Viva La Hip Hop

Dwight Arrington Myers aka Heavy D

May 24, 1967 – November 8, 2011

Heavy D, the “Overweight Lover” of hip-hop’s golden age, is dead at 44. The news broke over Twitter this afternoon, when Grandmaster Flash posted, “I was just told Heavy D passed away.” Hip-hop journalist and SPIN contributor Dream Hampton confirmed the news to SPIN, and TMZ provided additional details, reporting the rapper was brought to a Los Angeles hospital at 12 p.m. today and pronounced dead an hour later.

Heavy D, born Dwight Arrington Myers, is best known for a consistently great stream of albums in the late ’80s and early ’90s that seamlessly mixed hip-hop with pop aspirations, culminating in the Top 20 single “Now That We Found Love.” His “chunky but funky” persona, cushiony delivery and high-velocity flow garnered him five Top 40 records and memorable guest appearances on albums by both Michael and Janet Jackson. More recently, Heavy performed on television for the first time in many years, closing out the 2011 B.E.T. Awards with a medly of his classic hits. Earlier this morning, he appeared on Radio 1Xtra to tell Tim Westwood the story about the performance, which he said had him practicing eight hours a day for six weeks and almost vomiting from nervousness.

Heavy was a marvel at mixing the wholesome and the credible, which was integral in his dual life in the hip-hop and pop universes and the success of seminal new jack swing and hip-hop hub Uptown Records. Note this effortless duality on classic posse cut “Don’t Curse”:

[SPIN]