Hip Hop Goes to Court

The year was 1992 and Uncle Luke was selling out shows across the United States Broward County Florida Sheriff Nick Navarro didn’t like that. He felt the best way to stop it was arresting record store owners who sold Uncle Luke records. Full blown raids as if they were selling cocaine.

There were no real grounds for this, but the federal district court allowed it claiming the music to be obscene. Uncle Luke and 2 Live Crew took it to trial. There are three requirements to label something obscene legally.  

    1. It appeals to a shameful interest in sex

    2. It depicts sexual materials in a patently offensive way

    3. It lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.  

At the trial, they simply presented the album “As Nasty as They Want to Be,” as obscene but couldn’t explain why. The case was thrown out because according to appeals court, “we reject the argument that simply by listening to this musical work, the judge could determine that it had no serious artistic value.”

Thanks to Uncle Luke and 2 Live Crew, hip hop has continued to flourish over 30 years after the trial.