Live Crew’s ‘Nasty’ May Be Cincinnati’s Next Target

The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department in Cincinnati has initiated an investigation to determine whether “As Nasty as They Want to Be,” a sexually explicit album by the Miami-based rap group 2 Live Crew, violates obscenity codes in Ohio. The investigation was prompted by a complaint from Florida anti-obscenity crusader Jack Thompson, who faxed a transcription of six 2 Live Crew songs to Hamilton County Sheriff Simon Leis and to city police stations in Cincinnati and Dayton on Thursday.

“All I can say is that the matter is under investigation,” said Frank Wiekel, director of relations for the Sheriff’s Department. “The vice squad is looking into it and I would think that sometime (this) week we should be able to provide some sort of determination on it.”

The rap group’s “Nasty” album has been declared obscene in four judicial circuits encompassing 13 counties in the state of Florida. The sexually explicit record has been deemed to violate obscenity codes in some counties in Indiana and Tennessee, while authorities in Pennsylvania and Washington have issued opinions declaring “Nasty” harmful to minors.

Meanwhile, the Assn. of Art Museum Directors, which represents 153 of the nation’s largest art exhibition centers, will hold an emergency meeting of its board of directors at Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center today. The New York-based group said it would issue a statement after the special meeting, at which Dennis Barrie, the local center’s director, is to appear as an invited guest.

The association is headed by John Walsh, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, and was among the first establishment arts groups to take a strong position opposing restrictions on artistic freedom when last year’s crisis over National Endowment for the Arts funding of controversial exhibits began. Walsh said the emergency board meeting had been called to “discuss what action should be taken by the directors of the nation’s museums to defend First Amendment rights.”