Tributes and glowing words of remembrance have poured in since the passing of the first female attorney general Janet Reno who passed away Monday morning. Reno passed away at the age of 78 after a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease.
One tribute from an unlikely figure stood out. Rapper “Uncle Luke” Campbell penned a glowing tribute to Reno in which he praised her as a true Florida icon. On his website, Campbell noted that Reno meant a lot to the African-American community. He wrote:
At the height of my fame, Reno was the only state prosecutor who didn’t come after 2 Live Crew for singing explicit lyrics when every law enforcement official in the state wanted to throw our a**es in jail. In fact, she defended our first amendment right to be as nasty as we wanted to be. When I formed the Liberty City Optimist Club, Reno was the first person to make a donation to the youth program.
In 1989, Campbell wrote the song “Janet Reno” about Reno’s tough stance on non-child supporting paying fathers. Campbell wrote: “As Miami-Dade County State Attorney and the first woman U.S. Attorney General, Reno handled her high-profile jobs with professionalism.”
Campbell dabbled in politics himself, running for mayor of Miami-Dade County in 2011.