2 Live Crew Gave Killer Mike an Appreciation for the First Amendment | Joe Rogan

who's done a lot of music publishing. And then when I start talking about topics, I have a black woman named Jennifer Farmer, who's a great publicist, but she's also a publicist for like former Senator of Ohio, Nina Turner, and mega church pastors. So she's helping me keep my image clean, but she doesn't want me getting on television talking about doing cocaine and smoking joints. And I don't do cocaine, but it's just like, if I go to the club, yeah, I do coke. And you can just see her face sink behind her, she's like, oh my God. And churches are calling, they're like, this guy supports AR-15s. So I thank you, Jennifer, for tolerating me. But she's gotta understand that that's also a part of why people like you. Yeah, she does. It's just something to deal with. I get it. I get it. I wouldn't wanna be her. But you have to do what you do. That's part of what makes you fun. Absolutely. People know what they're gonna get, what it is. There's no filter. Yeah, you got it. Somebody has to shake the box a little bit. Somebody has to be the kid that's willing to poke the hornet's nest just to see how many will fly out. Two of my greatest heroes, when black people usually talk about heroes, we talk about Martin Malcolm, Elijah Muhammad, Marcus Garvey, but two of my biggest heroes coming up were Luther Campbell and Larry Flint. Because in my lifetime, I saw Luther Campbell and Larry Flint fight the government on behalf of the American people to say whatever they wanted to say. So at the same time in my former years, I was learning to love the Bill of Rights and the Preamble and United States Constitution, I got a chance to see people fight for my right. And I couldn't wait to be a rapper just so I could curse and buy my own titty books. You know what I mean? And those people have shaped my life in terms of love of freedom and liberties as much as a Thurgood Marshall, as much as a Barbara Jordan, as much as a Shirley Chisholm. So for me, who I am is needed. I remember one of my friends saying, Mike, I like the fact you talk on social issues, but why do you always feel necessary to talk about smoking weed in strip clubs? I say because that's what I really do. And I never want someone to be able from the other side to say, don't like this guy because he smokes marijuana and goes to strip clubs. I want whoever they say that to to say, yeah, and he goes with his wife and they smoke together. I don't want it to be some secret. I keep, I want people to understand that when I want you to be free, I don't want you to be free to agree to see the world the way I do. I want you to be free to live as you would like to live so long as it doesn't infringe on me and others. That's supposed to be what this is all about. That's supposed to be what this country's all about. That's what Miss Ellinson told me in high school. Well, the Luther Campbell thing was so strange because it was at one area in Florida, right? Where they had very strict blasphemy laws. They've tried porn stars there before. They tried some male porn stars doing some really fucked up videos. They tried him down there for obscenity and they had them locked up. It's very conservative. They just decided that the two live crew was just too much. They were drawing a line in the sand. Huge, but it's a crazy thing to do when something's very popular. Yeah, but they also make examples out of the popular. I just found out what the monkey on the stick thing meant, what apparently monkeys and indigern, wild out so farmers will kill one monkey and put his head on the stick so other monkeys will know, hey, this is dangerous to do, right? So essentially famous people, me, you, Luther Campbell, Lenny Bruce, Rodney Dangerfield, Andrew Dice Clay, Richard Pryor, any more, what you become is something to symbolize what will happen if you dare step out of line of social order. So your head being on a stick is less about actually charging you for crimes and more about keeping the rest of the public in fear of some lynching. A lot of times we don't wanna say that, but it really is, you know what I mean? So do you think they see something like Two Live Crew come up, they never had a rap band, any kind of band like Two Live Crew, right? And then they're worried what's next. So they'll sniff the shit in the bud. They'll sniff it in the bud. Put the head on the stick. Put the head on the stick right there in the yard. And thank God, Luke Faulk, I can remember channel two or five, ABC or CBS, and they were getting off the plane in my town. I'm a kid watching this, what, 12, 13 years old. And the news reporters just went TMZ style, just put it in their face. And I can remember Brother Marquis just pulling up a Playboy magazine and titties, being right there on the screen. I'm like, yes, because it's live TV. And the report albums dropped the camera, trying to get it out. But that's what made me love the United States Constitution when it matters the freedom of speech, because I got a chance to see it fought for and exercised right there before me as I was learning about it. Isn't it interesting that really what we're concerned with too is visuals. We're not concerned with what people write down. We're concerned with what people say. But we're not like, you could write that in a book, and no one, you could write his lyrics in a book, and no one would get mad at that book. Something about them singing it, and people singing along to it. People are like, this is it, we gotta stop, civilization's falling apart, we gotta stop this. Yeah, well, I mean, songs, vibrations, humming, meditation, you hum, that rhythm changes things. And it opens your mind, it clears you. You know what I mean? Had it not been for an artist like Lil Kim, would you have feminism in the way you have now? Would you have women gladly celebrating their sexuality and bodies if it wasn't for her? She never gets the credit. Yeah, do you think people know how extravagant she was in her time? I think she doesn't get the credit she deserves. I think women know that it became safe for them to be sexually aggressive and free because of her, the women that were coming of age at her time. But I don't think, in retrospect, because rap's young, rap's only 45, 46 years old. I don't think that, I just think it's getting to the point where we appreciate what we've accomplished. So Lil Kim is gonna become more celebrated as the years go on. Her, Trina, Kaya, Choice, Boss, like so many, hip hop has been a very fair game to women a very long time. Whether people wanna know it or not, you've always had to call the response records in hip hop. I get on there, I'm the baddest motherfucker in the world, and then a girl pops up behind you. Nah, motherfucker, I'm bad, you know what I mean? Those records have been around forever. So we've always promoted equality within because it made money, it made sense. And women with the audience too.