Friday, March 10.2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section A·Page 5
Controversial rap group to perform
2 Live Crew in concert at the Granada tonight
By BriAnne Hess
by BrAnne Hess
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
They're as nasty as they want to be — and they're coming to Lawrence.
2 Live Crew and its troupe of female dancers will perform at 7:30 tonight at the Granada, 1020 Massachusetts St. The rap group is famous for its controversial performances.
"There's no nudity, but it does get freaky," said Bill Pyle, a promoter at Avalanche Productions.
The group Beyond and DJ Michael Scott are opening for 2 Live Crew. Jim Pickard, a Granada employee, said that Scott's act also included strippers who danced but were not allowed to strip.
2 Live Crew became nationally known 10 years ago when its third album, As Nasty as They Wanna Be, was declared legally obscene by a county judge.
The ruling later was overturned on appeal, and the album sold three million copies. Since then, the band's explicit lyrics and sexist themes have kept it in the limelight.
In a prepared statement, group member Brother Marquis wrote that critics did not understand was the band was about.
"We make party music," he wrote. "What we do is the same stuff Redd Foxx, Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy did on their albums."
Because of censorship issues, 2 Live Crew was the first group to release both unedited and "clean" versions of its albums. It also was the first group to label unedited albums with explicit parental warnings before the industry developed guidelines for such labeling.
Sumithra Rao
Overland Park freshman
"It will be nice for them to stir up some trouble in our boring little state."
Sumitha Rao, Overland Park freshman,
won't be going to the concert.
Even though Rao didn't agree with the band's message, she said she thought it was good that the band was coming to town.
"I think it's offensive toward me — but I can't speak for all women," she said. "Sometimes I just shrug it off."
"It will be nice for them to stir up some trouble in our boring little state," she said.
Jay Kimbrough, Leavenworth senior, said that he didn't know 2 Live Crew was still around and that he probably wouldn't go to the concert.
"They were kind of cool back in the day," he said. "I just remember because they were so controversial."
Jeff Hirt, Shawnee senior, said he remembered listening to the band's music when he was in junior high school.
"Iliked the vulgarity and the shock value," he said.
Hirt also said that because he was only 11 years old at the time, he had had to buy the clean version of the cassette and listen to it behind closed doors so that his parents wouldn't hear the words. He said he liked the album cover, on which the four band members peer out from between the legs of four women in thong blinkinis
"That was a good way to attract young male listeners." Hirt said.
Being in court has been 2 Live Crew's routine since the obscurity case.
Contributed art
In 1990, producer and director George Lucas sued the band's Luke Skyywalker record label, which is also lead vocalist Luther Campbell's stage name, for taking the name of his "moral, wholesome" Star Wars character, according to the alt.culture Web site. The label paid Lucas $300,000 in an out-of-court settlement.
Later that year, the band was acquitted on a charge of obscene performance in Hollywood, Fla.
In 1994, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the band's parody of Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman" was not plagiarism.
The new 2 Live Crew album, The Real One, features tracks with Freak Nasty, Ice T and K.C. from K.C. and the Sunshine Band .
According to the Granada box office, more than 500 tickets were sold yesterday. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for the 18-and-older show, and tickets are $10. Ladies' night will follow the concert because of the early show time.
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