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RAPPING  NASTY  SCHOLASTIC  UPDATE,  SEPTEMBER  21,  1990    THE  OUTRAGEOUS  LYRICS  OF  2  LIVE  CREW  HAVE  SPARKED  A  FUROR  OVER  OBSCENITY  AND  FREEDOM  OF  SPEECH.  

   Last   June,   on   a   steamy   Saturday   night,   the  members   of   2   Live   Crew  were   doing  what   they   do  

best—“getting   nasty”—in   a   packed   nightclub   in   Hollywood,   Florida.     For   more   than   an   hour,   group  members   Luther   Campbell,   Mark   Ross,   and   Chris   Wong  Won  rapped   the  bawdy  tunes   that  had  made  them  on  of  America’s  most  popular— and   controversial—rap   groups.     Behind  them,   two   scantily   clad   female   dancers   gyrated  to  the  music.      

Later,   as   the   band’s   members   left   the   club,   they   were   met   by   the   usual  autograph-­‐seeking   fans—and   the   local   police.    Campbell   and  Wong  Won  were  placed  under   arrest.     The   charge?     Performing   songs   from   their   best-­‐selling   album   As   Nasty   As  They  Wanna  Be,  which  was  found  to  be  obscene  by  a  Fort  Lauderdale  judge  just  a  few  days  earlier.         The  judge’s  ruling  and  the  band  members’  arrest  were  the  latest  in  a  series  of  incidents  that  many  people  see  as  an  increasing  effort  to  limit  free  speech.    Protecting  2  Live  Crew’s  right  to  free  speech,  they  say  is  a  way  of  protecting  everyone’s  right  to  free  speech—even  if  the  music  is  offensive  to  some  people.         The  battle  over  the  limits  of  free  speech  began  almost  the  moment  the  Bill  of  Rights  was  signed.    

Difficulty   in   setting   limits   often   boils   down   to   one   question:     How   do   you   define  obscenity?    Former  Supreme  Court  Justice  William  Brennan,  who  once  favored  a  limit  on  obscene  speech,  says  he  has  given  up  trying  to  define  the  term.    As  he  told  The  New  Yorker  magazine   in   March,   “If   you   can’t   define   it   [obscenity],   you   can’t   prosecute  people  for  it.”     But   others   feel   that   even   if   words   cannot   describe   it,   obscenity   does   exist.    

“Perhaps   I   could   never   succeed   in   [defining   obscenity],”   wrote   Justice   Potter   Stewart   in   a  famous  1964  opinion.    “But  I  know  it  when  I  see  it.”     The   current   criteria   for   obscenity  were   established   in   1973.     In   the   case  Miller   v.  California,   the   Supreme  Court   said   a  work  must   be   “patently   offensive”   and   lack   artistic,  literary,  political,  or  scientific  value  to  be  declared  legally  obscene.        CRUDE  AND  GRAPHIC     The  judge  in  the  2  Live  Crew  case  held  that  As  Nast  As  They  Wanna  Be  lacked  any  “artistic”  value.    He   cited   songs   like   “Me   So  Horny”   and   “Dirty  Nursery   Rhymes,”   in  which   the   rappers   boast   of   sexual  conquests  and  describe  sexual  acts  and  genitalia  in  crude  and  graphic  detail.    The  arrested  members  of  2  Live  Crew  face  up  to  a  year  in  jail  and  a  $1,000  fine.         The  2   Live  Crew   leader,   Luther  Campbell,   told  UPDATE   that   the   album   is   nothing  more   than  “what  comes  out  of   the  mouths  of  men   in   locker  rooms.     It’s   just  exaggerated  talk  about  sex,  bragging,  and  being  macho.    It  is  meant  to  be  funny,  not  taken  seriously.”     But   Jack   Thompson,   a   Miami   anti-­‐pornography   lawyer,   wasn’t   laughing   when   a  

Mississippi  group,  called  the  American  Family  Association,  sent  him  a  transcript  of  the  album’s   lyrics   last   year.     Thompson   sent   letters   and   copies   of   the   lyrics   to   law-­‐enforcement  officials   in  67  Florida  counties  and  to  the  governors  of   the  50  states.    He  claimed  that  record-­‐store  owners  were  violating  obscenity/pornography  laws  by  selling  nasty  to  children.  

  Broward  County  deputy  Mark  Wichner  took  a  tape  and  transcript  to  a  local  judge,  who  ruled  there  was   “probable   cause”   to   believe   the   album   was   obscene   under   state   laws.     Law   officers   brought   the  judge’s  decision  to  the  attention  of  record  retailers,  who  began  pulling  Nasty  from  their  shelves,  fearing  arrest  and  fines.    

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A  FORM  OF  INTIMIDATION?     The  2  Live  Crew  then  filed  suit,  claiming  their  album  had  in  fact  not  been  declared  obscene,  and  the  law-­‐enforcement  action  had  been  illegal  and  a  form  of   intimidation.    After  a  three-­‐week  trial,   Judge  Hose  Gonzalez  Jr.  ruled  that  the  album’s  lyrics  appeal  to  “  ‘dirty’  thoughts  and  the  loins,  not  to  the  intellect  and  the  mind.”         Some  musicians   feel   the   ruling  against  2  Live  Crew  was  bound   to  happen—and   that   the   record  industry  is  partly  to  blame.    In  1985,  the  Parents  Music  Resource  Center  (PMRC)  began  pushing  to  have  

warning   stickers   placed   on   record   labels   of   albums   whose   material   was   deemed  inappropriate   for   children.     Since   then,  more   artists   have   been   criticized   for   their  provocative  stage  acts  (Bobby  Brown,  Madonna)  and  controversial   lyrics  (Guns   ‘N’  Roses,  Public  Enemy).      

  “By   agreeing   [to   warning   stickers]   we   were   admitting   that   some   of   the   music   was   obscene,”  explains  Ice-­‐T,  a  controversial  West  Coast  rapper.    “Once  the  music  was  stamped  with  that  label,  the  door  was  opened  for  anyone  to  come  along  and  question  whether  it  had  a  right  to  be  sold  or  heard  by  people.”     The  citizens  who  live  in  Broward,  Dade,  and  Palm  Beach  counties  in  Florida  know  this  all  too  well.    They   can   now   be   fined   or   jailed   for   selling  Nasty   or   playing   it   public.     Judges   in   two   South   Carolina  counties  have  also  declared  it  obscene,  and  officials  in  other  states  are  trying  to  force  record  stores  not  to  carry  it.       Many  record  chains  have  stopped  selling  Nasty.    Some  continue  to  sell  it,  but  request  identification  from  the  buyer  before  they  OK  the  sale.         Campbell   says   his   group   was   singled   out   unfairly.     “Let’s   just   call   it   selective  prosecution.     I   could   think   of   a   lot   of   others   whose   work   could   be   labeled   offensive.”    Holding  up  a  copy  of  white  comedian  Andrew  Dice  Clay’s  cassette  “Dice,”  he  asks  with  a  sly  grin,   “This   isn’t  obscene?    Do  you  think   it   is  a  coincidence   that   they’ve  gone  after  a  black  group  producing  black  music  through  a  black  production  company?  I  don’t.”    PARENTAL  FEARS  

  Armond  White,  arts  editor  for  the  City  Sun,  an  African-­‐American  weekly  based  in  New   York,     agrees.     Rap  music   has   come   under   fierce   scrutiny   by   whites   who   don’t  understand   it,   he   says.     “A   lot   of   parents   are   afraid   because   their   kids   are   walking  around  in  Public  Enemy  T-­‐shirts  and  listening  to  ‘Fear  of  a  Black  Planet.’”  

  Campbell  says  the  Crew’s  graphic  sexual  language  is  in  the  black  cultural  tradition  of  comedians  such  as  Richard  Pryor  and  Redd  Foxx.     “We  wanted  to  be  known  as  the  Eddie  Murphys  of  rap,”  he  contends.  But  the  National  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Colored  People   (NAACP)   has   criticized     Campbell   for   associating   the   group’s   lyrics   with   black  culture.     Michele   Moody-­‐Adams,   an   assistant   professor   of   philosophy   at   Rochester  University,  sides  with  the  NAACP.        DEHUMANIZING  WOMEN  

  “A   culture   sustains   and   supports   positive   traditions,”  explains  Moody-­‐Adams,  who   is   black.     “2   Live   Crew’s  music  doesn’t  speak  to  the  history  of  black  people.     It  supports  the  myth   that   black   men   are   sexually   irresponsible,   and   black  women  are  fair  game.”    While  she  does  not  favor  censorship,  she  believes  2  Live  Crew’s  lyrics  are  “dangerous  not  only  for  black  people  but  for  all  people.    How  can  anyone  defend  lyrics  that  dehumanize  women,  that  reduce  them  to  creatures  made  to  satisfy  the  violent,  sadistic  sexual  fantasies  of  men?”