to pursue music seriously, he returned home, quickly obtained a diploma, and began attending Hillsborough Community College, where he studied music theory under Jim Burge and piano under Patricia J. Trice. It was there at HCC that he met and formed a bond with Kenneth Waters, and the two began performing together under various names including The Chill Factor, and also The Four Horsemen, which included MC Skoobie-D, and the MD Dazzlin Doc-P who had recently moved to Tampa from the Bronx, hip hop's birthplace. Then in 1985, after two years of producing local artists for hire, playing solo piano gigs around town, performing with Kenny, and being a keyboardist in Warren Allen Brooks' band, Greg and his aspiring-actress girlfriend (Davita Watts) set their sights beyond Tampa, and eloped to Los Angeles in search of greater opportunity. There he played keyboards in Kenny McCloud's pop-funk band Onyx before leaving Los Angeles and finally arriving in the San Francisco Bay Area where he found work in an Oakland music store, and where his group Digital Underground would form a few years later. Career Digital Underground Soon after relocating to Oakland, California, Shock G formed Digital Underground along with Chopmaster J, and the late Kenneth Waters (a.k.a. Kenny-K). After around 15 months of unsuccessful negotiations with various small record companies, in 1988 the trio finally released a 12-inch single on Macola Records. It featured "Your Life's a Cartoon" as the A-side and "Underwater Rimes" as the B-side. Both songs were penned, produced, and performed by Jacobs, who also sketched the cartoonish cover illustrations. The record included the logo for Digital Underground's startup label, TNT, as well as Macola's logo. TNT was also founded by Tupac Shakur's management CEO Atron Gregory. In 1989, the group signed with Tommy Boy Records and released "Doowutchyalike", receiving minimal radio airplay but became an underground hit. Its video was more successful, reaching number 40 on the MTV's top 100 videos of the year. "Doowutchyalike" paved the way for Digital Underground's debut album Sex Packets and the highest-charting song of their career "The Humpty Dance" both released in early 1990, and both achieving platinum sales certifications by the RIAA. The latter was rapped by "Humpty Hump," the most flamboyant of Shock G's several alter egos. By that time, Digital Underground had expanded significantly, with DJ Fuze, Money-B, and Schmoovy-Schmoov joining the group, and with Ramone "Pee Wee" Gooden