The West Coast collective suffers another devastating loss — this time, one of the quiet pillars who helped carry Tupac Shakur into the spotlight.
Hip-hop lost one of its unsung architects this week. Cleetis Mack, a member of the legendary hip-hop group Digital Underground, has died. A representative for the group confirmed the news, saying his death “leaves a void in our Digital Underground family and in our hearts that can never truly be filled.” No cause of death has been disclosed. In a genre that often measures greatness by platinum plaques and chart positions, Mack — known to his crew and his fans simply as “Clee” — represented something rarer and more enduring: the soul of a movement.
Mack’s real name was Cleveland Askew. He was not a founding member of the Oakland collective, but when he arrived, he became family. Mack joined the group in 1993, six years after Digital Underground was founded in Oakland, California by Shock G (Gregory Jacobs), Chopmaster J (Jimi Dright), and Kenny-K (Kenneth Waters). By that point, Digital Underground had already flipped hip-hop on its head with the genre-defying absurdity and Parliament-Funkadelic soul of “The Humpty Dance,” and the collective was evolving into something far larger than any single record.
His arrival coincided with one of the most significant chapters in hip-hop history. Mack joined the group around the time of The Body-Hat Syndrome in 1993, alongside fellow rapper Saafir. He got to rap with Tupac on the single “Wussup Wit the Luv,” which marked the last time Tupac would make public appearances with the crew he came up with. That track was more than a collaboration — it was a passing of the torch, a cultural handoff that would set the stage for Tupac Shakur’s historic solo ascent. Clee was right there when it happened.
The group’s statement to TMZ captured not just the magnitude of the loss but the texture of who Cleetis Mack was in those spaces that cameras never reach. Digital Underground confirmed that Mack was “more than a part of the movement — he was part of the soul behind it, bringing warmth, loyalty, and quiet strength to everyone around him.” In an industry where egos are currency and flash is the default language, those words land with uncommon weight.
The group, which now only consists of Money-B and Young Hump, is still active on social media and has not publicly addressed Mack’s sudden death in a broader statement. The silence from the platform is telling — some losses take time to put into words.
This passing marks the second major blow to the Digital Underground family in recent years. The collective had already experienced tragedy when founding member Shock G died unexpectedly in April 2021 from an accidental overdose. Shock G — born Gregory Jacobs and immortalized as Humpty Hump — was 57. Together, the deaths of Shock G and now Clee bookend a period of profound grief for a group that spent decades bringing joy, funk, and fire to the culture.
What Cleetis Mack’s full discography, full biography, and full legacy look like beyond his work with Digital Underground remains largely undocumented in mainstream outlets — and that itself is part of the story. Hip-hop has always had its saints in the shadows: the members who didn’t get the solo deals, didn’t do the magazine covers, but who showed up every day and built something that millions of people carry with them. Clee was one of those men.
The hip-hop community — from the Bay Area streets that shaped him to the digital corridors where his music still circulates — is mourning. And rightly so.
Rest in power, Clee.
