Brother Marquis from 2 Live Crew dies aged 57

2 hours ago
Noor Nanji, Culture reporter



Rapper Brother Marquis, from the hip-hop group 2 Live Crew, has died at the age of 57.

Marquis' - real name was Mark D. Ross - death was confirmed by the group's manager to Rolling Stone, although a cause of death was not provided.

On Monday, 2 Live Crew announced on Instagram that the rapper had passed away.
The influential group, which was formed in the mid-1980s, were the first artists to have a "Parental Advisory: Explicit Content" label on an album.

Another member of 2 Live Crew, fellow rapper Fresh Ice Kid, whose real name was Christopher Wong Won, died in 2017.


Brother Marquis' cause of death has not been disclosed

Marquis was born in Rochester, New York, in 1966. In his teens, he moved to Los Angeles.
He later relocated to Miami and joined 2 Live Crew in 1986.

Working alongside DJ Mr. Mixx, Fresh Kid Ice and Luke Skyywalker, the group grew in influence and achieved commercial success.

It split up in the 1990s, before reuniting in the 2000s.


Another member of 2 Live Crew, hip-hop artist Fresh Kid Ice, died seven years ago

2 Live Crew courted controversy for their sexually explicit lyrics and album covers.

Their most successful song was 1989's Me So Hot, from the album As Nasty As They Wanna Be.

It was the first album to be declared legally obscene by the US government.

Although the ruling was overturned a few years later, the attention it received helped the album to go double platinum.

The group followed this up in 1990 with Banned in the USA, which was the first album cover to feature a label warning buyers of explicit content.

Its title track was a direct reference to the banning of their previous album and featured a sample of Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA.

Banned in the USA's cover featured the band wearing T-shirts which read: "Censorship is un-American".

Before before 2 Live Crew, sexually explicit lyrics weren't as prevalent in rap music.

naptu2:
2 Live Crew was a rap group that released a string of extremely. . . extremely x-rated songs in the late 1980s. They gradually began making waves from around 1986 and then released a very popular album in 1989.

This obviously attracted attention.

You see, 2 Live Crews lyrics were as obscene as humanly possibly. Their videos were actually not so bad, but their concerts were another thing entirely. Their insane fans did a lot of mentally insane things at their concerts.

So, as I said, all of these things attracted the attention of the authorities.

Record store owners were arrested for selling 2 Live Crew records, local governments sought court rulings that declared that 2 Live Crew's music was obscene and should be banned and in 1989 some members of 2 Live Crew were arrested for performing songs from their very popular album.

The Luke (the lead rapper of 2 Live Crew) said that it was not the government's business to decide what they should say or not say. He said that government should focus on fighting hunger and poverty, instead of trying to decide what their fans can do at their concerts. He said that their concerts were strictly 18+ and everybody at their concerts were adults who could make decisions for themselves.

2 Live Crew fought the bans and arrests in court. Professor Louis Gates actually testified on their behalf. He said that their music was not obscenity, but rather it was an important part of Black American culture. The Appeal Court overturned the ban and the US Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from the local government (the record store owners that were arrested also won their cases).

MTV did a special about the controversy in 1990 and 2 Live Crew released this song. It is the only clean song by 2 Live Crew that I know. It is their cover of Bruce Springsteen's Born In The USA.


2 Live Crew - Banned In The USA (1990)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzbl6n7Mqjo

naptu2:
Now this is what my mind can accept.

1) As Nasty As They Want To Be

2) A less offensive picture of one of their concerts (sometime between 1989 and 1992)

3) Genuine photo of their arrest for obscenity in Florida in June 1990

4) Banned In The USA

naptu2:
Memory of a very awkward situation.

I woke up in front of the tv and they were showing the MTV special, "Banned In The USA" (it was a documentary about how 2 Live Crew were banned and arrested and their legal battle to assert their freedom of speech rights and to be able to perform in public). They showed most of their videos and concerts (they beeped out the words, but they didn't edit the pictures/video).

I eventually looked around and (gasp) there was a teenage girl in the room and her mother was also in the room.

And then the teenage girl says, "Why did they ban them?" And her mother immediately replied, "What do you mean by 'Why did they ban them'? Can't you see what they are doing? . . ." And she went on and on. I just wished that I could have vanished from that room.

naptu2:


Warning! X-Rated lyrics

Nairaland has censored that word . The word censor changes it to "hot".


2 Live Crew - Me So Hot (1988)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYqSgWFgGxM

Onyeka8:
May his gentle Soul Rest in Peace Amen.

naptu2:
Warning! Explicit Content!


2 Live Crew - Hey! We Want Some **** (1986).



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYp9x_u930M

tommy589:
Banned in the USA

Crazy crew