“Me So Horny”: 2 Live Crew
Production: 2 Live Crew
Album: As Nasty As They Want To Be
The single, based around a crude sample from Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Full Metal Jacket’, was the introduction to the Miami bass crew’s third album, aiming to “bug people out”. The album delivered on its pornographic promise, featuring 87 descriptions of oral sex, and 116 of assorted genitalia. Whilst there are a few diversionary musings about assholes, 36 to be precise, the album was a roaring success, the people bugged out. Indeed, the album succeeded at being the first to be deemed legally obscene, in Florida of all places, resulting in the arrest of 2 Live Crew.
The group’s appeal went to the federal court, a loss would mean that every explicit hip hop record would automatically be deemed obscene. Ultimately free speech triumphed, saving hip hop, and reminding us all that music should appeal to the intellect, as well as the loins.