Well, since we last gathered, not much has changed in world events. However, I have a highly enticing story for you all, that originated from a Comedy Central Special of all places. Roy Wood Jr., a highly talented comic who many know from his contributions to The Daily Show With Trevor Noah, did a fan-damn-tastic standup special for the network from which I enjoyed clips of this afternoon. All kinds of interesting, hilarious, and also touching stories serve as the format of his set, but there was one particular anecdote that was just fitting enough for the subject matter of this very course.
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| Promo thumbnail for CC Special (see link for source) |
While an undergraduate student in Florida, Wood was exposed to all kinds of different music, but a really popular musical subculture of the time was "Miami Bass". That didn't sound like a real genre to me either upon first learning of it, but it is a legit sub-genre of hip hop that essentially involves heavy use of a Roland TI-808 drum machine, and a shit-ton of sexually explicit lyrics, coming from musicians and DJs in Miami, FL. Wood tells a story of his encounter with a very well known artist in that scene, more pertaining to the artist's caravan of strippers in a party bus driving around the city. However, Luke Skywalker/Uncle Luke/Luther Campbell (man goes by a LOT of names), stood for a lot more than a good time.
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| I wish I was kidding (see link for source) |
Uncle Luke, a prominent participant in the Miami Bass scene, utilized highly sexually explicit lyrics in his rap and in this group "2 Live Crew"'s material. I've got some lyrics here for your viewing pleasure, just to demonstrate my point. This all came out in the late 80s, so though these lyrics might not actually be that shocking to y'all, it was highly controversial content then. To backtrack a little bit, Tipper Gore (former VP Al Gore's wife) and activist group Parents Music Resource Center had already established an uproar that led to the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) implementing the "Explicit Lyrics: Parental Advisory" sticker in 1985. This action was apparently not enough according to the group, that wanted to kind of set up music sales like we do movie theater sales, establishing age limitations for certain musical content as is done for Rated-R movies. It should be noted that the Parental Advisory sticker is not required of record companies to be printed on the cover, it's a guideline rather than a LAW.
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| As Nasty As They Wanna Be (see link for source) |
2 Live Crew's third album, As Nasty As They Wanna Be, came out in 1989, to a large uproar from this same group of people. They couldn't handle the obscenity, and to boot, there was no Parental Advisory sticker on the cover. People LOST their minds, Rob Martinez, the Governor of Florida at the time, got a ton of politicians together to work towards a BAN of this album. It almost happened, because the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida ruled that this album was "legally obscene" and three members of 2 Live Crew were arrested for performing songs from the album at a sex club shortly after the ruling. However, the group and their lawyers got smart, and exercised their First Amendment rights on the national stage.
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| Bob Martinez (see link for source) |
The U.S. Court of Appeals (Eleventh Circuit) heard the case against the State of Florida, with the argument from 2 Live Crew/Uncle Luke's representation that their First Amendment rights protected the sale and content of their album. The group was able to continue selling the album, and perform it live as they wished, returning to their business. As sexually charged as their lyrics were, the framework of the U.S. Constitution protected the ability of these artists to express themselves as they wished, without meddling from the government. This power and privilege that we have as Americans often goes unappreciated, we take so much for granted that we can say what we want, whether or not those in power in our country agree with us. This freedom is not fully extended to many nations across the world, and we are highly lucky to have it.
2 Live Crew and Uncle Luke's experience navigating this censorship is not only an entertaining example of constitutional protections, but it really demonstrates that we as citizens of this country have a duty to stand up for these protections when they are ignored by others. Even if you don't agree with the content of his music, Uncle Luke took important steps through his Constitutional rights to protect any person creating controversial content, no matter the degree, and that is meaningful to our society! Wood emphasizes this in his set!
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| The Man. The Myth. The Legend. (see link for source) |
"It's very easy to put people in one box, you know? But it's not fair, because we can be many things. Is Luther Campbell a man that built his career on some music that a lot of people would consider disrespectful and misogynistic to women? Absolutely. You can make that argument. But you can also make the argument that he was one of the most important legal trailblazers in entertainment in the last three decades. You can be both things."- Roy Wood Jr.
That's all I have for now. Until next time, keep it uncensored, America.
Origin Intel For This Post, Because I'm Too Poor To Even Entertain The IDEA of Plagiarism:
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