R.I.P. Heavy D

It's a heavy day in the hip-hop world as the Overweight Lover passes away.

Dwight Arrington Myers, better known by millions of hip-hop fans around the world a Heavy D, died yesterday at the age of 44. As the leader of Heavy D and the Boyz, Myers was an influential voice just as rap had begun to go mainstream. The group's first album, Living Large, released in 1987, was a playful record full of Heavy D's easy-going flow and light-hearted wordplay. The three singles it spawned, "Mr. Big Stuff," "The Overweight Lover's In The House," and "Don't You Know" helped solidify the album as a classic (The Source magazine named it one of hip-hop's Top 100 albums of all time) and made an unlikely star – and sex symbol – out of the group's frontman. They would go on to release four more albums, three of which went platinum, before Heavy D split from the group to release three more solo discs, the last of which, Love Opus, was released last month. Heavy D had also wrote the theme songs to classic 1990s sketch comedy shows Mad TV and In Living Color.

Heavy D and The Boyz, "Mr. Big Stuff":

Heavy D at the 2011 BET Awards: