7 April 24-April 30, 2025 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | Contents | Letters | news | night+Day | CuLture | Cafe | MusiC | Music to My Ears The Liberty City street renamings are an inspiration to future generations BY LUTHER CAMPBELL S oon, a stretch of NW 70th Street in Lib- erty City will also be known as “It’s Your Birthday Street,” after one of my booty- shaking songs that still hypes up party crowds across America after [checks watch] 30 years. Other nearby streets across a nearly ten-block stretch in Liberty City will bear the titles of songs by other famous Black Miami artists, including the late R&B singer Betty Wright’s classic, “No Pain, No Gain,” and rapper Trick Daddy’s “Trick Love the Kids (“In Da Wind”). In March, after failing on his first attempt, Mi- ami-Dade County Commissioner Keon Hardemon persuaded a majority of his colleagues to ap- prove a resolution adding the song titles to street signs between NW 63rd Street and NW 71st Street from NW 18th Avenue to NW 19th Avenue. The legislative measure drew national media at- tention and some controversy in the local Black community as some neighborhood activists op- posed it. I don’t see a problem with naming streets af- ter the songs. After all, Hialeah’s elected officials recently rechristened their city’s Palm Avenue as President Donald J. Trump Avenue. Certainly, Wright, Trick Daddy, Flo Rida, Pitbull, and the other talented musicians represented in the song’s title street names have earned their rec- ognition. But the debate over the song-title street names overshadowed a separate Hardemon res- olution to rename NW 58th Street at NW 11th Av- enue “Luther Campbell Way,” a move the commission unanimously approved. The official unveiling will take place on Saturday, May 3. It’s not an honor I asked for, but I’m humbled to receive it. The effort be- gan last year when City of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and his staff approached me about naming a street after me. Su- arez got Miami City Commis- sion Chairwoman Christine King to sponsor a city resolu- tion for “Luther Campbell Way” that was also unanimously ap- proved. King’s district includes NW 58th Street and NW 11th Avenue, where my parents bought their first home more than 60 years ago. We were the only Black people on the block, and shortly after we moved in, a white man told my dad, “You’re supposed to be in the Pork ’n Beans” — a reference to the Liberty Square pub- lic housing projects. My parents raised five sons, including me, in that two-bedroom house. My brothers and I took a bus to Miami Beach to attend desegregated public schools. But the city was still a sundown town — meaning we’d go to jail if we were still in Miami Beach after dusk. Four of us became mil- lionaires. I founded Southern hip-hop in that house, which served as my distribution ware- house when I started my record company. When I’m dead and gone, new Liberty City residents who don’t know about me may won- der: Who the hell is Luther Campbell? They’ll Google me and find out I’m a free-speech icon who won rulings all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Those de- cisions from the nation’s high- est court essentially gave every artist who came after me the liberty to parody and sample hit songs, and to perform explicit lyrics with- out fear of arrest. And they reached the Supreme Court because I went to jail and spent my own money defending every- body’s right to express themselves. I also hope “Luther Campbell Way” fuels con- versations between my supporters, who see me as a First Amendment champ, and my haters, who view my music as misogynistic and degrad- ing to women. But most of all, I want “Luther Campbell Way” to inspire young Black people to realize that they, too, can achieve their dreams. | UNCLE LUKE | four University of Florida (UF) stu- dents had their visas revoked. The rea- sons behind those revocations remain unclear. As New Times previously reported, UF student Felipe Zapata Velásquez recently self-deported to Colombia af- ter being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) fol- lowing a traffic stop late last month. Zapata Velásquez, who was in the U.S. under an F-1 visa, was admitted into the country in February 2023 to study at Santa Fe College in Gaines- ville, according to an ICE spokesper- son. He reportedly graduated from Santa Fe College in 2023. After that, according to the Alligator, the UF In- ternational Center helped him transi- tion to school in Florida. But while an ICE spokesperson says Zapata Velásquez’s student sta- tus was terminated from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) in October 2024 ow- ing to his failure to enroll (students must enroll in SEVIS at the start of each school year to maintain their F-1 status), UF spokesperson Steve Or- lando has confirmed to New Times that Zapata Velásquez is currently en- rolled at UF — and was also enrolled last fall. Orlando declined to comment on Zapata Velásquez’s visa status, citing student privacy laws. [email protected]
