2 Live Crew‘s Brother Marquis has reportedly died at the age of 58.
2 Live Crew Member Brother Marquis Has Passed Away
On Monday (June 3), TMZ reported that 2 Live Crew’s Brother Marquis had passed away, with no further details being available at this time. Sources allegedly informed TMZ that Marquis died of natural causes, with no foul play suspected. An Instagram account linked to the group also posted the sad news, though it’s unclear if that’s 2 Live Crew’s official page.
Brother Marquis, born Mark Ross, joined 2 Live Crew in 1986, around the time the Florida group was gaining a buzz with their risqué song “Throw the D.” Marquis appeared on the Crew’s The 2 Live Crew Is What We Are album and other subsequent projects that followed, including their controversial Banned in the USA. Brother Marquis would later go on to discover the group 2 Nasty, and work with other credible MCs throughout his career including Ice-T.
Brother Marquis is the second 2 Live Crew member to pass. Fresh Kid Ice died at 53 years old in 2017.
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2 Live Crew Set the Stage for Free Speech When It Came to Controversial Material
Most notably, 2 Live Crew were instrumental in Parental Advisory stickers being placed on explicit album covers today. The controversial group’s fourth album, Banned in the USA, was the first album ever to receive the sticker. The 1990 LP was also deemed criminally offensive at the time by the U.S. government.
The album was so raunchy that then-U.S. District Judge Jose Gonzalez made the album illegal to sell in several Miami counties that year. Multiple record store owners were then arrested as a result of selling the tape, and Crew members Chris Won Wong and Uncle Luke were also arrested and charged with “prohibition on certain acts in connection with an obscene, lewd performance” in 1990.
A lengthy trial ensued eventually went all the way up to the Supreme Court that same year. 2 Live Crew and the DJ that played their music claimed their raunchy material was merely an expression of free speech. The whole Crew was eventually acquitted, and the group’s As Nasty As They Wanna Be went on to sell over 2 million copies, making it the group’s most successful album.