Songoftheday 5/10/17 - We've got white-collar people trying to grab our style saying we're too nasty and we're 2 Live...
from the album Banned In The U.S.A. (1990)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #20 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 7
Today's song of the day comes from the 2 Live Crew, one of the most notorious rap acts of the early hip-hop era; not for violence, but for sexuality, as their infamous As Nasty As They Wanna Be garnered national attention and a federal lawsuit, which only resulted in them catapulting to stardom and millions of records sold. This included a top-40 pop hit with "Me So Horny" in the fall of 1989. They would eventually win the obscenity case towards them a couple of years after the release of their next album, Banned In The USA. The title of the record was a riff on Bruce Springsteen's classic Born In The U.S.A., which they interpolated for the first single and title track from the set. President George H.W. Bush is sampled as well. And for the first time Luther "Luke" Campbell is given top billing on the song...
"Banned In The U.S.A." became 2 Live Crew's second and last top-40 pop hit in August in 1990. The single also climbed to #13 on Billboard's R&B chart (their highest ranking on both the pop and R&B charts). The record spent a week at #1 on their Rap Tracks chart as well. Internationally, the record was a top-40 hit in the Netherlands (#28).
Two more singles came off the Banned In The U.S.A. album and were minor R&B hits: "Mama Juanita" (#47) and "Do The Bart" (#76). Even though the record was the first to sport the Parental Advisory Control sticker that gave Tipper Gore her fame, it nonetheless was their highest charting set at #21.
Their follow-up record, Sports Weekend, was their third consecutive top-40 album, and the lead single, "Pop That Coochie", climbed to #5 on the rap chart, #55 R&B, and #58 on the pop Hot 100. But by the end of the decade, Luther (now Luke) Campbell and the 2 Live Crew had split acrimoniously, with the former going on to a solo career, and scored his own top-40 hit with "Raise The Roof" in 1998. Meanwhile, the 2 Live Crew had a couple more minorly successful albums, with their last R&B chart appearance, "The Real One", reaching #60 that same year.
Up tomorrow: Boston boys are "in" for the evening.
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