Key Tracks: Heavy D and the Boyz’ Big Tyme

By the end of the 1980s, Dwight “Heavy D.” Myers, Edward “DJ Eddie F” Ferrell, Glen “G-Whiz” Parrish, and Troy “Trouble T-Roy” Dixon — collectively known as Heavy D. & The Boyz — had established themselves as a commercially viable act within hip hop culture. After the release of Living Large in 1987, the group shattered any preconceived notions of hip hop success, standing out from their contemporaries in musical approach and aesthetics. As New Jack Swing began to dominate the mainstream, their follow-up album allowed them to take their careers to another level. On June 12, 1989, Big Tyme was released by Uptown Records, and it became their second consecutive smash. The album would spawn three singles: the number-one hit “Somebody for Me,” “We Got Our Own Thang,” and “Gyrlz, They Love Me.”

Behind the boards was a quartet of legendary producers: Edward “Teddy” Riley, Edward “Eddie F.” Ferrell, Marlon “Marley Marl” Williams, and a young Peter “Pete Rock” Phillips. Through groundbreaking production techniques, they were able to recapture the essence of their debut. Their style was infectious — featuring Heavy D’s incandescent, tongue-tied lyricism and the group’s polished dance moves. Heavy became the lovable big guy and audiences gravitated to him en masse. For the album’s 25th anniversary, we spoke with Riley and Ferrell about crafting this classic album.

How did you first meet Heavy D?

Teddy Riley

We actually met at the Rooftop rollerskating rink in Harlem in 1986. Andre Harrell [Uptown Records founder, and later the CEO of Motown] brought him up to the studio that I had up there. The moment we met, we knew we wanted to work with each other. It just grew from there. Andre said, “Well, let me set you guys up with some studio time down at Chung King.” By the way, a lot of the credits on the Living Large album I’m not credited for because they were stolen by my manager at the time, but everybody knew I was a big part of it because of my relationship with Heavy. We [started at] one studio, and we ended up at Chung King to finish up the record. The first thing was they tried me on a couple of records, and they told me my job was over. Then, Heavy was like, “No. I want him working on the whole album.” Eddie F. and the rest of the guys all agreed that I should be a part of the record — they had a bunch of records from producers like the great Marley Marl and Pete Rock. From all the aspects of making the album, I was always around to work on whatever they wanted me to do.

Eddie Ferrell

I met Heavy D through Troy [Dixon, one of the “Boyz”]. Mount Vernon, New York is a small town, so everybody knows everybody. I really didn’t know Glen or Heavy D in the beginning. At the time, I was becoming a really popular DJ around my senior year in high school and into my freshman year of college. I was DJing all the high school parties, important house parties, weddings, and everything pretty much in Mount Vernon. I was spreading out into Westchester County, too. I remember when I formally met Heavy. I was doing a wedding reception at the Boys & Girls Club in Mount Vernon. It’s funny because Denzel Washington is from Mount Vernon, and he always talks about this Boys & Girls Club there. I remember I was there by myself, and it was early in the day because the reception was going to be later. Troy came through the side door and said, “Hey, man. I want you to meet Heav. He’s trying to make a record, and he wants you to DJ for him.” I replied, “Yeah. I know Heav. I don’t know him, but I know of him. He knows everybody.” I met with them later on that day, and Heav and I just clicked. Immediately, we became best friends. From that day on, we were rolling thick. Back then, we didn’t have cars. I used to drive my mom’s car, and Heavy used to drive his mom’s car and we would go out and socialize [laughs]. Everyone who knew Heav knew his personality. He was a very cool guy, great energy, great family, and really friendly. We wanted to figure out how to make a record.

What made you want to work with Heavy D after you first met him at the roller rink?

Teddy Riley

It was his aura. He was such a good guy. He was like a brother to me. We would have our own jokes about meeting in school, and how he used to be a bully. He used to tell me, “Stop telling people that stuff, man. I don’t want people thinking that I’m a real bully.” [laughs] It really took a toll on him. He said, “You’re my best friend. I bullied you?” [laughs] I was like, “Alright. I won’t do it again, Heav.”

I remember watching your group’s Unsung episode where Andre stated that he was planning to leave Rush Communications in 1986 to form his own label. Take me through the process of forming the group and signing your record deal with Andre Harrell at Uptown Records.

Eddie Ferrell

As I said before, I was DJing, and I knew of the labels releasing hip hop records. I recognized that most of these artists were coming from one company, which was Rush Management. I remember telling Heavy D. and Al B. Sure! — who, at that time, was a rapper — and Nevelle Hodge, at one of our gatherings in my mom’s basement that we should go check out Rush Management because all the artists were there except for The Fat Boys. LL Cool J, Whodini, Run-DMC, Kurtis Blow, Beastie Boys, Slick Rick, and some more artists that I can’t remember off the top of my head were all there. Back then, you would read the address on the record, so we went down to the label to meet Russell Simmons. Russell ended up not being in the office, but Andre, who was the vice president of Rush, was there. He was more intrigued by the fact that we had driven into the city all the way from Mount Vernon, but I think he got Mount Vernon mixed up with some other place far away.

We played him a demo — it had a swing beat because artists had switched to a swing beat like Doug E. Fresh. His record “The Show” had already come out, and Andre latched on to that. He asked us, “Who did this beat?” I said, “I did.” He said, “Who are you? A junior Rick Rubin?” [laughs] He was always making jokes. He and Heavy really got along. He liked his personality. He gave him his number and that’s how the relationship started. Little did we know that he was planning to make his exit and start his own company. We didn’t know that at the time, but that’s what he had in mind for us: to be a part of his new company.

There were a couple hits off your debut that established Heavy D. & The Boyz as a formidable force in hip hop and the burgeoning New Jack Swing scene. What direction was the group trying to take on Big Tyme? Were you guys aiming to keep the same formula for success?

Eddie Ferrell

We were a really diverse group because of where we were from. Mount Vernon was culturally diverse. To me, Mount Vernon was a mini version of Harlem, or rather a mini version of New York City. If you could put all the five boroughs and Harlem into one place, that was Mount Vernon. We always had a sense for fashion and music. We were definitely looking at our music like we wanted to be on the cutting-edge. So, as far as the whole urban, black, hip hop experience, we lived it; we grew up on it. Hip hop started in the Bronx, right next to Mount Vernon. We were a part of that whole journey as well. We didn’t look at it like we were going from album to album; we were looking at it from the standpoint of making great songs. Heav also had a West Indian heritage. But one key thing that was different on the second album was that we had traveled the country doing shows; as we went to different places like the Midwest and the West Coast, artists like Roger Troutman and Zapp and songs like that started becoming more prevalent. Songs that we heard some of the time, we actually started incorporating those sounds into our music. We started understanding that certain forms of music were popular in different places.

You and Heavy were obviously close. Did this play a role in you participating in the making of the second album as well?

Teddy Riley

That’s exactly what it was. It was our friendship that kept me doing something on each of his albums. We actually had something more than a friendship because we were connected through family. His older brother is the father of my kids’ cousins. So – my kids’ first cousins are his brother’s kids. This was his brother that passed away. He used to come to my house to sleep and go to the studio, and we would hang out all night.

What was creative dynamic that existed between group members on Big Tyme?

Eddie Ferrell

We were a really tight knit group. We knew each other because went to school together. Everybody started to fall into a role. Glen was more into fashion, I was into the music, Heavy was into the lyrics, and Troy was the person that connected everything together. The rest of us were really lighthearted, but Troy gave our group a sense of realness, which was necessary in hip hop. You couldn’t just be too polished and happy all the time. Troy was a great guy, but he was also a guy that if something went down, you wanted him to be on your side.

I distinctly remember you saying in your group’s Unsung episode that when your group cut your first record, you didn’t know how to finish it, so you guys brought in Teddy Riley. As the group transitioned to this record, Big Tyme, you understood the process of finishing a song. Can you take me through your creative mindset when you were crafting the songs on this album?

Eddie Ferrell

On this album, I went from being a junior producer on Living Large to being a real full-fledged producer. I had taken on more responsibility because Teddy started to become busy with his group, Guy; they had their own company with Gene Griffin. Whereas Teddy was heavily involved with our first album, on the second album, he only did one song. So I stepped into the role of being the main producer. As a matter of fact, I think out of all our albums, this album was the one I did the most songs, and I’m proud to say that it was the album that sold the most units.

What did you learn from Teddy Riley in terms of finishing a record that aided you in the making of this particular album?

Eddie Ferrell

Teddy gave away information freely. Teddy wasn’t one of those producers that kept secrets; he’s still like this to this day. Teddy taught a lot of people whatever he knew about music. He would give people keyboards and stuff. I remember Teddy writing down an arrangement for me like, "This is how you write a song: 8-bar intro, 12-bar intro." I remember he wrote it all down on a piece of paper and gave it to me. The funny thing is he did that with a lot of people. Many people don’t know how many producers worked with Teddy early on in their careers. He worked with me, Rodney Jerkins, Timbaland, Pharrell, and many others. It’s almost like Teddy Riley had a boot camp. If you worked with him, you learned something, and you definitely got better at your craft. When I got put on, I passed down the information I had to my production group called The Untouchables. Then Puff passed down what he knew to his Bad Boy Hitmen crew. It was like a big family tree. At one point, I was like if you look at uptempo R&B music and all the guys who did it really well are in some way linked to a branch coming from that Teddy Riley tree. Between him and Andre [Harrell], Andre would teach you the culture and style, and Teddy would give you music education. I had musical sensibilities because, once again, I was a DJ, and I knew what all the hits sounded like.

Where were the songs on this album constructed?

Eddie Ferrell

For the songs on this album, we recorded them in my mother’s basement, and I transferred them when we got to a larger studio. We recorded the songs, and we made sure that they sounded the way we wanted them to sound. We played the songs for Andre, and he liked them. Once they were approved to be cut for the album, he would book studio time and I would go to the studio and bounce them over to set them up to be mixed. Within that process, Pete Rock was a co-producer. I kind of did the same thing Teddy [Riley] did with me with Pete Rock. He was a friend of mine and he was a DJ, too. We had similar interests. We bonded the same way when Heavy and I met and bonded. [laughs] We became best friends. We worked out a lot of the process that became the foundation for hip hop, such as filtering the bassline, tuning the bass and pitches. All of these things are things that Pete and I experimented on in my basement. Then, he obviously took it to the next level. He had a vast knowledge of records because his father had a large record collection. The Big Tyme album was Pete’s debut as a co-producer. Then, he went on to work with Marley [Marl], and they took it to the next level.

What was some of the recording equipment you used to construct the sounds for this album?

Eddie Ferrell

I used the AKAI S900 and SP-1200, the AKAI 12-track with the rack mount, the Korg SP-200, the Roland TR-808 and TR-909, and the Oberheim DX. We used other things for delays and reverb, but I can’t think of them at the moment.

What were you and Pete Rock doing specifically when you were experimenting with these sounds and coming up with these groundbreaking methodologies?

Eddie Ferrell

There were a group of techniques we used. For example, the whole method of having a beat as the break and having another sample or record in the background — [one where] you’ve filtered out everything and it only sounded like a bassline and it was playing over another beat; we experimented and came up with that, and that became a standard for our records. From there, Pete worked with Q-Tip, Large Professor, and a crew of producers that started doing this in their records. I’m not sure who traded information with who and who already had certain information. That whole family tree progressed, and Pete took it in a more hip hop direction.

At one time, he, Q-Tip, and Large Professor were the core of all the hip hop songs that were being done on the East Coast. We came out when sampling came out. We were on the edge of sampling — at least affordable sampling. On a lot of those records, we pioneered the use of sampling in hip hop music. Marley [Marl] and Teddy [Riley] were at the top level, and they were like the godfathers of the whole thing. When we worked with them, they already had their style and then we integrated all of that into our style. For example, Pete Rock talked on records. Teddy used to talk on his records in the way that funk bands like Parliament and James Brown used to do on their records. Teddy used to talk and make comments on his records to fill up space on them and say cool things. This was being done in R&B, but not so much in hip hop.

Can you talk about Heavy D’s work ethic and what he brought to the table in terms of style, personality, and skills as an emcee?

Teddy Riley

His skills as an emcee were pretty unorthodox. With his roots coming from Jamaica, he could tongue twist, street rap, and rhyme. Technically, he was gifted. Heavy knew how to put it all together and make it make sense. A lot of rappers just talked about the same things. He talked about having a story to tell. His songs were stories or a conversation piece. Heavy never had beef with anyone. Everybody loved him. Chubb Rock gave him his props. I always thought him and Chubb Rock would do a song together. Big Pun and Biggie always gave Heavy his props. So when he got props from people like that, who were in a league of their own, it put Heavy in a class by himself.

Eddie Ferrell

Heav was very creative. He came from a West Indian heritage. He brought a lot of that into his music with the singing hooks and different musical instruments. We would put a lot of West Indian undertones into our music mixed with hip hop, which is ironic because hip hop came from West Indian roots. We incorporated all of that. As an artist, Heav was very creative. His family was very musical, so all that was incorporated into his songs. I didn’t know this until after his passing, but a lot of his songs reflected love in the title or in the hook. He put a lot of love into his songs: “Nuttin’ But Love,” “Gyrlz, They Love Me,” “Mood For Love.” It’s really interesting because not many rappers talk about love in their songs. They may have one [track], but not that many. I think that’s something people should pay attention to and recognize that Heav’s message was centered on love and fun. But it wasn’t corny, it was respectable. I think that was a really good thing, and it summed him up as an artist.

Were there any interesting background stories from the making of the album?

Eddie Ferrell

I can’t think of one particular story, but I will say we met a lot of great people along the way. Rosie Perez was our choreographer. She did all the choreography for “We Got Our Own Thang” video. She traveled with us on the road and made sure all the guys were on point. It was all of us and Rosie on our tour bus. I remember Chris Rock hadn’t hit it big yet, but he was our first comedian. He opened for us on a bunch of shows for the tour after this album. Rosie hadn’t started doing choreography for In Living Color yet. We did our Sprite commercial around that time, too. I look back and just say, “Wow!” So many people who were small names are now huge names.

Let’s go in-depth into the making of a few songs on the album.

Teddy Riley

“We Got Our Own Thang” was initially a song for Wreckx-n-Effect. When Heavy heard the song, he was like, “Ted, you have to give me that song. You know you’re my best friend. If it was me and my brother was a rapper or producer, and I had some rap that I thought should be on your record, I’d have to give it to you because it belongs to you. This record belongs to me, Ted. You have to give it to me.” I said, “Okay. Let’s do it.” We were actually in Riverdale, and he came to my house. He damn near spent the night, because I was working on another record. I played a song for him I was working on for the Do the Right Thing movie soundtrack. He said, “Ted, this is dope, but that other record…” I kept going through other records for him, and he told me they were dope, but he wanted that other record. He finally convinced me to give him this song. That’s how our friendship was, though. We had brotherly love for each other. To make this record, I used the same sample I used to make “I Like” for Guy’s album, and I built the music around the sample.

Eddie Ferrell

“You Ain’t Heard Nuttin’ Yet” was a song that I made in five minutes. I remember Pete [Rock] was at the house. I wanted to use “Mister Magic.” I had played the record. I had DJed with it for forever. I played it to him, and if you listen to “Mister Magic” by yourself, it sounds nice, but it doesn’t have any kick to it. I remember saying to myself that it needed something underneath it to give it some kick. I had just got the other breakbeat — I forget the name of it, but the one that’s under there. I played them together as a mix. This is how you put drums under it, so that it can have some meat to it and loop it. Producers weren’t doing that at the time. Rick Rubin was making beats with a Roland TR-808 and TR-909 and Oberheim DX. Producers were using drum machines and replaying records, but they weren’t taking actual songs and putting other songs underneath them. At that time, I want to say even Marley [Marl] was doing a lot of songs, but he wasn’t doing them like that. He was making the beat and putting the loop with the beat. This song was the first time I took a bassline loop, a beat loop, and then reinforced it with hit notes underneath it to carry the song, and that became a concept in hip hop. I remember this approach became the basis for this album.

Eddie Ferrell

“Somebody for Me” came from wanting to do an R&B record like Teddy Riley. I wanted to make a musical record. I just made this hot track. I wasn’t trying to only make hip-hop records, but also singing records. I think Heavy heard the track and came up with a hook immediately. He said, “Man, we should put that on the album.” It became one of our biggest songs.

Eddie Ferrell

On “Mood for Love,” Heav wanted to make a West Indian-flavored song. We did one version of it, and it wasn’t musically correct. I remember telling Heavy that I should get Nevelle [Hodge] in here to play something on it to make it right. That’s when we put the horns on it and it made it sound right. This made it less of a loop song and more of an actual musical song. I had seen Teddy do something like that on our first album. We had songs, but then he would add the musical elements for the things that couldn’t be implemented via sample.

How long did it take you to go through the process of starting and finishing a song?

Eddie Ferrell

It didn’t take too long. We had great ideas to start out with. We were in a real comfortable state when we made this album. Like I said before, “You Ain’t Heard Nuttin’ Yet” took only five minutes to do. Some songs took longer. “Somebody for Me” took a little longer because there were multiple parts. Anything we had to make in the studio took longer. When I was at home, I had my home studio and all my stuff plugged in, and I just did it. When I went the studio, I had to take all my stuff, set it up, plug it in, track it, and someone else was pressing record. Altogether, “Somebody for Love” took probably two to three weeks to finish. The other songs would take one or two sessions to complete. Once those songs were recorded, it took one session to bounce them and one session to mix them.

This album propelled Heavy D & the Boyz into superstardom. As you look back 25 years later, how do you feel about the impact this album has made on popular culture?

Teddy Riley

The first album, Living Large brought Heavy D to the mainstream, but Big Tyme really solidified him as a major act and gave the group confirmation that mainstream is where they should stay. From there, his career just blossomed. I’m just glad and blessed that I was a part of his journey to the top.

Eddie Ferrell

I couldn’t really say because so much music has come out since then. I actually wait for somebody like you to tell me what the impact has been. [laughs] But I think the legacy of Heav as being a big guy and a great emcee opened the doors for other big guys like Chubb Rock, Big Pun, Notorious B.I.G, and Rick Ross to be taken seriously and have success. Cee-Lo Green has even given credit to Heavy for opening the doors for him. His music opened the doors to have respectable music that was still good, fun, and didn’t have a lot of cursing. His music bridged the gap between adults and kids in hip hop appreciating the same music and artists. Heav was somebody that was cool and someone who was older could appreciate his music, and I think that’s a testament to Heav’s talent and his upbringing. We didn’t look at it at the time like we were trying to make history; we were just trying to make great music, and it just so happened that we were accepted by the culture in that way.