Lovebug Starski, one of hip-hop’s early pioneers passed today of a heart attack in Las Vegas at the age of 60. The producer, DJ and rapper was a native of the Bronx and spent the ’70s participating in the early block parties and playing music at the legendary Disco Fever club. He is one of the people credited with coming up with the term ‘hip-hop’ and some of the most-repeated phrases in rap. He was rapping with Grandmaster Flash before there was a Furious Five and a hip-hop recording industry. By the ’80s, he was making his own music for the Fever Records label and producing for Run DMC. According to Jonathan Shecter, founding editor of The Source, Lovebug Starski had shared the stage with KRS-One in Las Vegas last week. Last year the innovator gave an interview to Amoeba and shared the details of his days creating hip-hop in the Bronx.
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