Mark D. Ross, the rapper best known as Brother Marquis of the Miami hip-hop group 2 Live Crew, has died. He was 58 years old.
Ross's death was announced Monday on the group's Instagram account, with no details on how or when he died.
“Mark Ross, aka Team 2 Live's Brother Marquis, has passed away,” the post read. The group's manager, DJ Debo, confirmed Ross's death to Rolling Stone and TMZ, but did not immediately respond to The Times' request for comment Tuesday.
Born Mark D. Ross in Rochester, New York, in April 1966, he moved to Los Angeles as a teenager. He crossed paths with rapper Rodney-O in high school and the two formed Caution Crew, which produced the singles “Westside Story” and “Rhythm Rock.” He joined 2 Live Crew in 1986, when he was 19 years old.
Along with Mr. Mixx, JT Money and Fresh Kid Ice, Brother Marquis was part of the influential hip-hop group that in the 1980s gained a reputation for its Miami bass sound, sexually explicit lyrics and legal troubles. The group, founded by Mr. Mixx (David Hobbs), Fresh Kid Ice (Christopher Wong Won) and Amazing Vee (Yuri Vielot), became the first to receive a “Parental Advisory: Explicit Content” label on an album because of sexuality. explicit lyrics from “Banned in the USA” Their 1989 song “Me So Horny” was their biggest hit, and the album, “As Nasty as They Wanna Be,” had the notorious honor of being declared legally obscene in the US by a federal authority. judge a year later.
2 members of Live Crew, JT Money, left, Brother Marquis, second from left, Mr. Mixx (David Hobbs) and Fresh Kid Ice.
(Mike Groll / Associated Press)
In 1990, the group's surreptitiously recorded nightclub concert was the subject of a court case over crude and graphic sexual language that was closely watched as a test of First Amendment rights, especially by the music industry and artists. The obscenity ruling was overturned in 1992, long after the album had gone platinum.
The group, also known for parodying Bruce Springsteen's “Born in the USA” and Roy Orbison's “Oh, Pretty Woman,” broke up in the 1990s but reunited in the 2000s. Ross also joined Ice- T in his song “99 Problems” from “Home Invasion”.
Fresh Kid Ice (Wong Won) died in 2017.
This story is developing.
