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Brother Marquis, the rapper and member of the Miami hip-hop group 2 Live Crew, whose sexually explicit lyrics prompted a debate about race and artistic freedom in the 1980s and \u201990s, has died.<\/p>\n
His death was announced<\/a> on 2 Live Crew\u2019s social media accounts on Monday night. The posts did not provide a cause or location of death.<\/p>\n 2 Live Crew was founded in 1984, and Brother Marquis, born Mark Ross in Rochester, New York, joined after the group moved from California to Miami to replace another member who left. He became part of its most well-known lineup alongside Christopher Wong Won (Fresh Kid Ice); the group\u2019s leader, Luther Campbell (Luke Skyywalker); and David Hobbs (Mr. Mixx).<\/p>\n He was the emcee on the group\u2019s first album, \u201cThe 2 Live Crew Is What We Are,\u201d and in a 2022 interview<\/a> said that he wrote or co-wrote some of the group\u2019s most well-known songs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI really wasn\u2019t comfortable with all the profanity that we were putting into the music,\u201d Mr. Ross recalled, in the 2022 interview with Vlad TV, \u201cbut when you see the reaction in the community and everyone\u2019s loving it, you know, you kind of go with it.\u201d<\/p>\n In 1990, a Florida court deemed the group\u2019s third album \u201cAs Nasty as They Wanna Be\u201d legally obscene \u2014 and therefore illegal to sell. It was the first album in U.S. history to have that distinction.<\/p>\n That year, Mr. Ross, Mr. Wong Won and Mr. Campbell were charged with misdemeanor obscenity charges over their performance of songs on the album at a nightclub after an undercover police officer made a recording of their show. They faced the prospect of a year in prison and fines of up to $1,000.<\/p>\n During their obscenity trial<\/a>, prosecutors argued that their song lyrics included graphic descriptions of sexual intercourse and simulations of \u201cdeviant sexual acts.\u201d But 2 Live Crew\u2019s lawyers said that the group\u2019s performance had to be understood in the context of hip-hop, and that the lyrics \u201ccan have artistic value when you have an understanding, when you have them, in effect, decoded.\u201d<\/p>\n A jury ultimately found the three men not guilty, and in 1992, the obscenity ruling on their album was overturned by an appeals court.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The group faced another court case over their 1989 track \u201cPretty Woman,\u201d which was a rap version of Roy Orbison\u2019s rock song \u201cOh, Pretty Woman.\u201d Acuff-Rose Music, which held the copyright to Mr. Orbison\u2019s song, sued 2 Live Crew for copyright infringement. After a years-long legal battle, the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ruled in 2 Live Crew\u2019s favor, setting a legal precedent<\/a> by carving out a safety zone for parody within federal copyright law.<\/p>\n Reflecting on 2 Live Crew\u2019s legacy in a 2021 interview<\/a> with The Heat Seekers magazine, Mr. Ross said, \u201cI can take that to my grave, that we made a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n