Rapper Calls for Record Companies to Fight Censorship : Pop music: 2 Live Crew’s Luther Campbell wants a boycott of stores that won’t carry the group’s albums.

Charging that the music industry has failed to come to his support, rap entrepreneur Luther Campbell, leader of the controversial group 2 Live Crew, called Saturday in Los Angeles for major record companies to boycott stores that refuse to carry his records.

“When the stores say they’re going to take my albums out, the record companies should say, ‘OK, then you’re not going to get the next Michael Jackson or Madonna record,’ ” Campbell said in an interview following an appearance on a Radio & Records Convention panel discussion of censorship in pop.

“Somebody’s got to start (fighting). It’s not just going to be me next time (being banned or prosecuted).”

As the man behind the raunchy, legally besieged 2 Live Crew, the Miami-based Campbell is as controversial in the record world these days as comedian Andrew Dice Clay (see article on Page 1). A U.S. District Judge in Los Angeles last week barred Campbell from using the name Luke Skyywalker, pending the outcome of a suit filed by “Star Wars” creator George Lucas, who is the “trademark” owner of the name. Campbell also used the Luke Skyywalker name for his label.

2 Live Crew recordings have been declared obscene in two Florida counties and sales of the album to minors have led to the arrest of at least two record store clerks. The album “As Nasty as They Wanna Be” has sold nearly 2 million copies, but some major record store chains now refuse to carry it and others are requiring buyers to provide proof that they are 18 or older. A “clean” version of the album has sold only about 300,000 copies.

During the panel session on “The First Amendment and You” at the Century Plaza, Campbell complained about what he feels is a lack of support from high-powered record companies.

“In some areas we have radio stations supporting us,” said Campbell. “But the record industry (as a whole), no.”

Asked in an interview what the industry could do to support Campbell, Recording Industry Assn. of America president Jay Berman said only that the association is looking at the possibility of filing a friend of the court brief on Campbell’s behalf in a case coming to trial this week in Florida.

But Campbell said in the post-panel interview that his case calls for stronger action, pointing to remarks during the panel about recent efforts to ban or restrict sales of other rap and heavy metal albums. He was joined on the panel by moderator Jason Shrinsky, a media attorney; Danny Goldberg, a manager and record company owner; Jeff Pollack, a radio consultant; and Joel Salkowitz, a New York radio executive.