2 Live Crew's obscenity case ended with rap ruled protected speech, a landmark for recorded music

2 Live Crew popularised Miami bass in the late 1980s with sexually explicit records. Their 1989 album As Nasty As They Wanna Be and single ‘Me So Horny’ drew obscenity charges: retailers who sold the album were arrested, and group members were arrested for performing. The charges were overturned on appeal, and the US Appeals Court system ruled that rap is protected by First Amendment rights. The fact matters because it is a landmark in the legal history of recorded music: it established that sexually explicit rap could not be prosecuted as obscenity, which the source frames as making it ‘safe for hip-hop as we know it to exist’.

Examples

Record store owners were arrested for selling As Nasty As They Wanna Be; 2 Live Crew members were arrested for playing shows; the appeals ruling then protected rap as free speech.

Assessment

Summarise the legal events around As Nasty As They Wanna Be and state the precedent the appeals ruling set for recorded music.