In the early ’90s I became obsessed with a little band known as Digital Underground. You may have heard their biggest hit before, a little song known as the Humpty Dance.

However, Digital Underground was so much more than that. Most of their best songs are songs you’ve never heard (though I admit, that bass line in Humpty Dance is still impossible to resist).

You may not realize that Digital Underground helped launch the career of one of the early members of the group, Tupac (who of course went on to be one of the most successful and well known rappers of all time). Despite that, they were never gangsta rappers. You might say they were a little silly.

But underneath that silliness was a lot of seriousness about social issues. They sampled a lot of George Clinton and talked a lot about funk and the musical influences behind rap. And pretty soon they had this white kid from the suburbs checking out old Parliament and Funkadelic albums. Humpty Hump introduced me to a whole new world and everything that went along with it (particularly the roots of the frustration and rage felt by a lot of black people from urban environments that would go on to fuel later, darker rap movements). They didn’t just influence me either; I think you can point to a lot of elements of that entire West Coast rap scene that they had pioneered.

Sons of the P was one of the few (if not the only) CDs that I went back and re-purchased after my worn out tape was no longer very useful anymore, and I still listen to it occasionally. Digital Underground is embodiment of that early rap that just doesn’t exist anymore: awesome grooves, socially conscious lyrics, and plain silliness. I know I’m not the only one gets nostalgic for it.