think if they have their heads on the right way, people might forgive them when they start to put out good music again.(Hey, It works for Madonna) Whatup to Rodney D and Chris B and Louisa C r.i.p. Chasity August 24, 2005

Think! Do you need a Body Hat? If you're unsure, maybe so..

What eluded most rap listeners is that it never was about gangsterism or ghettoism to the digital underground...most of their cuts ended up being neo-Freudian romps and funky parties from a crew of likable raconteurs and scalawags...akin to Lord Byron's Don Juan exploits set to a P-funk sample heavily layered with renegade scratches, Ouroboros like computer loops and scavengings from whatever dregs these boys got into...it is wildly inventive and wildly over the edge. In my opinion this production from the self professed "Sons of the P" was the next logical step from a crew which took the Funkadelic's "Free Your mind, your A** Will Follow" stance as serious as a heart attack. "Bodyhats..." is as dense as they come, and you either love it a lot or hate it a lot. The digital had always been one of my favorite groups, so when this first came out, I got it and I "got" it where no one else did. I loved it a lot, especially the cuts "Shake 'N Bake", "Do Woo You" "Dope-A-Delic" and the monstrous "Return of the Crazy One"....with R & B and rap artists it seems as if "you're only as good as your newest pair of shoes or newest hair cut (hair do)". Talent and innovation is overriden in favor of l'image noir, other visual stimulations, angry man attituding and the sound of the month...In fact, I could use a body-hat, now that I think of it. In the meantime, while I get protected, I suggest you check this one out again, it will be surprisingly fresh. March 28, 2000

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