Unlikely free-speech crusaders led by Luther "Luke Skyywalker" Campbell (b. 1960),
gap-toothed Miami mini-mogul. The Crew inaugurated the up-tempo Miami Bass sound with 1984's
refreshingly blunt if not altogether funky "Throw the D" (as in "dick"). But what brought
the band national renown was the June 1990 declaration by a Broward County judge that their
third album, As Nasty As They Want to Be (1989, including the single "Me So Horny"),
was legally obscene. (The record went on to sell three million copies, and the ruling was
overturned on appeal, thanks in part to the testimony of expert witnesses such as
Henry Louis Gates.)
Campbell and his band have been court regulars ever since: in
September 1990 their label Luke Skyywalker (Campbell's stage name) Records paid director
George Lucas a $300,000 out-of-court settlement for taking in vain the name of his "moral,
wholesome" Star Wars character. The following month the band was
acquitted of obscene performance in Hollywood, Florida. ("I wish they'd respect me for the
joker that I am," Campbell told the Los Angeles Times in 1992.) In 1994 the Supreme
Court ruled that 2 Live Crew's parody of Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman" was not plagiarism.
After the band's demise, Campbell continued as a solo entity (with bikini-filled clips beloved
on The Box) for his own Luke label; in
1991 he was ordered to pay Luke artist MC Shy D $1.6 million after a dispute over royalties.
In June 1995, Campbell filed for bankruptcy.
