2 Live Crew

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风格: #电子舞曲　#老派说唱　#南方说唱
地区: United States of America 美国

艺人介绍

除了N.W.A。还没有哪个组合像2 Live Crew一样如此充满争议，他们是情色说唱的鼻祖，在他们之前，还没有哪个团体或Rapper敢把性这样敏感的话题拿出来大书特书，可2 Live Crew却将情色作为自己的标志，他们是情色说唱的起点，一个如此之高的起点，高的让后人都无法超越。

2 Live Crew于1985年在California成立， Fresh Kid Ice，DJ Mr. Mixx和Amazing V，他们同年就发行了单曲Revelation，然后他们来到了Miami，在这里发行了第二支单曲What I Like，并迎来了新成员Brother Marquis。他们被 Luke Skyywalker(Luther Campbell)所赏识，不久便被Luke Skyywalker签到自己的厂牌LUKE旗下，Luke Skyywalker自己也加入了2 Live Crew。团队在1986年发行了首张唱片The 2 Live Crew Is What We Are，一张HIP HOP史上被受争议的唱片，从We Want Some Pussy和Throw the D(dick)这样的歌名就能看出他们有多露骨。Florida一个音响店的店员甚至因为向一个14岁的女孩出售这张唱片而被起诉，可见这张唱片有多&少儿不宜&。因为这件事的发生，Luther决定以后发行explicit version和clean version两个版本，他的这一作法影响了整个音乐圈。他首先在团队1987年发行Move Somethin' 实行了这一举措，但2 Live Crew的风格丝毫未被影响，他们仍然继续谈论着性。在1988年，Alabama一个音响店因为向警察出售他们的唱片而被罚款。

89年的As Nasty as They Wanna Be，成为了他们最成功的一张专辑，也成为了唱片界的里程碑，因为这是第一张分explicit version和clean version两个版本发行的唱片。可新专辑又给他们带来了麻烦，他们被AFA(American Family Association)告上了法庭，理由是他们专辑中的言论太过猥亵，已经触犯了Florida的法律。最终2 Live Crew的专辑禁止向未成年人销售。官司缠身的2 Live Crew在1992年解散了。 Luke和Fresh Kid Ice开始了他们的个人事业。但就在两年之后Luke和Fresh Kid Ice接纳了一个新成员Verb重建了2 Live Crew。并在同年发行了Back at Your Ass for the Nine-4。但成绩都不太理想，Luke的Luke Records不就也破产了，他也离队了。96年Fresh Kid Ice， Brother Marquis和Mr. Mixx再次重组了2 Live Crew。但他们已经不复当年之勇了。但2 Live Crew无愧为情色说唱的鼻祖。

No rap group (save, perhaps, N.W.A) has stirred more controversy or provoked more heated debate than the 2 Live Crew. The furor over the graphic sexual content of their X-rated party rhymes — specifically their 1989 album As Nasty as They Wanna Be — was a major catalyst in making rap music a flash point for controversy and an easily visible target for self-appointed moral guardians. The fierce attacks on the groups First Amendment rights put many of their defenders in an awkward position — passionately supporting their freedom of speech on the one hand, but often finding little artistic merit in their music. And they were indeed crude and coarse, and frequently misogynistic by most standards; even if they fit squarely into a tradition of raunchy, sexually explicit black comedy (Redd Foxx, Rudy Ray Moore, Blowfly, etc.), many critics and intellectuals found their view of sex repellently juvenile, even ugly (and if they found it funny, it was hard to say so publicly). Despite (or, more likely, because of) that fact, the 2 Live Crew were fairly popular even before all the uproar and benefited greatly at first from all the publicity, although later on the novelty perhaps wore off due to overexposure. Regardless of whether one enjoys their sense of humor, to focus only on the controversy ignores the 2 Live Crews musical contributions. They were responsible for popularizing the booming, hard-driving sound of Miami bass music, and they were the founding fathers of a populist, dance-oriented rap subgenre that relied on simple, explicit chants and up-tempo rump-shaking grooves, appropriately dubbed booty rap.

Despite their inextricable link to Miami, the 2 Live Crew actually started out in California, with a membership of Fresh Kid Ice (born Chris Wong Won in Trinidad), DJ Mr. Mixx (born David Hobbs), and Amazing V. The trio released their debut single, Revelation, in 1985 and its popularity in Florida led the group — sans Amazing V — to move to Miami, and after second single What I Like, they were joined by Brother Marquis (born Mark Ross). They scored a record deal with local impresario Luke Skyywalker (born Luther Campbell in Miami), who initially served as their manager, and then joined the group as a performer and bandleader. With Campbell came a big part of the groups on-record taste for sleaze, and accordingly their 1986 debut album, The 2 Live Crew Is What We Are, featured songs like We Want Some Pussy and Throw the D (as in dick). It became a word-of-mouth success, eventually going gold. Even at this early stage, obscenity was an issue; in 1987, a Florida record store clerk was acquitted of felony charges after selling the album to a 14-year-old girl. Campbell hit upon the idea of selling clean and dirty versions of the groups albums so that younger fans would have a less explicit alternative. 1987s Move Somethin was the first album released in this format, and it became an even bigger underground hit than its predecessor thanks to notorious cuts like One and One, an X-rated retelling of the Kinks All Day and All of the Night (which established the Crews penchant for blatantly copped samples). In 1988, a record store in Alabama was fined for selling a copy of Move Somethin to an undercover cop (a conviction later overturned on appeal), setting the stage for the Crews home state to declare war.

As Nasty as They Wanna Be was released in 1989 and became the groups biggest hit yet; the single Me So Horny even climbed into the Top 40 despite virtually nonexistent airplay. Word spread even farther about the groups unadulterated raunchiness, attracting the attention of the ultraconservative watchdog group the American Family Association, who werent satisfied with the albums parental advisory warning sticker. AFA supporter Jack Thompson, a lawyer and religious activist, convinced Florida governor Bob Martinez to open an inquiry into whether As Nasty as They Wanna Be violated Florida obscenity laws. The state prosecutor determined that action had to be taken on the local, not state, level, and thus in early 1990 Broward County sheriff Nick Navarro obtained a copy of the album and secured a ruling from County Circuit Court Judge Mel Grossman that there was probable cause that the album was legally obscene. Navarro warned record stores around the county that selling the album might subject them to prosecution, and the 2 Live Crew filed suit alleging that Navarro had unconstitutionally overstepped his bounds. In June, District Court Judge Jose Gonzalez ruled that As Nasty as They Wanna Be was legally obscene, and therefore illegal to sell. Record retailer Charles Freeman was arrested two days later for selling the album to an undercover cop, and the three rapping members of the 2 Live Crew were arrested on obscenity charges for performing material from the record in a local club. They were acquitted a few months afterward, thanks in part to expert testimony from Duke professor Henry Louis Gates, and Freemans conviction was later overturned on appeal.

Meanwhile, As Nasty as They Wanna Be had become the forbidden fruit of choice for teenage boys across the country, selling over two million copies. Several other incidents were reported around the country involving record store owners being arrested for selling the album. The publicity also attracted the attention of George Lucas, who successfully sued Campbell for trademark infringement over his stage and label name, Luke Skyywalker; he subsequently shortened both to Luke. Capitalizing on the media frenzy, Campbell struck a distribution deal with Atlantic and put together a semipolitical album called Banned in the U.S.A., after securing rights for the title track from Bruce Springsteen; it was billed to Luke Featuring 2 Live Crew. It sold like hotcakes on first release, and the title single became the groups second Top 40 hit. In 1991, the group released the first full-length live rap album ever, Live in Concert, as well as the official follow-up to As Nasty as They Wanna Be, Sports Weekend. They sold disappointingly, especially considering the groups recent notoriety, and proved to be the last albums they would record together as a quartet. To compound matters, Luke Records was successfully sued for 1,600,000 million dollars in royalties by MC Shy D.

In 1992, the Court of Appeals in Atlanta overturned Jose Gonzalezs ruling that As Nasty as They Wanna Be was legally obscene. At issue was Gonzalezs refusal to heed expert testimony (hed pronounced himself fit to judge community standards of decency, since hed lived in the community for 30 years), as well as the fact that the burden of proof of obscenity should have rested with Sheriff Navarro, who submitted nothing besides a copy of the album as evidence. The appeals courts decision was later upheld by the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the 2 Live Crew were drifting apart. Luke and Fresh Kid Ice both released solo albums (I Got Shit on My Mind and The Chinaman, respectively), and original Crew members Ice and Mr. Mixx teamed up as the Rock on Crew for Deal With This. Luke continued his solo career over the rest of the 90s.

In 1994, Luke, Fresh Kid Ice, and new rapper Verb (born Larry Dobson) regrouped as the New 2 Live Crew, issuing the album Back at Your Ass for the Nine-4. The same year, the group found itself back in court yet again, this time over a lawsuit by the publishers of Roy Orbisons Oh, Pretty Woman. They charged 2 Live Crew with plagiarism for recording a parody of the song on As Clean as They Wanna Be, alleging that the reinterpretation tarnished the image of the original. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled that parody constituted fair use and found in favor of the group. The New 2 Live Crew didnt last long as Luke chose to concentrate on his solo career. In 1995, Luke Records filed for bankruptcy, as Campbell was beset by creditors and expenses; both he and the remaining 2 Live Crew wound up on Lil Joe, a label founded by his ex-business partner Joe Weinberger. In 1996, Fresh Kid Ice, Brother Marquis, and Mr. Mixx re-formed the 2 Live Crew without Campbell and released Shake a Lil Somethin. Brother Marquis departed afterward, and down to the two original California members, the 2 Live Crew issued The Real One in 1998. Luke, meanwhile, continued to record steadily, as well as releasing several compilation albums showcasing new South Florida talent.

2 Live Crew

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