Uncle Luke Honored BET’s I Am Hip Hop Award, Throws Shade At No One

Words by Ime Ekpo

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This past Friday, the 2017 BET Hip Hop Awards got live in Miami with DJ Khaled serving as the host of the show.

Oddly, Hip-Hop veterans frequently get snubbed of awards and honors that are presented by big-time music industry hubs. Finally, after 35 years Luther Campbell best known as Uncle Luke is being honored with the 2017 BET I Am Hip Hop Influence Award.

Also considered by Hip-Hop heads as the “Black Hugh Hefner” or “King of Dirty Rap,” Uncle Luke is iconic for his erotic melodies as the lead of legendary Miami collective 2 Live Crew with songs in the likes of “Me So Horny”, “C’mon Babe”, “I Wanna Rock” and many more timeless bangers.

The Miami icon is also very pivotal to the movement of Hip-Hop lyrical censorship, as his publicly vocal rhetoric defending the expression and his censorship battle with the Supreme Court in the early 90s for his 2 Live Crew Album, Banned in the USA, broke barriers for the unapologetic use of necessary explicit lyrics in Hip-Hop music.

It appears there was a massive misinterpretation about what the Doo Doo Brown rocker said during his acceptance speech for the I Am Hip Hop Influence Award. Reports went viral about how Luke made some dissenting comments about Funkmaster Flex & Kool DJ Red Alert during his speech. According to Luke, his teleprompter went out so he “shot from the hip.” He went on to say in an Instagram video post, “Some people may have misinterpreted it as I said something bad about Funkmaster Flex and DJ Red Alert. No, those are my guys. What you should have heard was Funkmaster Flex broke my music in fucking New York. You should have heard, Red Alert is my friend for life who gave me the name Uncle Luke…”

Let me set the record straight if anyone misinterpreted my speech at the BET Awards last night that I said something bad about @funkflex #djredAlert your FUCKING WORNG what I was trying to say was when everybody else was shiting on me Funkmaster Flex broke my music in New York along with DJ Red Alert giving me my name I will always be grateful to those guys. If anyone knows me they know that I do not make Corrections with what I say I wear that shit on my shoulder.

A post shared by LUTHER CAMPBELL (@unclelukereal1) on Oct 7, 2017 at 6:25am PDT

And it appears Kool DJ Red Alert is not sweating the rumor, as he liked and replied under Luke’s post of clarity: “Good Day @unclelukereal1 Respect For The Acknowledgement & Shout Out My Friend, It’s Also A Pleasure Giving You The Title “Uncle Luke” #ForEverFriends.”

Welp. It sure is amazing to witness Hip-Hop legends embrace one another’s greatness and acknowledge each other’s contributions to their own legacies. Perhaps, new school cats can learn a lesson on how to build strong friendships with one another, for the sake of the longevity and weight of their cultural influence.