Mark Ross, aka Brother Marquis, a pioneering rapper and member of the groundbreaking Miami hip-hop group 2 Live Crew, passed away at 58.
The news was confirmed by the group's official Instagram account and longtime manager DJ Debo. Ross was part of the iconic lineup that achieved national success in the 1980s and 1990s with hits like Me So Horny and Pop That C**chie.
Despite facing numerous controversies and obscenity charges due to their explicit lyrics, 2 Live Crew released several successful albums, including Move Somethin', As Nasty as They Wanna Be, Banned in the U.S.A., and Sports Weekend.
Ross joined the group in 1986 and was featured on all of their studio albums during that period. His legacy as a trailblazer in hip-hop will be remembered.
Ross, in an interview to Miami Times, expressed his pride in 2 Live Crew's role as trailblazers, successfully challenging the boundaries of free speech and paving the way for sexually explicit lyrics in hip-hop, a style that became increasingly prevalent in the genre following the group's heyday.
“I’m grateful and honored to be a pioneer as far as explicit lyrics, First Amendment rights, fighting censorship, and naked women on the stage,” Ross said. “We were responsible for securing a lot of that freedom of speech for everybody.”