Introducing Mogul

October 1, 2019·39 min·3 clips

2 Live Crew's Luke Campbell was arrested for performing his own lyrics after a judge declared their music obscene.

The episode opens with a promotional introduction from Crimetown host Zach, who frames Mogul Season 2 as the story of Two Live Crew's battle with conservative organizations, a Florida sheriff, and the U.S. government over obscenity. The main narrative begins on June 10, 1990, at Club Futura in Hollywood, Florida, where Two Live Crew frontman Luke Campbell performs to 400 ecstatic fans before being arrested hours later — still in his orange 'too black, too strong, too live' t-shirt — because a Florida judge had ruled his lyrics legally obscene days earlier. Host Brandon Jenkins then rewinds to the origins of Miami hip-hop, rejecting the South Beach postcard version of 1980s Miami in favor of Liberty City, a six-square-mile, predominantly Black neighborhood nine miles across the bay. Liberty City's cultural center was the Pac Jam, a teen disco Luke Campbell built inside an empty warehouse, stacking walls of Sirwin Vegas speakers and bass bins so the music could be physically felt. Artists like Trick Daddy, Trina, JT Money, DJ Niecy D, and Rick Ross all describe the Pac Jam as a formative, identity-defining space where 600 teenagers crammed into a space built for 300, with walls that dripped from the heat. The Pac Jam's signature dance was 'Throw the D,' a sexually explicit hip-thrusting routine that became a Liberty City ritual whenever Herman Kelly's 'Dance to the Drummer's Beat' dropped. Luke Campbell's path to building the Pac Jam ran through a gang in Liberty City and a pivotal trip to Washington D.C., where his mother sent him to be straightened out by his military brother. Instead, seeing Black professionals with suits, Mercedes, and indoor pools for the first time gave Luke a business vision he'd never had access to in Miami. Back home, he used his DJ skills to create the Pac Jam and began booking established hip-hop acts from New York and beyond, breaking new records for the crowd each week. While digging through crates at the Miami record pool, Luke discovered a California hip-hop act called Two Live Crew, whose song contained the line 'Like Luke Skywalker, I got the force' — a perfect match for his DJ alias. Two Live Crew's founding members, Fresh Kid Ice and Mr. Mix, were Air Force servicemen stationed in Riverside, California, who had pooled their money to record two songs in an eight-hour studio block on borrowed tape. Mr. Mix had bought a Roland 808 drum machine from a pawn shop for $300 after being inspired by Afrika Bambaataa's 'Planet Rock,' and he predicted in 1982 that the 808 would be the most important machine in music. Luke called Two Live Crew and offered them a deal: perform at the Pac Jam for free in exchange for him breaking their record, then get paid for future shows. Ice and Mix flew to Miami, performed their first-ever show, and were paid $200 each in cash in the middle of a housing project — nearly two weeks' military pay. On a subsequent visit, Ice and Mix witnessed the Pac Jam's 'Throw the D' dance for the first time and were baffled, but Ice recognized the crowd's enthusiasm and wrote the song 'Throw the D' in 30 minutes on the flight back to California. The resulting track paired Mr. Mix's 808 with a funky sample and newly explicit lyrics, becoming a Liberty City anthem and the creative spark that would propel Two Live Crew toward both stardom and a landmark First Amendment trial. The episode closes with a tease of what comes next: the classic Two Live Crew lineup forming, Luke entering the record business, and the content getting considerably more explicit.

As heard by us

A vivid Miami origin story where Two Live Crew's club sound begins moving toward a national fight.

Two Live Crew's story opens as a Miami pressure cooker: bass-heavy music, sexual provocation, and a looming clash with people determined to shut it down.

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Why you'd press play

Play this if you want a Two Live Crew story with bass, backlash, and real stakes.

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