Just Act a Fool, It's Okay If You Drool Cuz Everybody's Gonna Strip and Jump in the Pool

The first album I ever bought that had a Parental Advisory was Digital Underground's Sex Packets. I was in seventh grade, the year Mom and I moved to Philly. On my first day the three class Mean Girls—Brandy, Brandi, and Latisha—asked me what my favorite music was. "Red Hot Chili Peppers," I mumbled. Their laughter instantly shamed me into liking what everyone else liked, instead of just tapes my dad indoctrinated me with. Lucky for me, 1991 was obviously an amaaazing time to start getting into hip hop. Little did I know that 20 years later (FUCK!) I would still find myself drunkenly rapping along to the exact same songs I taped off Power99 and Q102 in junior high.

My mom wanted to go to the mall in the suburbs and she would sometimes buy me a tape as a reward for the hours logged at Macy's or wherever. I handed Sex Packets to her and she gave it to the cashier, a twentysomething South Philly-looking chick. "Ma'am I have to let you know that this has a Parental Advisory sticker on it." My heart sank into my stomach. "I'll listen to it before I let her get anywhere near it," my mom replied as she handed Tipper Gore Jr a twenty. When we got back to the car she tossed the bag with the tape in it into my lap without even looking at me. I still know every word of every song by heart! Yes, "The Humpty Dance" is on it but it's so much more—so extremely goofy and creative and weird. I mean, there's a song about riding a hoopty down into the ocean and chilling with mermaids and an octopus cutting nine records at a time.

Digital Underground - Freaks of the Industry

Digital Underground - DoWatchaLike

Shock G is kind of underrated - he also produced my two favorite Tupac songs ("I Get Around" and "So Many Tears"), but most people only know him as his alter ego Humpty Hump. There's something really noble about achieving the height of your public recognition while wearing Groucho-type glasses.