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Alex Mejia, Davey D and Sway Calloway Pay Tribute to The Late Shock G | SWAY’S UNIVERSE
Apr 28, 2021
With the passing of the icon Shock G, some of the people who were close to him over the years call into Sway In The Morning to pay homage with his recent passing.
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Alex Mejia, Davey D and Sway Calloway Pay Tribute to The Late Shock G | SWAY’S UNIVERSE
https://youtu.be/Tw9RiT3Afho
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0:03
showing you the versatility we talked
0:05
about
0:06
digital underground founder
0:09
leader shock g come on man
0:13
this is our brother reached out to a lot
0:15
of people greg shock g
0:17
jacobs i told earlier a story of how
0:19
king tech and i
0:20
met him when he was working at a music
0:22
store and king tech and him were going
0:24
back and forth about the groups they had
0:26
coming out and
0:28
they became friends and then we
0:29
eventually all met and i remember going
0:31
to his home and
0:33
talking to him about what they had
0:35
coming up in the future
0:36
uh right when they signed with tommy
0:38
boyd records and
0:40
opening up for them you know at that
0:42
time
0:43
you know we were working with alex mejia
0:46
one of the most reputable
0:48
one of the most respected djs music
0:51
programmers producers to ever
0:53
come out of the bay area i got him on
0:54
the line right now give it up for alex
0:56
mejia alex
0:58
hey alex good morning good morning good
1:00
morning good morning everybody
1:02
it's my honor to be on your show before
1:05
we talk to 20.
1:06
but uh how you doing legend how you
1:08
feeling how you feeling
1:10
hey icon i'm doing well baby you know
1:12
we've been celebrating this man's life
1:15
you know i'm thankful that we got the 57
1:17
years we did get
1:19
in the time that we got in the 80s and
1:22
in the 90s and to watch that star ascend
1:24
and david was right there with it one of
1:26
the most respected journalists to ever
1:28
pick up a pen we got david
1:30
with us my mentor davey d hey
1:33
how you doing what's up everybody
1:36
[Applause]
1:38
you know and um man fellas let's let's
1:41
talk about it you know i was given some
1:43
history through my lens the context of
1:45
digital underground and
1:47
when i first heard them when they had
1:48
under underwater rhymes out in your life
1:51
as a cartoon and shock g just kind of
1:53
landed in the bay in the mid 80s and
1:56
and just absorbed the bay area energy
1:58
and was
1:59
nothing but giving alex tell us about
2:02
when you met shot g and what stories you
2:04
could share
2:07
well thank you so much sway for all you
2:09
do and you and your morning show team
2:11
i love them so much um thank you the
2:14
shock g
2:16
i'm gonna tell you he was unique special
2:20
and he was a giver he gave so much of
2:22
his life to
2:23
to music and his and his craft
2:27
he sacrificed so much but around him he
2:30
had an
2:31
entire family that he just uplifted
2:34
and when i first met shock g was in the
2:37
music room
2:38
of kml radio him and adrian gregory came
2:41
in
2:41
they have their records on mccola
2:43
records first out the gate
2:45
and to all the citizens out there i
2:47
suggest you do the research
2:49
as you coming up in the game it's
2:51
important you understand the hard work
2:53
that gets put in
2:54
to truly make it so do your research on
2:57
him and you will see him
2:58
rise through it after he had his
3:01
independent record
3:02
he came out and next thing you know
3:05
tommy boy records swooped him up
3:08
and and then you begin to hear this
3:10
sound and this movement even more so
3:13
and find out all the affiliations the dj
3:15
fuse the sleuth the money bees that were
3:17
all
3:18
involved with everything more and more
3:20
and
3:21
i'm going to tell you it was extremely
3:23
exciting because hip-hop was young
3:26
it was brand new and they put a twist on
3:28
it to celebrate
3:29
and put a party to it that hip hop had
3:32
never had before
3:34
um i heard you guys say earlier it was
3:36
like a
3:37
like a festival or something when they
3:39
came on stage
3:40
and they just bought such a righteous
3:42
positive funk
3:44
jazz fusion mix with just good energy
3:48
and i love that sound that came out of
3:50
the bay from digital underground
3:52
i love that sound go ahead keep going
3:55
keep it rocking my brother
3:56
keep going okay okay yeah
4:00
oh so so with shock g with him being
4:04
he he surrounded himself with so many
4:06
good people you know
4:08
the layla steinberg and the adrian
4:09
gregory's got great management
4:11
and everybody could see that he was
4:13
positive to work with
4:15
and so as they blew up you know the
4:18
world took them from the bay area
4:20
immediately
4:21
and they just were great ambassadors of
4:23
the bay
4:25
them hammer involved you know early on
4:28
it was just
4:29
amazing to see what they were able to
4:31
accomplish and they inspired so many
4:33
people from the bay
4:34
because if they can make it i can make
4:36
it
4:37
so they just made us all better at what
4:39
they were able to do
4:41
and then as time went on i was lucky
4:44
enough
4:45
to and and and work with you and tech
4:48
you know
4:49
they were hot and you guys were up and
4:51
coming so
4:53
i said you know i asked them to get be a
4:55
part of time for peace
4:57
and they love your message in that
4:59
record and they joined us
5:01
together on in your movement for what
5:04
you were making happen
5:05
and time for peace once again citizens
5:07
if you don't know that record please
5:09
seek out that record
5:10
you will see a lot of the subjects that
5:12
they're talking about in that particular
5:14
song
5:14
is still happening today still going on
5:18
but he was a a fighter for truth and
5:20
justice
5:21
as well as being one of the funkiest
5:23
musicians
5:24
and hip-hop pioneers he was very special
5:28
shock g was extremely special
5:33
i gotta get myself together here take
5:35
your time man take your time
5:37
you know i was talking about that
5:39
earlier alex i brought you
5:40
up i remember when we were in the studio
5:43
that day and um shock g money b
5:47
in paris we were we were all in the
5:49
studio you know at the same time
5:51
tech um you you know and
5:54
what that vibe was like and that was the
5:56
first time we stepped outside of our
5:58
crew i'm trying to think and really
6:00
collaborated
6:02
um with artists um of that magnitude you
6:05
know we had our own wake up show crew
6:07
the
6:07
motion man's the the bombs you know um
6:11
mr me all the different people that we
6:12
were producing and putting out full
6:14
resistance all those different folks
6:16
uh but we hadn't really worked with
6:18
anybody like paris or
6:21
or digital underground or a hammer or
6:23
too short
6:24
in that magnitude so thank you for that
6:27
you had that vision man i appreciate
6:28
that brother
6:30
[Applause]
6:31
yeah shock g was very special and then
6:34
once again
6:35
giving the bay area was very young and
6:38
hip-hop
6:39
and we had a family just to just keep
6:41
striving
6:42
and davy d played a significant role
6:44
with helping putting all together
6:46
and to see their relationship and what
6:48
it manifested
6:49
because davey d knew then before the big
6:52
success came
6:54
and uh baby what's your thoughts on a
6:56
lot of this stuff that
6:58
is emerging right now about shock g
7:03
well i'm still shocked i'm still stunned
7:06
about the whole thing
7:08
um you know i mean it was just
7:11
devastating news
7:13
a new shock um
7:16
real early on i met him through chop
7:18
master jay
7:20
when uh they had they were they were
7:22
bringing around um
7:24
underwater rhymes um
7:27
so i got to meet and talk with shaq a
7:30
lot he's been over at my house
7:31
early on and the
7:34
two things that i remember and many
7:36
people might not know
7:38
their initial thrust was not to be
7:41
digital underground there was a crew
7:43
called spice regime
7:45
and they had plans to be a more militant
7:50
uh black social conscience group
7:53
and the only reason why they didn't go
7:54
in that direction
7:56
with wearing the berets and everything
7:58
was because public enemy had hit the
8:00
scene
8:01
and so they uh really re-emphasized the
8:04
whole funk aspect
8:06
and so i remember early on when they
8:08
were planning the whole sex packet
8:10
concept
8:11
uh where you know shock was sitting
8:13
there talking about
8:15
you know putting these packages out in
8:17
doctor's offices
8:18
and leaving them in phone booths and and
8:21
having people believe that if you took a
8:23
pill
8:24
it would simulate sex i remember that
8:26
whole concept and people were believing
8:27
that
8:28
pamphlets in the whole nine um
8:32
you know he was special in this sense
8:34
that he
8:36
redefined hip-hop a lot of people also
8:38
don't know that
8:39
even though he was hip hop to the core
8:41
in terms of two turn tables and a mic
8:44
he was also a gifted musician and he
8:48
early on was experimenting with having
8:51
digital as a band
8:52
so i remember they performed at the
8:54
scottish rite and it would be dj hughes
8:56
and
8:57
uh you know on the turntable and it
8:59
would be uh kenny k when he was alive he
9:02
came out here for a couple of the shows
9:04
and they were going back and forth with
9:05
the band you know with uh chop master
9:08
jay playing drums and
9:09
shock rocking the keyboards as piano man
9:12
versus hughes and kenny on the
9:15
turntables
9:16
so way before the route to anybody first
9:19
time i really seen hip hop flip into a
9:20
band was with digital we're talking
9:23
about you know mid 80s late 80s
9:26
um i met tupac
9:29
to shock he bought park to my house i
9:32
had a piano here
9:33
i remember uh shocked to sit here and
9:36
play this piano
9:37
and park sitting right here in the
9:39
staircase that i'm looking at i'm still
9:41
in the same place
9:42
and you know shy not saying anything
9:44
like who what's your name again
9:46
tupac like what what what's what two
9:49
what you know
9:50
but both of them in the house and shot
9:52
going through all these things playing
9:54
hip-hop songs on the piano
9:56
um that's what i remember about him um
10:00
all the groups that he was doing the
10:01
whole concept of being like a new
10:04
uh reinvention of of uh
10:08
parliament so they had like tons of
10:10
groups big money odors pee wee
10:12
uh you know i think i introduced them to
10:16
uh few i mean to salute and then that's
10:18
how you know they
10:19
they wound up taking that group mgm
10:21
money bee and uh
10:23
you know fuse and and mac moan and and
10:26
coming in
10:26
and joining their crew the humpty dance
10:31
you know two days or three days after
10:32
the big earthquake
10:34
uh they did the video down at townsend
10:36
uh shock had me dress up as
10:39
him because a lot of people didn't know
10:41
that uh
10:42
kim and humpty were the same people at
10:44
the time so
10:46
when they shot the video uh if they were
10:49
shooting from the back they had me stand
10:51
in and play shots well
10:52
so we had a pretty cool relationship the
10:56
thing that really hit me most about him
10:59
was some of the
11:00
behind the scenes stuff that he did you
11:02
know early on he was behind uh
11:05
bone marrow you know making sure black
11:07
seed folks had bone marrow
11:09
so i think there was an organization i'm
11:10
going to remember the name up in vallejo
11:13
and he was you know putting a lot of
11:14
money to that no fanfare no
11:17
you know sitting up there bragging about
11:18
it it was just things he did
11:21
um shock was also an incredible artist
11:24
um i mean he had all these drawings he
11:27
he would have a picture like
11:29
full color big poster like pictures that
11:31
he drew
11:32
i remember rock him um he drew rock him
11:36
and uh lying on a slab of concrete and
11:38
all these artists from ll cool j on down
11:41
underneath them and he was talking about
11:43
i'm the king and he had all these
11:45
pictures
11:46
um he left one over at my house it's l.l
11:48
cujay
11:49
uh big poster you know it's not colored
11:52
in and ll cool
11:53
is pointing at you and talking about you
11:56
are a sucker right this 100 times
11:58
and um it's probably the last picture
12:02
that he has left
12:04
because a big tragedy hit shock
12:07
i want to say in 93 when we had the
12:10
oakland hills fire
12:11
and in that fire he lost everything he
12:14
lost
12:15
all his masters he lost the albums that
12:17
he was working on
12:18
he lost his music everything cam and um
12:21
salute
12:22
you know one of my best friends you know
12:24
who is a road manager
12:26
um they all lost everything and
12:29
in my opinion he never really recovered
12:31
from that you know he never really got
12:33
back
12:34
to the spirit that that we knew i mean
12:36
and i know because i've
12:38
lost stuff you know that i never got
12:40
back in that's just a hard place to come
12:42
back from
12:44
i'm gonna miss that guy you know um i've
12:46
had many conversations with him
12:48
a lot of them were along you know
12:50
political stuff he taught me a lot about
12:52
music
12:53
um you know his his insight to music was
12:57
was
12:57
just incredible long before people
12:59
thought about drake
13:00
he was talking about the greatness of
13:02
drake and that was very surprising
13:04
you know that he had that insight he his
13:06
breakdown on how people
13:09
uh uh approach music was just incredible
13:13
and you know he always had that social
13:16
consciousness
13:17
and you know just the funny stories
13:20
you know is a lot of people don't know
13:23
that it's at one point
13:24
he was joseph humpty you know because
13:28
yeah
13:29
josh had uh chuck had a whole plan
13:33
and he wanted to introduce these
13:35
characters one at a time
13:37
and what he told me was he had piano man
13:40
he had
13:40
m.c blowfish he had humpty and he was
13:43
going to like do
13:44
albums for them and i remember
13:48
he had uh you know we we got introduced
13:50
to humpty with the song uh do what you
13:53
like
13:54
but the way the story went was you know
13:57
that the humpty dance came at the last
13:59
minute because they couldn't get a
14:00
sample cleared
14:01
so they put this humpty dance song on
14:03
the album that's why you don't really
14:05
see humpty
14:06
on the sex package album and it blew up
14:09
and so everywhere shaq went he'd come to
14:11
the station
14:12
like i'm shout g and people be like oh
14:15
you're cool where's the hooky guy
14:17
and so you know after a while that was
14:19
like damn you know i'm shocked g
14:21
like i'm i'm i'm you know this musician
14:24
this genius
14:25
yeah but with the guy with the nose and
14:28
so
14:29
you know i think you know for a period
14:31
of time and we thought wow
14:34
you know this this thing is uh you know
14:37
i'm a little jealous of him yeah he's
14:39
bigger than big
14:40
underground well you know what was
14:43
interesting about humpty he had a whole
14:46
storyline behind humpty right
14:49
yeah oh storyline edward j uh
14:53
i forget edward ellington humphrey the
14:56
third
14:57
yeah there you go that's what he called
14:59
him
15:00
and he was the lead singer of smooth
15:02
eddie in the humpers
15:04
yeah i mean he had
15:07
he had so many plans for these groups i
15:09
mean we weren't thinking like that in
15:11
hip-hop i don't think people
15:12
can fully appreciate it we're talking
15:14
about 87 88 he has these ideas
15:18
you know he's talking about changing
15:19
characters and
15:21
you know and just having you know
15:23
multiple groups come out from under him
15:26
you know this is pre wu tang this is
15:28
pretty everything
15:29
you know we've never seen anything like
15:31
that before
15:33
i'm gonna miss that guy yeah i'm a
15:35
really innovator
15:37
yeah yeah one last thing
15:40
you could say as many things as you want
15:42
go ahead there's five members from that
15:44
digital underground
15:45
family that are no longer with us you
15:48
know that played key roles his shot
15:50
is popped is uh big d the producer
15:54
you know parts producer the impossible
15:56
this stretch
15:58
and um and kenny k you know we can never
16:02
forget kenny cause kenny was key for him
16:04
um when you know coming out of brooklyn
16:06
and then you know being down in tampa
16:08
where he did
16:09
a big hip-hop radio show that was his
16:11
first dj
16:13
[Music]
16:15
man what a legend like way you hear
16:18
these stories this is way before
16:20
let's say eminem decided to do eminem
16:23
slim shady marshall mathers you know
16:25
what i mean this is
16:27
way before people had these multiple
16:29
personalities
16:31
i was talking about underwater rhymes
16:33
where mc blowfish
16:35
you know and all these characters were
16:37
being introduced
16:38
and i'll never forget man i'll never
16:40
forget opening up for them at the omni
16:43
in um in north oh i remember that show i
16:46
remember that show
16:47
yeah who was on that bill what you
16:50
remember about that show davey
16:52
i that's what i remember if i'm correct
16:54
that's the show that park came in it
16:56
wasn't nwa there as well
16:58
[Music]
17:00
and and and pop cape came in he had
17:03
gotten beaten by the police
17:04
a few days before he came there all
17:07
bandaged up talking about you know
17:09
after police and suing the police and
17:11
talked about he was going to take all
17:13
their money and build the boy center for
17:15
him
17:16
that's what i remember if this is the
17:18
same show there was a few shows at the
17:19
army but i think that's
17:21
that's the one because the whole digital
17:22
underground crew was here big money
17:24
owners shot the whole nine
17:26
the whole nine nwa was there me and tech
17:28
opened up
17:30
um and then it was a la group there too
17:32
that
17:34
things didn't go too good um uh but i
17:37
man i'll never forget that man because
17:39
that's the last time we got a chance to
17:41
uh
17:41
perform with them and uh man i want to
17:44
thank y'all for really painting this
17:46
picture about shakti and digital
17:48
underground
17:48
and i wanted to ask too though hey alex
17:51
and dave
17:52
it's what's up it's heather i appreciate
17:53
you guys calling into the show
17:56
hey what's up we are learning so much um
17:59
about you know who shocked you was
18:02
gregory sharkey jacobs as
18:04
a artist and what he was doing behind
18:06
the scenes and i'm learning so much
18:07
today i'm just blown away but
18:09
did he have any family like did he have
18:12
any children was he a father because
18:14
i don't i don't know that that side is
18:16
did he have any kids if you guys know
18:20
not that i knew of um i just know he had
18:22
brother ken
18:24
you know conditioner um okay shout out
18:27
you know when they went on the road
18:29
when they went on the road you know camp
18:31
would play or or dress up
18:33
i guess it's humpty until shot did the
18:35
tang
18:36
um that's what i remember got it okay
18:39
you know we should
18:40
we should also remember i think mystic
18:41
came out of that whole du cruiser
18:43
yeah that's right she she came out of
18:46
that du crew as well there's a lot of
18:48
people that came from under there
18:49
grammy nominated mystic k cloud saphir
18:53
you can't figure forget sofia um he was
18:56
a part of him as well
18:58
um he reached out he reached out to
19:00
reached out to tech and myself as well
19:02
you know he we just all kind of we all
19:04
took our own lanes but he sat down and
19:07
courted us a little bit um
19:10
this whole piece was a classic record
19:13
man
19:14
that should have been a grammy-nominated
19:16
song
19:17
i mean that well thank you brother
19:21
thank you man um when you look at
19:24
when you look at it the bigger picture
19:26
we were his family
19:28
amen all of us amen
19:31
we were his family because of what he
19:33
did and and the beautiful thing about
19:35
digital underground
19:36
was it brought everybody together
19:39
that good music brought both coasts
19:41
together
19:42
and the south and every and the world
19:45
their music was
19:46
truly unifying and i'm gonna miss him
19:49
too man
19:51
great brother great brother you know
19:53
what you you were just talking
19:55
his one funny story
19:58
you may remember this um there was a ks1
20:02
concert
20:03
that took place in berkeley where two
20:05
people got you dabbed and they banned
20:06
rap
20:07
in the bay area for a while and one of
20:10
the ways that it got back
20:13
was digital underground came down
20:16
to the berkeley city council they had
20:19
banded in oakland they have banned rap
20:20
concerts and
20:21
you know in berkeley um the city right
20:24
next to us
20:24
and during the city council you know
20:26
people came up and i remember
20:28
uh sleuth or shocked talked to the city
20:31
council
20:32
and they said let me tell you something
20:34
we got a million people
20:36
doing the humpty dance because they have
20:37
sold like a million records at that time
20:40
and he said you all better turn this
20:41
decision around are we gonna have a
20:43
million people voting you out of office
20:45
don't make no you know don't make us
20:47
put you on blast and and make you part
20:50
of the record
20:51
and you know of course they turned that
20:53
that decision over but
20:54
that was just digital underground like
20:56
you know they didn't show up in
20:57
limousines and
20:59
velvet ropes and all that but they
21:00
showed up as a crew to
21:02
you know to represent you know for our
21:04
community
21:05
that's the i'll never forget that too
21:07
that was funny i think it was luther
21:09
said it but they were all there
21:10
to represent absolutely um
21:14
hey fellas let's celebrate to celebrate
21:17
this man's
21:19
presence in our lives and this culture
21:22
the impact that he made with the moot
21:23
digital underground movement how many of
21:25
us
21:26
benefited from a bit how how many of us
21:29
are who we are because of it you know
21:33
and so alex you know i want to thank you
21:37
yeah for making that moment with time
21:40
for peace
21:41
we had a lot of moments with digital
21:43
underground man i used to love to see
21:44
them on the summer jam
21:45
stage and you know this come on man
21:49
y'all remember those days oh man
21:52
they would kill it they would kill it
21:56
for future generations that are making
21:58
music please study digital underground
22:00
please walk in this footsteps if you can
22:03
because you will have a good time
22:05
but also you will do it right so do what
22:07
you like
22:10
do what you like thank you davey d let's
22:12
go into that thank you alex mejia
22:14
fellas i'm actually flying to the bay
22:16
this afternoon if y'all want to get
22:17
together let's get together this weekend
22:19
okay
22:22
all right i love you too man love you
22:25
love you back swing take care take care
22:27
of it take care take care y'all
22:29
love today y'all thank you
22:44
[Music]
22:46
you
#Arts & Entertainment