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.
It’s hard to believe Heavy was only 44 for some reason. Seems to me like he’d have been older. I suppose he was younger than I thought he was back during the late 80s and early 90s when he was a bonafide “chunky but funky” star — a frequent presence in my childhood.
According to Spin, Dwight Arrington Myers, appeared on Radio 1Xtra this morning to talk about his performance at the 2011 BET Awards, which he said had “him practicing eight hours a day for six weeks and almost vomiting from nervousness.” Early reports suggest that it was some sort of respiratory issue that killed him. After issuing R.I.P. wishes to Joe Frasier last night after the boxing great’s death, Heavy tweeted the following…
See ya on the other side, Big Man. Thanks for the tunes and the memories.
