Sex Packets

This huge, cartoonish Californian crew, helmed by concept-man Shock-G, seized on the ultra-bassy funk woob-woob of Parliament-Funkadelic as the platform for its ensemble tomfoolery. At its best, it's inspired, daffy give-and-take that you can shake your rump to, especially on the hits "Doowutchalike" and "The Humpty Dance" and the ridiculous aquatic hip-hop fantasia "Underwater Rimes." At times, though, an uncomfortable current of leering misogyny surfaces. The disc ends with a suite of tracks about an imaginary safe-sex drug, the "sex packets" of the title. The concept gets stretched pretty thin, but "Packet Man," a cunning dialogue between Shock G (as a dealer) and his Groucho-nosed alter ego Humpty Hump (as his customer), is outright adorable. --Douglas Wolk