2 LIVE CREW: No rap group (well, perhaps, N.W.A) has stirred more controversy or provoked more heated debate than the 2 Live Crew. The furor over the graphic sexual content of their X-rated party rhymes — specifically their 1989 album As Nasty as They Wanna Be — was a major catalyst in making rap music a flash point for controversy and an easily visible target for self-appointed moral guardians. And they were indeed crude and coarse, and frequently misogynistic by most standards.
They were responsible for popularizing the booming, hard-driving sound of Miami bass music, and they were the founding fathers of a populist, dance-oriented rap sub-genre that relied on simple, explicit chants and up-tempo rump-shaking grooves, appropriately dubbed “booty rap.”
