As Nasty As They Wanna Be

“As Nasty as They Wanna Be” is the third studio album by 2 Live Crew, released on February 7, 1989, through Luke Skyywalker Records, the Miami label run by Luther Campbell that was later renamed Luke Records.

The story

The album runs close to 80 minutes and was produced by the group. Its lead single, “Me So Horny,” reached number 26 on the Hot 100 and number 1 on the rap chart with almost no radio support, and the album reached number 29 on the Billboard 200 and number 3 on the R&B albums chart. A separate edition, “As Clean as They Wanna Be,” was released alongside it. In Broward County, Sheriff Nick Navarro warned record store owners about selling the album. On June 6, 1990, U.S. District Judge Jose Gonzalez ruled in the Southern District of Florida that the album was legally obscene under local community standards, the first time a recording had been classed that way. Two days later a record store owner, Charles Freeman, was arrested for selling it to an undercover deputy, and on June 10, 1990, Campbell and Christopher Wong Won were arrested after a performance at Club Futura in Hollywood, Florida. At the criminal trial, scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. testified that the lyrics drew on African American vernacular, games and literary traditions, and in October 1990 a Fort Lauderdale jury acquitted the band after about two hours. In 1992 the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Judge Gonzalez’s obscenity ruling, and the Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

Sound and production

The record is built on Miami bass: Roland TR-808 drum programming, deep bass tones and fast tempos designed for car systems and clubs. It leans heavily on samples and spoken clips. “Me So Horny” uses Mass Production’s “Firecracker” along with dialogue from Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket” and the Richard Pryor film “Which Way Is Up?” Elsewhere the group borrowed from Kraftwerk, Jimi Hendrix, Nancy Sinatra and The Beatles.

Legacy

The album was certified platinum, and the prosecution made 2 Live Crew national news. The group answered the controversy on its next record, “Banned in the U.S.A.” Critics were divided, with Robert Christgau giving it a C. The case is still cited in discussions of obscenity law and free speech in music. The clean edition’s “Pretty Woman” parody separately led to Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, the 1994 Supreme Court ruling that commercial parody can be fair use.

Released February 7, 1989. More from hip hop in 1989.