#127 Heavy D. & The Boyz (+ In Living Color subset bonus)

Heavy D. & The Boyz have this one MusiCard in series one, another one in the UK edition (different photo), and then 5 cards in the Yo! MTV Raps set. This yellow/black pic can also be found on Yo! card #39.

Heavy D. put out 5 albums with The Boyz before going solo in the mid 90s. The group was down to a trio by the time this card was released, as Trouble T. Roy (real name Troy Dixon, lowest crouching guy in the photo) tragically died in July of 1990 from a fall while messing around with the fellas by an arena exit ramp after a show. His memory inspired the 1992 Pete Rock & CL Smooth song "They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)", which has become regarded as a hip-hop classic.

Heavy D & The Boyz dedicated their next album to T. Roy, 1991's Peaceful Journey. It spawned the single "Now That We Found Love", their version of an old O'Jays song, which was an international hit and remains the group's best-known single. 

I remember Heavy D. most from the theme songs to sketch-comedy shows In Living Color and MADtv, as well as his occasional acting. He's also notable for having collaborated with the Jacksons, rapping on Michael's "Jam" and the remix version of Janet's "Alright". Sadly, his lifelong heaviness contributed to health problems, and he died in 2011 at the age of 44.

The rest of the Boyz-- DJ Eddie F. and G-Whiz-- are still with us as of this post, happy to report.

CUSTOM CORNER

With Heavy D's theme leading the way, I thought it'd be fun to make a custom subset featuring some of the more memorable characters from In Living Color.

There's the first batch I whipped up (no AI) and that's probably enough for today. I could easily keep going, so I'm thinking I'll likely do a second series for this subset when we get to card #201 featuring the similarly-named rock band Living Colour.

But yeah, In Living Color was huge for young folks and kids of card-buying age back around the time this set was being put together. Like with the MTV subset I made a while back, I bet it would have helped sales to have these inserted into packs of MusiCards, were Pro Set to have such a licensing agreement in place. In reality, Topps put out a set of In Living Color cards in 1992 (TCDb link), but I don't have much recollection of those. Heavy D & The Boyz also have a card in that set, which is 88 cards and 11 stickers deep. I took a curious look on eBay for a set, but seems one will run you north of $100.

Thanks for stopping by and please chime in below if you've got favorites to share with regards to Heavy D tracks or Living Color moments.