Luther “Uncle Luke” Campbell may not rock with the 2 Live Crew anymore, but he’s definitely live with the Tom Joyner Morning Show in Miami today. The man who brought us “Move Somethin’ and ” Me So Horny” was one of the first artists to take the Miami bass sound and the Miami booty to the forefront came out to join the TJMS on Tour. He says he thought he saw some familiar faces in the crowd.
“There’s a lot of my ex-dancers here,” he says. (We’re not sure if he’s joking or not, but anything is possible, it’s Miami, after all.) “They can drop it like it’s hot, but I don’t know if they’ll get up.”
Years ago, Tom remembers that Luke dancers were free of body ink. But if Luke hired dancers now, that wouldn’t be the case.
“I don’t know why they cover all the good stuff up,” Luke says. “That don’t make no sense to me.”
Campbell is credited with being one of the reasons that Tipper Gore and C. Delores Tucker wanted parental advisory stickers on records and “clean” version of records released. That’s not as much of an issue these days with streaming making record sales almost obsolete, but at the time, Luke and the 2 Live Crew were synonymous with sexually explicit music and videos. Now, the stuff they did early on seems quaint, but back then it was shocking.
Campbell says he started out in Miami with Team Disco deejaying and playing at local hangout and skating rinks. Then he bought Strawberries night club and Studio 183, popular spots in partying Black Miami. Campbell says that after a trip to a local strip club called Tootsie’s which was small then, but is a huge spot now, he wanted to get Black folks to participate more in the strip club life.
“It blew my mind,” he says. Then after seeing Teddy Pendergrass live and how women responded and considering the popularity of Frankie Beverly and Maze (these are the connections Campbell made) he decided he wanted a piece for himself. No pun intended of course.
“After I saw women throwing panties on stage, I thought if I could ever get women to do that,” says Campbell.
Every man has a dream and Campbell certainly accomplished his. Now, after prevailing in his free speech trial after being arrested on obscenity charges in 1990, Campbell, now married, leads a quieter life in Miami.
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