Money B Opens Up on Tupac, Shock G and Humpty Hump's Rise

According to Money B, the Digital Underground crew was about to head out on its first U.S. tour when a person identified as Atron asked whether they could bring Tupac along. Money B says Atron had worried Tupac might drift away, since his deal was taking longer than Tupac wanted. Many people describe Tupac as a dancer on those early tours. Money B pushes back on that label. He says Tupac's job was to help the group with whatever it needed, whether that was dancing, breaking down equipment or other work. He rhymed and sometimes served as the hype man. "He wasn't just a roadie," Money B says. "We all had roles."

Money B's own roots run deep. He was born in Philadelphia and raised in the Bay Area, and both of his parents joined the Philadelphia chapter of the Black Panther Party around 1970. His father moved to the Bay a year or two later, and Money B and his mother followed about a year after that. He attended Oakland Community School, a place he remembers for its approach to learning. Students were placed in class by aptitude rather than age, and nobody got held back for moving at their own pace. "We were taught how to learn as opposed to being forced what to learn," he says.

The school also brought big names into students' lives. Money B says he read Malcolm X around the age of 11, that the school taught students about Marcus Garvey, and that Langston Hughes was part of the curriculum. He says he met Rosa Parks, who came to visit. He also has a photo from his graduation at roughly sixth-grade age, in which Huey P. Newton hands him his certificate. Newton usually showed up for the ceremony and handed out the diplomas, and the picture of him and Money B appears in the memoir alongside Money B's brother and sister.

That background shaped how Money B understood Tupac's politics. He says the two never sat around holding meetings about taking on the system. Still, when Tupac brought up political prisoners such as Geronimo Pratt and Assata Shakur, Money B already knew who they were. "He didn't have to explain anything to me," he says. "I think there was probably some comfort in that. It was unspoken."

Digital Underground's early sound was also shaped by what was happening around it. Money B says Shock G originally wanted the group to be something like a pro-Black militant collective. Then the crowded field pushed them in another direction. "Back then, you couldn't be a biter," he says. The group could not wear dashikis because the Jungle Brothers were already doing that, and Public Enemy had set a standard that made copycats an easy target. Money B insists the group's records always carried a message underneath the fun. "We make you dance, want you to have fun, party, kick it with us, but also learn a little something along the way," he says. He describes Shock G's core message as unity and bringing everybody together.

The group's first record in 1988 was "Underwater Rimes," and at the time it was only Shock G and Chopmaster J. They needed a DJ. Money B and DJ Fuze were already a duo called Raw Fusion, and Fuze was widely regarded as one of the hottest DJs in the Bay. When the group came to recruit him, Fuze agreed to join only if they worked with Raw Fusion too. "We're a group. We're not breaking up," Money B recalls. The arrangement was built so every member could eventually get his own deal and project. "We were literally Wu-Tang before Wu-Tang," he says.

Money B's father had his own stake in the music. He hoped his son would make more pro-Black, socially conscious music, since he admired Public Enemy and the rapper Paris. He also consulted on Paris's video, and when Paris's record came out, he reached out to Money B's father. Money B's story shows how family politics, Oakland schooling and a crowded Bay Area scene all fed into a group that eventually made a dance record that millions knew.

The memoir and interview matter because they come from someone who was in the room for the early years of one of hip-hop's most creative collectives. Digital Underground helped define a playful, politically aware sound at a time when the genre was still finding its footing, and Tupac's path through the group is part of that story. Money B's account adds detail about how members divided the work, how the label relationships shaped careers and how a single character could overshadow the artist who made him.

For readers, the next step is the book itself. A D.U. Party Don't Stop: The Money B Story is Money B's own telling of the triumphs and tensions behind the group's rise, from Oakland classrooms to the Tupac era. It is the most direct look yet at a member who was there for nearly all of it, and it puts Shock G's frustrations and Tupac's early moves in the words of someone who lived them.