Mark D. Ross, the rapper best known as Brother Marquis of the Miami hip-hop group 2 Live Crew, has died. He was 58.
Rossâ death was announced Monday on the groupâs Instagram account, with no details about how or when he died.
âMark Ross AKA Brother Marquis of the 2 Live crew has passed away,â the post said. The groupâs manager DJ Debo confirmed Rossâ death to Rolling Stone and TMZ but did not immediately respond Tuesday to The Timesâ request for comment.
Born Mark D. Ross in Rochester, N.Y., in April 1966, he moved to Los Angeles as a teen. He crossed paths with rapper Rodney-O in junior high and the two formed the Caution Crew, which yielded the singles âWestside Storieâ and âRhythm Rock.â He joined up with 2 Live Crew in 1986, when he was 19.
Along with Mr. Mixx, J.T. Money and Fresh Kid Ice, Brother Marquis comprised the influential hip-hop outfit that in the 1980s gained a reputation for its Miami bass sound, sexually explicit lyrics and legal issues. 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 âParental Advisory: Explicit Contentâ label on an album due to the sexually explicit lyrics on âBanned in the U.S.A.â Their 1989 song âMe So Hornyâ was their biggest hit, and the album, âAs Nasty as They Wanna Be,â bore the notorious honor of being declared legally obscene in the U.S. by a federal judge a year later.
2 Live Crew members J.T. Money, left, Brother Marquis, second from left, Mr. Mixx (David Hobbs) and Fresh Kid Ice.
(Mike Groll / Associated Press)
In 1990, the groupâs 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 1st Amendment rights, especially by the music industry and performers. The obscenity ruling was overturned in 1992, well after the album went platinum.
The group, also known for parodying Bruce Springsteenâs âBorn in the U.S.Aâ and Roy Orbisonâs âOh, Pretty Woman,â split in the 1990s but reunited in the 2000s. Ross also joined Ice-T on his âHome Invasionâ track â99 Problems.â
Fresh Kid Ice (Wong Won) died in 2017.
This story is developing.