Heavy D - Nuttin but love (1994)
Dwight Arrington Myers a.k.a. Heavy D left us on Tuesday. Born in Jamaica, Heavy D had many talents but to us he was first and foremost a rapper and producer. A Heavy D tune is also the reason for one of my longest and most memorable crate-digging quests:
I spent the amazing summer of 1994 in New York. It was the summer when both Biggie and Wu Tang broke into the spotlight. We were chillin' in our appartment one night with Funkmaster Flex's show on Hot*97 in the background when Flex drops this amazing break that we realize is the original tune behind Nuttin' but love. But of course they never mentioned what the tune was...
For years I was asking around in forums, digging in dusty record shops, sample-FAQ:s for what the original might be, but everyone insisted that Nuttin' but love was indeed the original tune produced by Kid Capri and Heavy D.
Years later, in 1999 I got a mail from a German create digger that had read my post from way back and by accident came to know the story behind the original tune. Apparently one of bandmembers of Scottish new age band Endgames was driving down Autobahn in Germany one afternoon in the late ninties when he heard their long forgotten song Ecstasy (off their 1983 album Building beauty) looped as a break with Heavy D rhyming over it. Shocked, he almost had an accident and had to pull over. So now through friend of friends of the German create digger the story was out of the original behind Nuttin' but love.
So I knew it was Endgames Ecstasy that I heard that night on Hot*97 but I still couldn't find the record. In 2001 I got another mail from a DJ Spinelli in Boston that had seen my post asking for the orignal tune and wanted to know if I ever found out what it was. I told him the story, he was absolutely thrilled to find out and later that week he found the Endgames album for us in mint condition in the dollar-bin in a used record store in Boston.
Long story, but everytime I hear Nuttin' but love it brings a smile to my face. If you don't already know it, check the video above as well with the amazing rooftop shot over Central Park.
R.I.P. Heavy D.
Download: Endgames - Ecstasy
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