Heavy D: Requiem For A Quiet Superstar By Sheldon Taylor
Huge in stature yet humble and accessible, the late Heavy D transformed four square miles of a neighborhood just outside the Bronx into Money Earnin' Mount Vernon ---a musical mecca from which Al B. Sure, Pete Rock and CL Smooth and Diddy and many others would spring from. Rotund rappers have been around forever. Back in the 70s, seminal star DJ Hollywood ruled the rap roost before hip hop records. Constant fixtures on the first barnstorming rap tours in the mid 80s, the Fat Boys parlayed their popularity into a string of gold and platinum albums, movies and commercial endorsements. There were short-lived West Coast act...