Mark Ross, a rapper better known by his stage name Brother Marquis and a member of the influential and often controversial Miami hip-hop group 2 Live Crew, has died. He was 58.
The official 2 Live Crew Instagram account confirmed Ross’ death on Monday night, and the group’s longtime manager, DJ Debo, also confirmed the news to People Magazine. No details or cause of death were provided.
Alongside Luke Skyywalker (Luther Campbell), Fresh Kid Ice (Christopher Wong Won) and Mr. Mixx (David Hobbs), Ross formed the most well-known lineup of 2 Live Crew who broke out of the Florida rap scene to achieve national success in the 1980s and ’90s with a string of gold albums and became notorious for their overtly sexual songs such as “Me So Horny,” “We Want Some Pussy!,” “Throw the Dick,” and “Pop That Coochie.”
Ross was born in Rochester, New York on April 4, 1966. At 14, he moved to Los Angeles with his family, where he became a rising talent in the local rap scene. Though closely associated with Miami, 2 Live Crew were initially founded in Riverside, California in 1984 by DJ Mr. Mixx and original rappers Fresh Kid Ice and Amazing Vee. Ross became friendly with the 2 Live Crew in Riverside and that connection led to him being accepted into the group in 1986 when he was 19.
With Ross and the group now relocated to Miami, 2 Live Crew released their debut album, The 2 Live Crew Is What We Are, in 1986. The record would go gold and feature the songs “We Want Some Pussy” and “Throw the ‘D’”. Given the obvious adult content of the songs, the band was embroiled in a series of controversies in Florida and elsewhere, a pattern that would repeat in future records.
Achieving national notoriety for their sexually explicit lyrics, and the continual obscenity charges thrown at them, 2 Live Crew, nonetheless enjoyed a run of success with their next four studio albums, with Ross featuring on all of them. Move Somethin’ (1988) went gold, As Nasty as They Wanna Be (1989) hit platinum sales and the both Banned in the U.S.A. (1990) and Sports Weekend (As Nasty as They Wanna Be Part II) (1991) gained gold status. Banned in the U.S.A. was notable for being one of the first albums to feature the newly implemented RIAA-standard Parental Advisory warning sticker.
In a Miami Times interview, Ross was particularly proud of 2 Live Crew’s ability to push the limits of free speech and their pioneering sexually explicit lyrics which became more common in hip-hop after the group’s prime years. “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.”
Following the break up of the best known 2 Live Crew lineup in 1992, Ross relocated to Georgia and dabbled with standup comedy. He also achieved moderate success in the rap duo 2 Nasty with DJ Toomp.
As a solo artist, Ross made a notable feature appearance on the particularly sexually explicit Ice-T track “99 Problems” released in 1993, a song that was later sampled by Jay-Z.
Ross and 2 Live Crew would reform at various times over the last two decades, touring semi-regularly.
