posted
When Frazier passed away Monday (Nov. 7) of liver cancer, Muhammad Ali released a short statement: "The world has lost a great champion. I will always remember Joe with respect and admiration. My sympathy goes out to his family and loved ones."
Ali also released a statement upon Frazier's entering into hospice care, saying, ""My family and I are keeping Joe and his family in our daily prayers. Joe has a lot of friends pulling for him, and I'm one of them."
ROTUND RAP legend Heavy D died Tuesday after collapsing in his California home. He was 44.
The Westchester County-raised entertainer was taken by ambulance to Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles about 11:25 a.m. and died 90 minutes later, cops told the Daily News.
Heavy D was conscious and talking when officers responded to a 911 call from his Beverly Hills condo, said Lt. Mark Rosen of the Beverly Hills Police Department.
Rosen said the portly rapper, whose real name was Dwight Arrington Myers, was having difficulty breathing as paramedics rushed him to the hospital.
The performer had just returned from Europe and was battling pneumonia, KTLA news in Los Angeles reported.
Rosen said Heavy D had come home from a shopping trip Tuesday and began laboring for breath as he walked into his condo building.
“He collapsed in an exterior hallway,” Rosen said. “There doesn’t appear to be any foul play. We believe it was medically related.”
The actual cause of death is pending an autopsy.
Born in Jamaica and raised in Mount Vernon, Heavy D rose to stardom in the 1990s as the frontman for Heavy D & the Boys.
Along with band mates G-Whiz, Trouble T. Roy and Eddie F., he made hip-hop history with hit songs like “Now That We Found Love” and “Nuttin But Love.” They also performed the theme song for the 1990s comedy TV series “In Living Color.”
Heavy D last performed in October at the BET Awards.
In recent years, he had ventured into acting, scoring small movie roles, including one in the 1999 film “The Cider House Rules.”
He won a cameo role as a security guard in the just-released film “Tower Heist,” starring Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller.
“I’m definitely saddened by the loss of Heavy. He was a really good person,” said Damon Williams, vice president of programming for Music Choice, the multi-platform video and music network.
With catchy dance tunes that included R&B riffs, Heavy D was one of the first rappers to cross over to mainstream popularity, Williams said.
“But I don’t think he ever lost his credibility with the hard-core rap audience,” said Williams.
Other friends took to Twitter to express condolences.
“I am deeply saddened by the sudden loss of Heavy D. A longtime friend and a beautiful person,” wrote Russell Simmons.
LL Cool J tweeted, “May GOD embrace the soul of Heavy D and Bless his family. I respected you Heavy and I always will.”
posted
Smokin' Joe was in town in on November 6, 1971 performing at a club with his group called The Knockouts. While my wife and I had a front row seat in a very small club she brought my attention to one of Frazier's dancers. My wife said the dancer was noticing me quite a bit while she danced. So quite naturally I started to watch her more closely. Well this made my wife mad and she told me as much.
Later, when the performance was over my wife suggested we get some pictures made with Joe. After about three pictures we sat back down at the table and my wife said she thought Frazier's hand was a little too high when he put it around her upper back and under the arm to get the picture. The implication was Frazier had a quick feel. Being a wannabe boxer I thought to myself I should say something to this guy about him gettin' all touchy feely with my wife. But I quickly came to my senses once I realized this was no regular human being standing about 20 feet away (and talking to the Light heavyweight contender Ray Anderson), and that he was in fact Joe Frazier--the same guy who put Ali on the canvas in the 15th round.
So I got to thinking: maybe my wife had set me up because, after all, she was irritated with me earlier for eyeballing one of Frazier's dancers. So I reflected still further and asked myself was my wife's complaint, maybe honor, worth getting myelf knocked out for. I quickly realized my wife had no complaint and no honor whatsover to defend. Posts: 2118 | From: midwest, USA | Registered: Aug 2007
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posted
These deaths in hollywood is too much of a coincidence. Something fishy is going on. I think Heavy D. was murdered.
Posts: 2088 | Registered: Feb 2007
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I didn't realize Ray Anderson, the Light Heavyweight contender at the time, was in the picture with Frazier and me until after I posted; I had them close by in a drawer and decided to take a quick look after all these years (actually I had seen them as recent as a month ago but that was the first time in more than 20 years).
So armed wih this extra piece of information you know damn good and well my wife didn't have nuthin' comin' from me that night.
I saw Frazier beat up Jerry Quarry one time and it almost made me cry.
And don't ask me about Big George and Joe.
On a serious note I recorded an Ali and Frazier documentary about a year ago and it went into detail about both their issues with each other and I found myself leaning toward Frazier. You could tell he was hurt by some of Ali's antics and talk. Actually it was painful somewhat to see him reflect on the issues. At one time near the end of the documentary as Joe was sitting in a subdued-light boxing gym he set the tone for his mood because he seemed near tears as the camera moved about him, but he managed.
Having said that, the first fight between the two made me change my mind about Ali as a fighter. He was a lot, lot tougher than I thought.
Posts: 2118 | From: midwest, USA | Registered: Aug 2007
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