The group generated a national debate over artistic freedom with the raunchy, sexually explicit lyrics to its third album, 1989’s “As Nasty as They Wanna Be.”
Brother Marquis, a foundational member of the rap group 2 Live Crew, the raunchy Miami-based outfit whose sexually explicit lyrics delighted fans and dismayed local prosecutors, sparking a national debate over freedom of expression, died June 3 at his home in Gadsden, Ala. He was 57.
Featuring dialogue sampled from the Stanley Kubrick film “Full Metal Jacket,” “Me So Horny” became the group’s first Top 40 hit, topping the Billboard rap chart and opening 2 Live Crew’s third album, “As Nasty as They Wanna Be” , with a bang — or rather a moan. While the store owner’s conviction was overturned on appeal, the 2 Live Crew rappers were acquitted after a trial that included expert testimony from literary scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., then a professor at Duke University.“These young artists are acting out, to lively dance music, a parodic exaggeration of the age-old stereotypes of the oversexed black female and male,” Gates wrote infor the New York Times, defending the group against accusations of obscenity.
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