Shock G. (aka Greg Jacobs, Humpty Hump, the Piano Man, Rackadelic, MC Blowfish, …)

I met Shock G at the Catwalk in Seattle, WA while photographing a show digital underground was headlining. This was around 2001. We’ve worked together ever since. Shock wrote the forward to my first book, Emerald City Hip Hop and then hosted the book release.

Spokane, Washington…We were sitting with a group of people on someone’s front porch, late night after another digital underground show. A spill-out of fans were huddled around him pulling puffs off their cigarettes, eyes wide open, not wanting to miss a thing. Shock told a story about Queen Latifah going after him with squirt guns and water balloons. She had just doused members of digital underground when Shock threw a water balloon filled with hot water from a balcony. It soared, slow-motion over many in the Flavor Unit and then hit Latifah square on the shoulder! He’d gone too far. As Shock spoke, I stilled the porch swing for a moment to really listen. I’d heard this one before, but it was in that moment, watching everyone else, that I realized the stories he told needed to be heard by more than just a few. We are currently working together on a new book: KEEP IT BEAUTIFUL, The World of Shock G as told to Alexis Wolfe Mbassa.