Jurors Listen to 2 Live Crew Concert Tape : Music: The recording of the rap group’s allegedly obscene performance is of poor quality. Members of the jury strain to hear it.

Jurors in the obscenity trial of 2 Live Crew furrowed their brows and strained to make out the words today on a scratchy, unintelligible recording of the rap band’s controversial concert.

Earlier, defense attorneys twice demanded that Broward County Judge June Johnson declare a mistrial after the prosecution’s first witness made references to inadmissible evidence.

Johnson said she will rule on the motions later.

Luther Campbell, leader of the Miami group, and band members Christopher Wongwon and Mark Ross are charged with giving an obscene performance at the June 10 concert, which was held two days after a federal judge declared the group’s album, “As Nasty as They Wanna Be,” obscene.

If convicted, each defendant would face a maximum sentence of a year in prison and a $1,000 fine.

The tape recording was constantly stopped and restarted while prosecution witness Eugene McCloud, the undercover sheriff’s detective who made the recording on a hidden mini-cassette recorder, described what he saw on stage and gave his interpretation of the lyrics.

Hoots and shouts as well as bits and pieces of sexually explicit lyrics could be heard in the largely unintelligible tape that jurors visibly strained to decipher.

In one song, McCloud said, “What Mr. Campbell is saying at that point is, ‘Drop your drawers. Drop, drop your drawers.’ ”

During McCloud’s testimony, Campbell could be heard telling his attorney, Bruce Rogow, “I didn’t say that,” as Wongwon and Ross shook their heads and exchanged incredulous glances.

McCloud, 38, stammered and halted as he described the movements of three young women dancers who wore body stockings and accompanied the band on the stage of Club Futura in Hollywood, Fla.

“They were dancing--uh--they were throwing their little--uh, I’m very embarrassed,” McCloud said.

Assistant State Atty. Leslie Robson responded, “Eugene, we’re all grown-up adults here.”

“They were dancing as though they were . . . having sex,” McCloud said.

Rogow asked for a mistrial when McCloud made reference to a concert for minors that was given before the adults-only performance. Johnson had ruled Tuesday that the earlier concert was not to be mentioned because it was not related to the obscenity charge.

Prosecutors had argued that the so-called “clean version” showed that the group planned to give an obscene performance later that evening.

Rogow asked for a mistrial again when McCloud referred to a government-prepared transcript of the controversial concert that Johnson ruled Tuesday was inadmissible.

Johnson had ruled the transcript would distort the jury’s perception of the performance because it contained added information, including descriptions of what was happening on the stage, and cautioned that graphic language would follow.