City: Liberty City
Years Active: 1984 - Present
Type of Music: Miami Bass
Myspace or Website:
http://www.myspace.com/official2livecrewAlright something a little different. While not a part of the South Florida Scene that this blog has been documenting, 2 Live Crew was at the forefront of the Miami Bass scene in South Florida in the late 80s and early 90s and a very important part of South Florida Music Scene history. The music is still great and while Luther "Luke Skyywalker" Campbell has gone on to his solo work, the original members of Brother Marquis and Fresh Kid Ice, still push forward.
From their entry on Wikipedia:
"2 Live Crew was created by David "Treach DJ
Mr. Mixx" Hobbs in
Riverside, California, with fellow rappers Chris (
Fresh Kid Ice) Wongwon, and Yuri (
Amazing Vee) Vielot. The 3 met at March AFB Riverside, CA, as they were enlisted in the
Air Force. Along with giving local parties on and off base, they recorded their first singles through Macola Records Distribution in Los Angeles, CA. They released "Revelation" in 1984; the
single sold well in
Florida, encouraging the group to release
What I Like. In 1986, due to the popularity of the new single
Throw the D**k, the group, including new member
Mark "Brother Marquis" Ross replacing Amazing Vee due to military commitments, relocated to Miami and teamed up with
Ghetto Style DJ's and soon to be manager and eventual performer
Luther Campbell, who used the nickname "Luke Skyywalker" (and was subsequently sued by
George Lucas).
Throw The Dick, with its fast dance tempo, turntable scratching explicit phrases from comedy albums, stuttering voice samples, and the Roland TR-808 drum machine brought a new sound to the group, penned as
The Miami Bass Sound. David "Treach DJ
Mr. Mixx" Hobbs was credited with the production.
The year 1987 saw the release of
The 2 Live Crew Is What We Are, featuring
profane and
sexually graphic lyrics.
Rudy Ray Moore's comedy albums and other XXX assorted comedy albums provided the material for most of the explicit samples that "
Mr. Mixx" used. The album was produced by
Mr. Mixx. Bob Rosenberg of
Will to Power did trick edits on
Beat Box and was billed "King of the Edits". The record went gold. Though the controversy did not rise to the levels the group would reach in the future, a Florida store clerk was charged and acquitted of
felony charges for selling the album to a fourteen-year-old girl in 1987.
Campbell decided to sell a separate clean version in addition to the explicit version of the next album,
Move Somethin' (1988), produced by
Mr. Mixx. A record store clerk in Alexander City, Alabama was cited for selling a copy to an undercover police officer in 1988. It was the first time in the United States that a record store owner was held liable for obscenity over music. The charges were dropped after a jury found the record store not guilty.
As Nasty As They Wanna Be (1989) became the group's biggest hit, largely because of the single "
Me So Horny", which was popular in spite of little radio rotation, thanks, in part, to prevalent play on
MTV. The song was based on a quote from a Vietnamese prostitute in
Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket and took a sample from Mass Production's Firecracker. This album was also produced by
Mr. Mixx.
The
American Family Association did not think the presence of a "
Parental Advisory" sticker was enough to adequately warn listeners of what was inside the case.
Jack Thompson, a lawyer affiliated with the AFA, met with
Florida Governor
Bob Martinez and convinced him to look into the album to see if it met the legal classification of
obscene. In 1990 action was taken at the local level and
Nick Navarro,
Broward County sheriff received a ruling from Judge
Mel Grossman that
probable cause for obscenity violations existed.
[2] Navarro warned record store owners that selling the album may be prosecutable. 2 Live Crew filed a suit against Navarro. That June, Judge Jose Gonzalez ruled against the album, declaring it obscene and illegal to sell. Charles Freeman, a local
retailer, was arrested two days later, after selling a copy to an undercover police officer. This was followed by the arrest of three members of 2 Live Crew after they performed some material from the album at a live performance. They were acquitted soon after. In 1992, the
United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit overturned the obscenity ruling from Jose Gonzales, and the
Supreme Court of the United States refused to hear Broward County's appeal. A notable feature of the case was the distinguished literary critic and now
Harvard University professor,
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. as an expert witness on behalf of the defendants. He argued that the material that the county alleged was profane, actually had important roots in
African-American vernacular, games, and literary traditions and should be protected.
As a result of the controversy,
As Nasty As They Wanna Be sold over two million copies. It peaked at #29 on
The Billboard 200 and #3 on the
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. A few other retailers were later arrested for selling it as well. Later
heavy metal band
Van Halen sued over an uncleared sample of their song "
Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" in the 2 Live Crew Song "The Fuck Shop". The publicity then continued when
George Lucas, owner of the
Star Wars universe, successfully sued Campbell for appropriating the name "
Skywalker" for his record label,
Luke Skyywalker Records. Campbell changed his stage name to Luke (and changed the record label's name to Luke Records) and then released an extremely
political solo album,
Banned in the USA after obtaining permission to use an interpolation of
Bruce Springsteen's
Born in the U.S.A. 2 Live Crew paraphernalia with the Luke Skywalker or Skywalker logos are usually sought after as collector's items.
In 1991,
2 Live Crew released the very first live
rap album,
Live in Concert, and
Sports Weekend, a full-length studio original. It peaked at #22 on
The Billboard 200 and #19 on the
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. It did not gain the same sales level that they experienced with
As Nasty As They Wanna Be. The 2 Live Crew members went their separate ways after this. Luke pursued his solo music career and other projects.
In 1992, Fresh Kid Ice released unreleased tracks from pre-Luke 2 Live Crew
Deal With This under the name
Rock on Crew, while Luke and Ice also released new solo albums,
I Got Shit on My Mind and
The Chinaman, respectively.
Mark "Brother Marquis" Ross co-starred alongside
Fred Williamson in the film
South Beach and started a new group with Aldrin "
DJ Toomp" Davis, a former member of Poison Clan, which was also signed to Campbell's label. They named the group 2 Nazty, and released the album "Indecent Exposure" on Attitude Records in 1993. The single was called "Can't Say I Love You," but it did not chart, and the group never released a second album. The single was a departure from the typical 2 Live nasty rhymes, and focuses on what a deep emotion love is, and how it should not be said to anyone lightly. The rest of the album sounds like a 2 Live Crew record, and focuses on sexual exploits of the members.
The hard feelings over the split of the 2 Live Crew is apparent on the album, as Marquis is heard on the track "Interview" saying he was fired from the group, and that the other members had no love for him. DJ Toomp also has a line in "Be My Bitch" comparing signing a deal with Skyywalker Records to signing your life away.
1994 saw Luke, Fresh Kid Ice and a new addition to the group,
Verb, regrouping as
The New 2 Live Crew, issuing
Back at Your Ass for the Nine-4. This album peaked at #52 on
The Billboard 200 and #9 on the
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The New 2 Live Crew broke up in 1995.
Luke, Fresh Kid Ice, Brother Marquis and
Mr. Mixx re-formed again to record "Hoochie Mama" for the soundtrack to the movie
Friday. Plans to reunite for an album were short-lived, as Fresh Kid Ice, Mr. Mixx, and Brother Marquis left Luke and
Luke Records to go to
Lil' Joe Records and released
Shake a Lil' Somethin' (1996). This album was their last album to make the
Billboard 200, peaking at #145. It peaked at #33 on the
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.
Mr. Mixx left soon after, leaving Fresh Kid Ice and Brother Marquis to record
The Real One in 1998. It peaked at #59 on the
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. In 1998, Brother Marquis became a
born-again Christian, quit the group, and began devoting himself to combating what he sees as the "evils" that he as a member of 2 Live Crew portrayed and glorified. His born again status/views on music changed back to his roots in 2006 when he worked with music producers Dylan Berry and Noah Lifschey of Hollowstone Muisic under in the LA rock/rap group called the Shake Joint and released a solo album in 2008 that contained explicit lyrics.2 Live Crew performed at the 2005
Gathering of the Juggalos.
In late 2007, 2 Live Crew announced on their MySpace page that Brother Marquis and Fresh Kid Ice will be releasing an album sometime in 2008. The album, tentatively named
Just wanna be heard, is currently scheduled for release in the spring of 2009."
You can still order all of the 2 Live Crew's past material here:
http://www.cduniverse.com/sresult.asp?HT_Search=ARTIST&HT_Search_Info=2+live+crew&style=music&altsearch=yes
