The Luke who went against those with the force

If I were to tell you that Hip-Hop as we know it wouldn't have been possible without a Miami-based rapper/promoter/record exec who went by the name of Uncle Luke, would you believe me?

It was in 1984 that Uncle Luke set out to help the South find its own Hip Hop sound. At the time, New York was buzzing with the culture, being the root of modern Hip Hop. West Coast was about to come up with its sound in the form of gangster rap with NWA forming its vanguard. The South, however, lacked representation in the Hip Hop community. But that would change with the formation of the legendary rap group, 2 Live Crew. The group would shoot to success with their second album, Move Somethin'. The album was as raunchy as Hip Hop could get at the time. It perfectly captured the party vibe of the black youth in Florida. However, due to its explicit nature, the album was undigestible to the Christian white community of Southern America. Things would only escalate with the release of their third album, As Nasty As They Wanna Be, in 1989. This was the album that contained the iconic party track, Me So Horny. What followed was a long obscenity trial that would set a precedent for all Hip Hop albums to come. If Luke Campbell was to lose that case, the creative and rebellious nature of Hip Hop would have been squashed, perhaps even killing off the genre completely.

The issue at the heart of this case was that of freedom of speech. However, if one were to look deeper, the question was not "Do I, as an American citizen, have a right to speak my mind?" but "Do I, a black American citizen, have a right to speak my mind?" This was apparent to most, even at that time, because explicit music put out by white artists wasn't questioned. On top of that, it was also a form of cultural resistance - the same thing that Elvis, Heavy Metal, Rock and Roll, the Beatniks, and the Hippies faced.

In May 1992, the group along with Luke Campbell were acquitted of all the charges. The court decided that their music had artistic value. It was a monumental victory for artists all over America, especially black artists and more so, the Hip Hop community. So, whenever you are bumping Eminem or The Weeknd in your car, take out a second to think about what Hip Hop and R&B would have been like if it was not for Uncle Luke's resistance to the opposing forces around him.