Heavy D. & The Boyz ‎– Living Large

As a matter of fact this is only the opening paragraph to my review of this album. Underneath there is a link to my own website and specifically to the review. Check-Check it out!

One of hiphop’s elder statesmen died yesterday at the age of 44 in Los Angeles California. Next to the personal loss of undoubtably a great guy to his survivors there is likely more to mourn here. When someone who stood at the cradle of a musical genre passes away, we, people who like listening to said genre, are reminded how long it has been running already. When I listen to most of ‘hiphop”s current output, which mostly consists of horrible fusions with moronic electronic novelty music, some of which admittedly is a guilty pleasure to listen to, but most of which, including the entirety of the Black Eyed Peas’ recent output, makes me want to drive screwdrivers into my hearing canals, and I can’t escape the impression that idea’s are running out and hiphop is in fact dying. Or at the verly least has completed it healthy course of evolution, which for the purpose of bitching is exactly the same thing

Off course the opportunity also arises to be less of a grouch, and in stead celebrate the legacy of an important musician who made great music and inspired his followers to do the same, which I hope to be doing for the rest of this review. I don’t know yet because I have yet to hear any of Heavy D’s output, except for Nuttin’ But Love, off course, and a few guest appearances

Heavy D was born Dwight Meyers in 1967 in Jamaica (the actual country Jamaica Whackipedia would have me believe, not the Queens neighbourhood which P. Diddy and Fiddy Thent call their home) but he moved to the city of Mount Vernon in the state of New York at a young age (Whackipedia tells us no more about his pre-rap-career life than that.) and in 1987 he and his friends G-Whiz, Trouble T Roy (these two were backup dancers it seems) and DJ Eddie F got to release their debut album Living Large under the group name Heavy D and the Boyz. Off course there was hiphop before Dwight, but he and his posse had a hand in bringing the genre it to the masses by incorporating elements from other musical genres and making it accessible to the masses not unlike LL Cool J, RUN DMC, the Beastie Boyz and DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince did before the shiny suit-era, after which activities making rap music more radio friendly would forever be seen as ‘not keeping it real’, ‘selling out’ and ‘watering the genre down’ by bitter fans of how the genre used to sound (back in the day), and broke-ass ‘underground’ rappers. Despite not being a major seller at the time of release Living Large is considered a classic today. And it was followed by a long, successful career including classic singles among which the one everyone and their grandmother knows Nuttin’ But Love (I don’t know a pun, or multiple disgusting puns even were intended with that title… But listening to it… it’s pretty ambiguous) But we’re not here to talk about that song as it wasn’t on Livin’ Large. The album was produced by André Harrell (the boss of the record label, Uptown Records, Heavy D and the Boyz were signed to at that moment), DJ Eddie F (the group DJ, something hiphop acts don’t really tend to have anymore these days, unless they’re performing live, because they generally like to purchase the most expensive hip production their record advances can buy.) and Teddy Riley (Who would become the man who would make the most expensive hip production record advances could buy very soon, and maintained that position well into the ‘90s, and he even got to produce a sorta, kinda successful comeback album for a certain Michael Jackson, on which D also appeared on one song.), and legendary hiphop producer Marley Marl (legendary both then and now, Although now he doesn’t get work as much anymore as he did then.) produced one track on the album. I have to admit I’m not the biggest fan of music from the first golden age of hiphop. I respect the influence, off course, idolize some of it’s artists such as Slick Rick and N.W.A, and love what evolved from it but I tend to find a lot of even the universally acclaimed stuff from this bygone era repetitive and boring, both musically and lyically. I on the other hand love the R&B portion of the New Jack Swing era. Bobby Brown, Keith Sweat, En Vogue, Al B. Sure!, SWV, Guy, Ralph Tresvant and Johnny Gill each get taken for the occasional spin by me. So, I have no idea whether I am going to like this one or not.

[Read the rest of the review on http://straightfromthecrates.com/2011/11/09/heavy-d-the-boyz-livin-large/ ,please leave a comment on the site and like my website on facebook here http://www.facebook.com/pages/straightfromthecratescom/230354327015145 ]