Luther Campbell: Times change for nasty-as-he-wants-to-be rapper
BY NICOLE BARDO-COLON
nbardo-colon@MiamiHerald.com
When Miami native Luther Campbell emerged on the city's music scene in the 1980s as the outrageous front man for the rap group 2 Live Crew, parents cringed as their teenagers chanted along with the most sexed-laced lyrics of the day.
''Uncle Luke'' took the right to talk dirty all the way to the Supreme Court and won, paving the way for foul-mouthed rappers to get radio play today.
A couple of decades later, the rap icon is sitting at the marble-top kitchen counter of his suburban Miami Lakes home, talking about his new VH1 reality show, Luke's Parental Advisory. The show, which premieres at 10:30 p.m. Monday, follows his personal and business life.
The same man who made his fortune selling sex in entertainment is now raising kids in a world saturated with the over-sexualized music and media he put into the mainstream.
The irony is not lost on Campbell.
''People have a tendency to typecast me as . . . Luke, the guy on the stage with the girls,'' he says. ``Nobody really knows me as a business person. Luke who broke all these grounds for all these different rappers around the country and in the South.''
VH1 is banking on Campbell's eccentric personality, conflicting lifestyle and family dynamic to bring in viewers.
''Luke is a pop culture icon,'' says Shelly Tatro, senior vice president of production and programming for VH1. ``He represents music, pop culture, and is nostalgic to our audience . . . the younger audience will love watching this highly opinionated, funny, straight-shooting dad whose brand of parenting may seem a bit unorthodox at times.''
The Miami bass and booty-shaking dance music pioneer still owns an umbrella company, Luke Entertainment Group, which sells music ringtones and web content -- and adult videos.
BLACK HUGH HEFNER
His goal: to create an industry where women of color can be idolized and accepted just like Playboy's Girls Next Door.
Campbell, who calls himself the black Hugh Hefner, wants to raise the level of quality in adult movies that feature minority actors.
''No Motel 6 and grimy stuff,'' he says. ``We want to have classy done plots and tastefully done scenes.''
But in some ways, Campbell has been tamed. The 47-year-old father of five traded in his nasty-as-he-wants-to-be days for wedding planning and fatherhood, as well as coaching the Liberty City Warriors, a youth football team that has gained national attention.
FATHER KNOWS BEST
Luke's Parental Advisory -- the title alludes to Campbell's contribution to the placement of ''parental advisory'' stickers on CDs -- takes viewers into a strip club where he recruits new talent for his adult films then follows him home, where he plans for his wedding to Kristin Thompson and goes about the business of raising his family.
His parenting philosophy is simple: What's for adults is not for kids.
Much of the way Campbell disciplines his kids, he says, he learned from his folks. Campbell says growing up, there were records off limits to him.
''My mother ain't play and my father ain't play, but they had their Red Foxx and Leroy and Skillet,'' he says.
Campbell says he talks to his kids when he feels like they are getting into things they don't understand or aren't ready for.
''I listen to their conversations to see what they are talking about,'' he says. ``Then I know when it's time to have some conversations.''
His daughter Lacresha, 17, is going into her senior year of high school and trying to date.
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