It’s Your Birthday – Luke | Top 40 Chart Performance, Story and Song Meaning

Chart Performance: R&B (#91) & Hot Rap Singles (#33); 1994

Story Behind The Song By Ed Osborne

Luther “Luke” Campbell along with David “DJ Mr. Mixx” Hobbs, Chris “Fresh Kid Ice” Wong Won, and Mark “Brother Marquis” Ross – aka 2 Live Crew – became a lightening rod in the battle over obscenity following their 1990 release As Nasty As They Wanna Be.

2LC fired off the opening salvo in 1986 with The 2 Live Crew Is What We Are, a record that helped spread Luke’s personal spin on Miami Bass music, something he called “ghetto bass,” nationwide. 2LC continued the barrage with 1987’s Move Somethin’.

Although Move was released in both “clean” and “dirty” versions – a first – the controversy only escalated. With Nasty the conflict spilled into the Florida courts as the record climbed to platinum sales status.

All this furor served to boost Luke’s profile as Banned In The U.S.A., a parody of Bruce Springsteen’s Born In The U.S.A., reached the R&B Top 15. In 1992 I Wanna Rock kicked off a string of Luke solo singles, including 1994’s It’s Your Birthday.

This content and all Song Meaning articles were created and written by Top 40 Contributing Editor Ed Osborne. © 2024 Ed Osborne. All Rights Reserved. In addition to these song meaning articles, Ed has written our “Year in Music 1960s-1990s” articles.

Produced by:

  • Lazaro Mendez
  • DJ Slice
  • Mike “Fresh” McCray
  • Darren “DJ Spin” Rudnick

Lyrics Written by:

  • Luther R. Campbell

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Ed Osborne

Hi. I got my first record at age two and never looked back, spending a decades-long career in radio and the music business. Even after years of reading about and listening to all types of music, I am still fascinated by it. Apart from that, I’m endlessly intrigued by art, nature, and the inner lives of people (and dogs).