The 2 Live Crew: Remember them?
Led by Luther “Uncle Luke” Campbell, the hip-hop group pioneered the Miami bass genre and Southern rap more generally in the 1980s and ’90s, as they rattled car trunks and scandalized censors with lyrics that implored women to pop that … well, you know.
Fast-forward a few decades, and Campbell has returned to the spotlight — not for dropping an album with an edgy title like 1989’s Nasty As They Wanna Be, but for elevating a different sort of performance. A political one: He has plenty to say about some of the fights shaping the moment, and he also has his eye on a congressional seat in Florida.
It’s a reminder that two things can be true at once: Campbell, who’s 65, can be known both as a provocateur who once pushed cultural boundaries — and buttons — and as a figure who wants to bring his penchant for confrontation to politics.
“People still think about him within the context of the 2 Live Crew,” Mark Anthony Neal, an African and African American studies professor at Duke University, told Capital B. “What folks are likely to miss is that he’s grown up. He understands power in a certain kind of way because of how it impacted his career, and he knows how to generate interest in a movement.”
With a bluntness that feels true to his musical roots, Campbell earlier this week took aim at Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas, one of the founding members of the trailblazing R&B group TLC, after reports surfaced that she had donated to President Donald Trump’s 2024 White House campaign and to MAGA-aligned causes.
Calling himself the “adult in the room,” Campbell also had barbs for the entertainer Nick Cannon, who said that “the Democrats are the party of the KKK.” This remark, which has floated in certain political circles for years, sidesteps the decades-long realignment of the Democratic and Republican parties that unfolded over the course of the 20th century.
“To Nick Cannon & Chilli — I say this with love … But y’all wrong. I fought all the way to the Supreme Court for free speech — so I respect your right to speak,” the veteran rapper wrote on Instagram, referring to his 1994 copyright case holding that a commercial parody can be considered fair use. “But this hits different.”
Campbell added that Cannon and Chilli are turning their backs on Black Americans, “the SAME audience that built you, while standing with Donald Trump — who has disrespected Black women, including Michelle Obama.”
Since facing backlash — including calls for a boycott of her upcoming TLC tour — Chilli has said that she “made a mistake” when she donated to Trump and his movement.
“I WANT TO BE CLEAR: I am not MAGA and do not support any of the many policies that are causing great harm to the American people,” she wrote on Instagram, maintaining that what may have seemed like support for MAGA was really something like a user error. “I made a mistake too many make: I did not read the fine print. I thought I was supporting causes against human trafficking and for veterans.”
For Campbell, turning to politics isn’t new.
In February, the Miami native announced that he’s running to represent Florida’s heavily Black, Democratic-leaning 20th Congressional District, in the hopes of bringing attention to what he says is a “very underserved community.”
“For more than 35 years, I have worked on the ground in Liberty City and throughout South Florida — co-founding Liberty City Optimist [Club], partnering with city and county leaders, building relationships with corporate sponsors, and helping hundreds of thousands of young people access education and opportunity through sports and mentorship,” Campbell, who previously was a high school football coach, said in a statement.
The seat Campbell is vying for is currently held by U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida, who has been indicted for allegedly stealing $5 million in disaster relief funds to pay for her 2021 special election campaign. She has pleaded not guilty, saying recently, “I look forward to proving my innocence.”
Campbell hasn’t responded to Capital B’s request for an interview.
Notably, Campbell previously tried to enter elected office in 2011, when he ran to be mayor of Miami-Dade County. He won some 11% of the vote, coming in fourth; his less-than-stellar finish didn’t dampen his political pursuits.
To an extent, Neal said, Campbell’s path from music to politics mirrors Jerry Butler’s. The late lead singer of the R&B group the Impressions served as a member of Illinois’ Cook County Board of Commissioners for more than three decades.
“For Black folks who are celebrities, who want to impact what’s happening in their local communities, they on occasion get involved in the political process, whether it’s through the school board or Congress,” Neal said.
Campbell’s political engagement has extended beyond just launching campaigns. A scroll through his social media shows that he’s offered his views on issues from Trump’s kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro (“this man is on some gangster shit”) to the cost of living (older Americans “gotta take the money that they’re getting for medicine to buy groceries”) to historically Black colleges and universities (“when it comes to our historically Black colleges, we don’t give back”).
All of which is to say: Campbell hasn’t abandoned those instincts that made him (in)famous back in the 1990s — unapologetic, confrontational, dogged. He has redirected them, from provocation on the mic to incisive critique of figures and systems he believes deserve more scrutiny. Only time will tell how successful this pivot will be.
“The political landscape is crazy enough now, and folks are really looking for an opportunity to shift what’s happening in Washington, that I think that Campbell has as good a chance as he’s ever had to win elected office,” Neal said.
