LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shock G, who blended whimsical wordplay with ’70s funk as leader of the off-kilter Bay Area hip-hop group Digital Underground, has died. He was 57. The group’s former head of security says the rapper-producer was found unresponsive in a hotel room in Tampa, Florida. Malonga said Shock G had struggled with drug addiction for years. The group found fame with the Billboard Top 10 hit “The Humpty Dance” in 1990, with Shock G performing as one of his many alter egos, Humpty Hump. He introduced the group’s former roadie 2Pac to the world a year later on the song “Same Song.”
Photo: FILE – In this Feb. 25, 2008, file photo, Greg “Shock G” Jacobs, leader for Digital Underground, performs The Humpty Dance during a halftime appearance in the Detroit Pistons’ NBA basketball game against the Denver Nuggets in Denver. Shock G, who blended whimsical wordplay with reverence for ’70s funk as leader of the off-kilter hip-hop group Digital Underground, has died. He was 57. Nzazi Malonga, a longtime friend who served as head of security and helped manage the group, said the rapper-producer was found unresponsive Thursday, April 22, 2021, in a hotel room in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
