Digital Underground: Sex Packets (2LP, 35th anniversary pop-up edition, 180g, coloured vinyl) [TOMMY BOY]

Why you'll love it

This 35th anniversary edition is a showpiece: 180g coloured vinyl across two LPs, a pop-up gatefold of a recording studio, a photo booklet and three bonus tracks. The album went platinum on the back of "The Humpty Dance," a No. 1 Billboard rap single.

This edition

• 2LP set
• 35th anniversary edition
• 180g vinyl
• Coloured vinyl
• Pop-up gatefold jacket
• Photo booklet
• Three bonus tracks
• Remastered
• Lyrics included

About the album

Most hip hop crews of 1990 had one frontman. Digital Underground had one frontman wearing a fake nose, and the alter ego got the hit. The Oakland collective built its debut as a full concept album, a P-Funk-sized science fiction caper, and recorded most of it at Starlight Sound in Richmond, California.

"Doowutchyalike" came first as a club hit, then "The Humpty Dance" took over, reaching No. 11 on the pop chart and No. 7 on R&B with its loose, goofy flow and a beat that still fills dance floors. Around them, "The Way We Swing," "Rhymin' On The Funk" and "Freaks Of The Industry" pile on live drums, turntables, jazz piano and deep funk samples, a mix The Source singled out for praise at the time. Digital Underground produced and arranged it themselves, with Raw Fusion on two tracks, and this edition adds "Blue View" and the "Humpstrumental Mix" on side D.

It sits in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, and Rolling Stone placed it at No. 114 among the greatest hip hop albums in 2022. The pop-up studio, made by Lovepop, is the tidiest recording studio we've ever seen, and we've seen ours.

Also at Kops: more Digital Underground on vinyl · browse Hip Hop / R&B

Tracklist

Listen

On Tommy Boy (cat# TB-5570-1), a reissue of the 1990 album.