| Banned in the U.S.A. | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Luke featuring the 2 Live Crew |
| Cover: | Bannedintheusa.jpg |
| Recorded: | 1989–1990 |
| Length: | 54:39 |
| Prev Title: | As Nasty as They Wanna Be |
| Prev Year: | 1989 |
| Next Title: | Live in Concert |
| Next Year: | 1990 |
Banned in the U.S.A. is the fourth album by the 2 Live Crew. It was originally credited as Luke's solo album. The album included the hits "Do the Bart" and the title track. It was also the very first release to bear the RIAA-standard Parental Advisory warning sticker.[1]
The eponymous title single is a reference to the decision in a court case that 2 Live Crew's previous album As Nasty As They Wanna Be was obscene (the decision would later be overturned on appeal). Bruce Springsteen granted the group permission to interpolate his song "Born in the U.S.A." for it.[2]
Displeased over the decision of Florida Governor Bob Martinez who, on being asked to examine the album, decided it was obscene and recommended local law enforcement take action against it and over the subsequent action of Broward County, Florida, sheriff Nick Navarro, who arrested local record-store owners on obscenity charges for selling the group's albums and the subsequent arrest of members of the group on obscenity charges, the group included the song "Fuck Martinez", which also includes multiple repetitions of the phrase "fuck Navarro". The group found two other men with the same names, and had them sign releases, as they thought that this action would make it impossible for Martinez or Navarro to sue them.
The track “Fuck Martinez” is not included on Spotify’s stream of Banned in the U.S.A.; however, it is included on Uncle Luke’s compilation Booty Calls & Chants.
There were also VHS tape and LaserDisc releases of the group discussing the ban. The album was briefly parodied on a skit of In Living Color in which Campbell, spoofed by David Alan Grier, is challenged to compose a children's song. Struggling to make a good song, he manages to come up with unoffensive composures until the last line where he must rhyme the word "tucked". The skit is cut off by a narrator saying "The following line is banned in the USA".