When the Oakland- based Digital Underground got together to make their fifth album of the nineties, it was obvious they were looking to prove that they still had some P left in their Funk. The word on the street was that Shock G, Humpty Hump and the crew were looking to blend jazz, reggae, trance, hip-hop, R+B, funk and rock into this year's sexiest party album. As it turns out, they've concocted the right recipe for their gravy, but they've forgotten how to mash potatos.

Who Got the Gravy? is not a party album. It's not the East Coast/ West Coast reconciliation it was hyped up to be, either-- unless you consider Biz Markie and KRS-One to be spokesman for the East. Sure, the group sets out to have some fun, but for the most part they end up sticking to the mellower side of their Parliament- Funkadelic roots. This means you'd better like lotsa sweaty grooves, over- funked bass, and cheesy background strings. You'll also have to put up with grating group choruses like these:

Bottom's up! Put 'em down! ("Holla Holiday")
Lay with me! Oooooh. ("The Mission")
Who got the gravy? We got the gravy. Pour it on, baby, pour it on. ("The Gravy")

The Digital Underground still have a warped sense of humor, but don't go looking for the outrageousness they displayed on Sex Packets or Sons of the P. At his most clever, Humpty Hump reminds you how dope he used to be. At his worst, Humpty's rhymes are juvenile bordering on moronic. Take for instance the insults Humpty and guest goofball Biz Markie exchange on "The Odd Couple:"

Biz: Humpty your nose is like a two-car garage/ I heard you got soul!/ I heard you don't eat pussy, you be eating booty hole.

Humpty: Yo, my nose be in her booty/ My tongue be in her vertical smile/ I heard your sister slept with Colin Powell.

Think it can't get more tasteless than that? In the next verse Biz compares Rodney King's face after being "squashed like a bunch of grapes" to-- you guessed it-- "The Planet of the Apes."

Other than sparks of life on the title track and "Wind Me Up" (which sounds a bit like George Clinton producing the Village People), Who Got the Gravy? doesn't have much to recommend. If you really wanna blow fifteen bucks, try catching the group in concert. I hear they're sticking mostly to older material, and Humpty likes to invite the college girls on-stage (in various states of undress). Unlike this album, the concert should make for one hell of a party.

-Zach Hammerman