Man, word is hitting all over the place that old school rapper, Heavy D, has passed away at the age of 44. I guess we’ll get a word on the cause of death later.
I was introduced to Heavy D in my later teen years with his song, “Mr. Big Stuff,” which he made in 1986. Here’s the official video for said song (there may be a commercial at the front since it is an officially uploaded video).
Back then, I found that my musical tastes were toward this “fad” called “rap” and so when an electro-funk/rap station came on air, I recorded as much as I could from the radio (depending on the weather since I lived just on the edge of the radio station’s transmission range at the time). “Mr. Big Stuff” was one of the early rap songs that I recorded, and it also introduced me to the concept of “sampling” since Heavy D & the Boys used Jean Knight’s song title and music from the early 1970’s for their rap version.
For most folks though, Heavy D was seen as more of a 1990’s element since he had several hit tunes that came out in the early 90’s. For me, he will be a part of my high school years and a reminder of things like Max Headroom, Ronald Reagan, Coca-cola clothing, and other things that were great about the 80’s. So, I’ll close with another of Heavy D’s 80’s tunes.
My thoughts and prayers go to Heavy D’s family and friends at this time of loss.