Happy Born Day Heavy D

One of the pioneers and hall of famers in Hip Hop is Heavy D, born on May 24th 1967.  He was one of the top hip hop producers when I was a kid in elementary in the late 80’s and had a group which also included dancers, which was Heavy D & The Boyz.  Heavy D held a sizable fan base throughout his career until his untimely death.  He is also the cousin of Pete Rock according to wikipedia.

Heavy D was born in Mandeville Jamaica and then moved to Mount Vernon New York, in the early 1970’s where he was raised.  He got his start with Uptown Records and worked with Eddie F (DJ, Producer, Partner) and dancers T.Roy and G-Wiz.  Their debut in 1987, Living Large, was a commercial success, and it went well from then on.

Dancer T.Roy died in 1990 at the age of 22 in Indianapolis.  Due to these occurrences, the upcoming album at the time, Peaceful Journey, had numerous songs dedicated to him.  Pete Rock also dropped “TROY, They Reminisce Over You” as a tribute as well.

Heavy D also was known for singing the theme song for In Living Color and Mad TV.  Heavy also performed the rap on Michael Jackson’s “Jam” and Janet Jackson’s “Alright”.  From that point, Heavy D did a string of acting gigs and recorded more music and was even featured in music videos, namely “One More Chance” by Biggie.  He also convinced Uptown Records to hire Diddy, and eventually became president of the label.  He then became senior president of Universal Records.