So the wife comes to bed tonight and says, “Did you hear about Heavy D?”
Heartbroken.
I can’t say the Big Lover is my all-time favorite rapper. He’s not. But when it comes to guys from a certain era (early-to-mid 90s) and a certain genre (up-tempo party jams) few could hang with Heavy D. Back when I was in college, we’d rotate only a select few discs in the CD player. One was Ween. One was Blind Melon. One was George Michael (stop laughing). And the last was Heavy D. I probably heard “Now That We’ve Found Love” 8,000 times one semester—and it remains a helluva jam.
Yet my absolute favorite Heavy D song is “Don’t Curse,” which is—in one man’s opinion—absolute genius. The music, the arrangement, the execution, the very idea. Just brilliant. Beyond brilliant.
Does Heavy D have a longtime hip-hip legacy, a la Jay-Z and Eminem and Run DMC? Probably not. But was he a key player and, universally, a good guy?
Yes.
