By TUREKA TURK
Mlchlp.n Citizen
The mad scientists who
call themselves "Digital Un
derground" have wrapped up
a bad gift of meaningless,
contradicting, sexually vul
gar lyrics ina box of okay
beats just for their audience
and it comes in the form of the
group's newest release "The
Body-Hat Syndrome".
. While some of those in the
rap industry label some rap
as a reflection of society, Digi
tal Underground completely
falls short 10 this category.
"The Body-Hat Syndrome"
is rich in evidence of what is
re 11y going ith th duality
of Tupac hakur, the group's
om time m m r. DU al
lows themselves to make
tracks like ''Wussup Wit The
Luu", a supposed plea for love
within in the Black commu
nity, and then permits itself
to put yet another rap song on
the list of raps about female
"hoes" with "Holly Wan
staho".
port listeners to that mysteri
ous place where 'you can
learn the art of making love
at the palms".
The culprits who call
themselves the "mad scien
tists" are leader, Shock G;
longtime member, Money B;
Shock G look-a-like,
Humpty-Hump; DJ Fuze; DJ
Jay Z; Clee; and Saafir, the
"Saucy Nomad",
The group's greatest
claims to fame were the 1989
platinum-plus hits
"Doowutchyalike" and "The
Humpty Dance". "We've been
together since 1943," says
Shock G. "But we were in pro
test of the war at the time-be-
aid h'ob n 1
wanted to sample from
hadn't been born yet, so we
committed a group suicide to
be reborn later on."
Their debut album, "Sex
Packets", claims to 00 the al
bum that "spilled the beans
about the government's now
abandoned experiment with
a synthetic orgasminducing
The twenty trae . on " 'he
Body- at yndrome" are
far from dop and ar
e identof tho e in the rap
indu try who try to
capitalize on tereotype .
.
It's very similar to '!'upac's
"Keep Your Head Up", a "trib
ute" to Black women, and his
"1 f!et Around", which is self
explanatory .
''YOU DO 'T JU T need
a condom to protect you dur
ing genital sex," says the
group's leader Shock-G (you
know, the "one who put the
satin on your panties" in "I
Get Around"). 'You need a
mind condom to protect you
from people who wanna
screw you in other ways.
From birth, if you're not part
of the power structure, you're
getting screwed in the eye by
TV, in the mind by images of
what's good or beautiful or
desirable. These days, you
damn near have to live in a
body hat."
While Shock G's statement
may be true, time is running
out for rap artists who use
iety as an excu for their
pushing of wack lyrics. Digi
tal U ndergrou nd perpetu tes
the "screwing" of th no in
the pow r tructur by rap
ping about mindl , n
I sex and vulgarity." For
example, one tr k entitled
"Jerkit Cirou /I i described
as a "ode to the pleasures of
self-pleasure that will trans-
drug'.
THE GROUP'S WILD
and crazy humor was well re
ceived at first but that wel
come wore out with the
group's second album, "This
Is An EP Release" which pro
duced the flop "Same Song".
The second album was also
the . first outlet for a young
rapper by the name of Tupac
Shakur. With the third re
lease it looked as if DU had
grown up and matured a lit
tle with the light-hearted
"Kiss Me and I'll Kiss You
Back". DU managed to stay
on the boarder line of sexu
ally coy and explicit wi th the
track and almost developed a
style to their art.
s yl from the pr viou hit.
ed to tak some
not pr tty boys, we're not x
clowns - we're straight art
ists, man," says Shock .
Th re was one tim when
th rap audi nc would buy
ut now they might be
right con-art.sts for
Iy effortl re-
h k
n II
t
"
arti t m
n
•
a
•
".
-SHOCK G
Y will know who
res that DU is ping of a�
rap.
"We're not brainiacs, w 'r
See RAP, 82