Interest Piece: RA The Rugged Man's Letter To Heavy D..

R.A. The Rugged Man is a frequent lightning rod for controversy and brash opinions.. lol, PHH itself isn't exempt from sometimes letting the Suffolk County, New York emcee get under our skin.. When it comes to the  man's skill however, that'll always be undeniable... R.A. IS in fact one of the most technically skilled rappers to ever pick up a mic.. Period.

R.A. is gifted in what he does and when paying tribute to folks, few do it better.. recently after the passing of the legendary Heavy D, the slick-tongued Rugged Man broke out his pen for another tribute of sorts and jotted down a heartfelt letter to his departed idol.. he was good enough to share the letter with the collective Hip-Hop consciousness.. here it is:


"I didn’t have the honor of knowing HEAVY D personally and can’t say he was a friend of mine – but what I did have the honor of being to Heavy – was one of his biggest fans. I know a lot of people go out of their way to speak on how great an artist was after they die but I don’t do that shit – Heavy D and the Boyz was honestly one of my all time favorite groups and anyone who listens to my lyrics knows that I reference their music often – and I was honored to see it was recognized in this Daily News article about Heavy D.

He was an entertainer, a song writer, a hit maker – with an incredible flow and a strong quality in his vocals that’s lacking from this new school age of thin-voiced midget sounding bitch rappers. He had a true rappers voice and not a computer programmed, EQ’d to death, poorly annunicaited delivery. He wasn’t one of these unmusical, no-soul having rappers who learned how to rhyme a few Multi’s and wrote some half ass metephors and now thinks he’s a MC. Heavy D was the epitome of a dude you hand the mic to who could unquestionably rock any party. He was HipHop.

I especially loved HipHop that wasn’t all about being “gangsta” and “Keepin it Real in the streets” but was more about entertaining the crowd, grabbing the mic, and putting on an incredible show. Artists like Slick Rick & Doug E. Fresh, Whodini, Biz Markie – they knew how to have fun and rock the house without having to thug it out. And they were as “REAL” as HipHop gets. Heavy D was part of that era.

I remember being on tour and having an argument with a fellow rapper who thought he was too “hardcore” for Heavy D, he said Heavy D was corny and didn’t make “Real” HipHop. he was one of these cats who thought if it wasn’t BootCamp Click, Gang Starr or Wu-Tang Clan then it wasn’t “Real”. I love all that 90′s hiphop. I lived through that era and was part of it – but HipHop is more than just that one era or sound.

I aggressively, almost violently explained to this “Keep it Real” rapper on the tour that everyone of his favorite artists and producers fucked with Heavy D and respected his work. I couldn’t understand, him being such a die hard Gang Starr fan, why he didnt know the history Heavy had with Premo – and that they worked together on many occasions. Guru had even appeared on Heavy D’s album Blue Funk. OR, if he had loved that 90′s sound so much, how he didn’t know that Heavy D was the one who put Pete Rock on the map. Isn’t Pete Rock one of the most influential producers from the 90s?

It wasn’t just Premo and Pete Rock that The Heavster worked with, he made classic after classic with some of the greatest producers in history – Marley Marl, Teddy Riley and Erik Sermon to name a few and his right hand man Eddie F was an incredible producer too." -R.A. The Rugged Man