“The Humpty Dance” by Digital Underground
“The Humpty Dance” was like the last comedic rap hit to ever come out. Indeed even now over 30 years after its release, it’s hard to think of any other funny rap song that caught on amongst the masses. Generally speaking, rap and comedy don’t mix, partially since the early 1990s, i.e. the same era in which this song was dropped, when more gangsta-oriented subject matter took over.
Indeed Shock G himself was adverse to over utilizing Humpty Hump, since Shock he was in fact an actual mainstream rapper. But yet and still, “The Humpty Dance” stands as the greatest musical achievement of his lifetime.
“The Humpty Dance”
And first off, “the Humpty Dance” isn’t so much of a formal dance move per se as opposed to an encouragement to get loose on the dance floor in general. Or something like that. Apparently the Digital Underground did have some sort of actual moves in mind, which their dancers were trained to perform.
But generally speaking, you can’t walk up to someone and tell them to perform “the Humpty Dance” like other popular dances based on songs from the 20th century, such as the Electric Slide or what have you.
And concerning it being unconventional for a rapper to say put on a fake nose and drop a track, that’s exactly the idea Humpty Hump addresses from the onset of the song. He may “look funny”, but at the end of the day he generating massive bread, which is the ultimate goal of any rapper anyway.
He goes on to then introduce himself as possessing two main characteristics. First is his proficiency in making music or more particularly in this case making the audience dance. And second, Humpty comes off as sort of a womanizer. In fact lyric wise, that idea seems to come through more pointedly than him promoting some kind of dance.
And during the more-conservative 1990s, some of the wording pointing to Hump’s sexual exploits were even edited out of the radio version of this song. Indeed it doesn’t take much speculation to conclude that any rap musician who utilizes the word “hump” in their moniker, twice, does very much promote sex.
In Conclusion
And overall, as put forth earlier, this is supposed to be an introductory piece to the character. As conceptualized as Tommy Boy Records, as we will delve into in the trivia section, perhaps the idea was that many more Humpty Hump solo songs were to come. But as fate would have it, this was apparently the only one Shock G was compelled to drop.
And whereas, as noted earlier, he didn’t want to reduce his career to comedic punchline, at the end of the Tommy Boy was correct in that “The Humpty Dance” proved to be the most-memorable track the Digital Underground ever released.
Music Video
The music video to this track features the late Tupac Shakur (1971-1996), though in a backup-dancing capacity, quite some time before he blew up under his own name.
Humpty Hump is introduced to the World
This was not the first time Shock G utilized his “Humpty Hump” persona. The latter made its debut in a track the Digital Underground dropped in 1989 entitled Doowutchyalike.
For readers who still may not have gotten the memo, “Humpty Hump” was the comedic alter ego of the late Shock G (1963-2021). And whereas Shock was quite a talented rapper under normal circumstances, interestingly enough Humpty Hump was actually the most-popular member of Digital Underground proper.
Indeed according to a number of sources, Shock G’s reluctance to rely on the character as much as Tommy Boy Records (the company behind this song) preferred ultimately resulted in the entire group getting booted from the label prematurely. In fact it was initially a Tommy Boy exec who came up with the whole idea of an entire song dedicated to Hump, after his appearance on the aforementioned Dowutchyalike.
More Facts about “The Humpty Dance”
“The Humpty Dance” was very successful. It was a top-10 hit in America. Peaking at position 7 on the Hot 100, it marked the group’s biggest hit. For example, it has also been certified platinum by the RIAA. It also topped Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs chart.
Additionally, the aforementioned video was nominated for a 1990 MTV VMA. And generally speaking, as verified by its inclusion on VH1’s 2008 ranking of the “100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop”, it is considered to be one of the most-memorable rap tunes ever put out.
“The Humpty Dance” also holds the distinction of being one of hip-hop’s most sampled songs. And yes it does appear that quite a few musicians, from Public Enemy to Ice Cube to Shaq, have sampled from it.
This track relies partially on the samples of a couple of others. And those would be:
- Parliament’s “Let’s Play House”
- The Family Stone’s “Sing a Simple Song”
There were times, during live performances for instance, when Shock G and Humpty Hump were compelled to appear side-by-side. Of course doing so literally was impossible since they’re the same person. So in those instances Shock employed his younger brother, Greg Jacobs, to portray Hump.
The venue in which the music video to this track is set is a spot called Club Townsend, which is located in San Francisco.
To note, Humpy Hump is actually listed as am official co-writer of this song. The others are Shock G as well as George Clinton, Bootsy Collins and Junie Morrison (1954-2017). The latter three are associated with the aforementioned Parliament (Funkadelic).
And the entire Digital Underground are credited as producers of The Humpty Dance.
