However, radio programmers were reluctant to program "hardcore hip-hop," as it was called back then, for fear of upsetting older listeners. Heavy D & the Boyz were one of the few among this pioneering group to cross the generational divide and land hit singles. Beginning in 1987 with Big Tyme, the Mount Vernon, Queens crew—Heavy D, underrated producer Eddie "Eddie F" Ferrell, and backup dancers Troy "Trouble T-Roy" Dixon and Glen "G-Whiz" Parrish—dominated video shows like BET's Video Vibrations and Video Soul with funky New Jack beats and plenty of dancing. These were the kind of joints that taught you new moves to practice before the party and the latest fashions to cop at the mall. During the next several years, Heavy D & the Boyz recorded some of the best songs of the New Jack era, including "We Got Our Own Thang," "Mr. Big Stuff," and "Gyrlz, They Love Me."
When older folks reminisce about how hip-hop used to be fun, they're referring to artists like Heavy D, Salt-N-Pepa, Kool Moe Dee, Kid-N-Play and others. These artists didn't use profanity—Heavy D. & the Boyz made a track called "Don't Curse" for their 1991 album Peaceful Journey—and no one expected them to. Sadly, those days are over, and we demand that clean-cut teeny-bop acts like Soulja Boy Tell'em and New Boyz talk sh*t in order to earn their hip-hop badge. Twenty years ago, those credentials came at a higher price than potty talk: artistic creativity.
]]> Big Daddy," and included three platinum and two gold albums. When house music infiltrated the R&B scene in the early '90s, Heavy D and the Boyz scored their biggest hit with a hip-house remake of the O'Jays' "Now That We Found Love." On the group's underrated 1992 album Blue Funk, they tapped then-new innovators like DJ Premier and Pete Rock to create a jazzy hip-hop sound; "A Buncha Niggas" featured an early verse from the Notorious B.I.G. (back when he called himself Biggie Smalls). In fact, Heavy D had a major impact as a behind-the-scenes player. He brought his cousin Pete Rock into the music industry. He mentored Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs as an A&R rep at Uptown Records. (And later served as the label's president.) The death of Trouble T-Roy from a freak accident in 1990 not only inspired Peaceful Journey, but also Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth's seminal "They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)."
It's tragic that two members of a classic feel-good rap group passed away at such a young age. But it's comforting to know that Heavy D continued to evolve right up until his death, from his forays into jiggy hip-hop (1997's Waterbed Hev) to his passion for dancehall music (which led to 2008's Vibes). After performing at this year's BET Hip-Hop Awards, he released a new album in September, Love Opus. Surprisingly, he created a sound similar to the ambient R&B of Drake and The-Dream. Amid appearances from Carl Thomas and Anthony Hamilton, Love Opus's best track is "Love in a Bottle," a song about a man who uses alcohol to ease the pain of an unfaithful girlfriend. Its topic is more realistic and universal than Drake's caterwauling about the price of fame. Then again, as Heavy D told us on "We Got Our Own Thang," "There's always meaning in a Heavy D statement."
For a sampling of his greatest hits, try my
RIP Heavy D playlist.]]>
It’s easy to make jokes about the premature -- if sadly somewhat predictable -- death of Amy Winehouse, who died today, of officially unknown causes, at the age of 27. It’s almost harder to avoid the jokes. After all, the talented but troubled British soul singer-songwriter preemptively provided us with plenty of fodder, her smash hit “Rehab”; not the least of it. Regardless of how far off everyone could see this tragedy coming, Winehouse’s story is not only a far too familiar example of the heartbreak that inevitably comes with addiction, but also an incredible loss for popular music.
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America lost a genuine cultural treasure when on August 7, 2009, Mike Seeger succumbed to cancer. Though he lacked the high profile of his half-brother Pete, who is more or less considered the patron saint of the American folk revival, Mike is in many ways the greatest artist and musician to have emerged from the extended Seeger clan.
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So yeah, our knowledge and understanding of American vernacular music wouldn’t be what it is were it not for Seeger’s profound contributions. But believe or not, they kind of pale in comparison to the man’s music. With his group the New Lost City Ramblers, Seeger revolutionized how folk revivalists interpret American roots music. Before the Ramblers hit the scene in the late 1950s, the overwhelming majority of liberal, urban folkies in places like New York City and Boston followed the aesthetic lead of Pete Seeger and the Weavers. They would adopt the words of classic folk tunes such as "Darlin' Cory" or "Tom Dooley" while more or less whitewashing the music. The end result was an acoustic-based sound that was sterile, stiff and painfully Caucasian. 
Michael Jackson passed away on Thursday, June 25, 2009, at the age of 50. The monumental loss has been felt around the world. Jackson was a prodigiously talented singer and dancer -- an icon that transcended borders, race and age. Beginning in 1969 with the Jackson 5, Michael Jackson loomed over the pop landscape like no one before. Thriller, Off The Wall and Bad rank as three of the greatest pop albums of all time. But more than just the music, Jackson understood the value of spectacle in pop entertainment, and his own life took on a mythical quality. Sure, the fall in the '90s was fast and hard, but Rhapsody would like to take this moment to remember the numerous career highlights from the King of Pop.
I saw Jay Bennett perform just one time apart from his seven-year stint with Wilco at a Detroit dive called the Lager House, in the shadow of the abandoned Tigers Stadium. For me, a huge fan of Bennett's contributions to Wilco and his first solo record, The Palace at 4am, the performance was hugely deflating -- a drunken mess of bluesy, distorted bar-band rock that seemed completely incongruous with the subtle genius who made Wilco records come to life. Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy's greatest talent has always been the ability to surround himself with the right musicians, and Bennett's holistic, high-minded approach as the multi-instrumentalist yielded both artists' best work. But that was hardly the Bennett that showed up that night in Detroit; the blown-out versions of tunes from The Palace at 4am grew more defiant as the room grew emptier, ensuring that Bennett would capture onlythe most determined of Wilco's audience who had turned up. Foolishly, I left early.
