Music has the ability to move and transform a moment, a feeling, even a person. When music touches you, when the merged sounds and words reach you in that intimate way, you make a connection — with the music, with the performer, with the universe.
I’m saying all this now because Rapper Heavy D, Dwight Arrington Myers, died on Nov. 8 at age 44.
I’d be lying to claim I’m a devoted Heavy D fan. I didn’t really follow his career, never went to a performance or collected his albums. But if he was on television I didn’t turn away, if I heard something about him I remembered it and I had plans to pick up some songs from his latest CD, Love Opus.
But Heavy D earned a place in my life with his “Peaceful Journey” album, released in 1991. It was with that music he connected with me, enriching my life in the process.