Exclusive: Joe Stone On Whether The 2 Live Jews Knew Luke Campbell & The 2 Live Crew
Henry Stone was a music industry legend who set up more than 100 record labels. He was instrumental in the careers of James Brown, Ray Charles and KC & The Sunshine Band – to name a few legends – and altogether instrumental in the mainstream expansion of the R&B, disco and hip-hop genres. His namesake company, Henry Stone Music, lives on through his son Joe, while Stone’s legacy itself lives on through the award-winning documentary film The Record Man.
But Joe Stone is no music business slouch himself. L’Trimm, Gucci Crew II and 2 Unlimited are among the artists who Joe Stone helped build careers for. However, my favorite project which Joe Stone has been part of was easily the 2 Live Jews. At quick glance, the 2 Live Jews — as co-founded with Eric Lambert — was a Judaism-centric, novelty-oriented, humorous take on the 2 Live Crew. Beyond the similar artist names, the 2 Live Jews had a 1990 album called As Kosher As They Wanna Be (2 Live Crew had As Nasty As They Wanna Be) and a video for “Oy So Humid” (2 Live Crew, of course, had a hit with “Me So Horny”). Yet 2 Live Jews would release another four studio albums — in addition to a one-off single in 2010 called “What’s With The Pants” — and the group continues to live on infamy.
I was able to track down Joe Stone and schedule an in-depth phone interview with him about the past, present and future of the 2 Live Jews. Within our chat — as embedded below — I asked Stone what Luke Campbell and his legendary 2 Live Crew thought of Stone, Lambert and the 2 Live Jews:
“He was super-cool with it. He thought it was funny and fun. The thing is I knew Luke for many many years before that, because when Luke was coming up as a DJ, as you know Luke Skywalker the DJ at The Pac Jam, before he was even involved with 2 Live Crew… I used to go hang out and sell Miami Bass records that I was involved in… I had produced and did all the beats for the Gucci Crew II for their first three albums and engineered all those albums for those guys. I was friendly with them so whenever I would have one of these new Miami Bass records I would call [Disco] Rick up and say, ‘Hey you going to be there tonight? He’d be like, ‘Yes I’m coming down.’ ‘Let’s get Luke to play some of these records so I can sell some out of my trunk in the parking lot.’ So then you know they would do that. Like would play some of the new Miami Bass records that I would bring, and then he would announce that I had some for sale in the parking lot… for half-price of what you could buy them for in the store.”
More information on Joe Stone, Henry Stone, The Record Man, the Henry Stone Music USA catalog and the 2 Live Jews can be found online at www.henrystonemusic.com.
