Lovebug Starski obit

Lovebug Starski Passes Away At 57

Rest in power to another Hip-Hop legend. 

He was not on the list.

The legendary DJ Lovebug Starski has passed away. The Hip-Hop pioneer was just 57.

According to multiple sources, Starski, born Kevin Smith, died suddenly in Las Vegas today (Feb. 8). Per Chuck D, via HipHopDX, the Bronx legend’s cause of death was a heart attack.

Along with the late Cowboy of the Furious 5, Starski is credited with coining the word “Hip-Hop.” Starski was a DJ and MC, and managed to still thrive when Hip-Hop went from street routines to actual recordings.

A number of Hip-hop notables are paying tribute to Lovebug Starski.

Rest in powerful peace.

Kevin Smith (May 16, 1960 – February 8, 2018), best known by his stage name Lovebug Starski, was an American MC, musician, and record producer. He began his career as a record boy in 1971 as hip hop first appeared in the Bronx, and he eventually became a DJ at the Disco Fever club in 1978. He is one of two people who may have come up with the term "hip-hop". Starski claimed that he coined the phrase, while trading the two words back and forth, while improvising lines with Keef Cowboy of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, at a farewell party for a friend who was headed into the Army. In an interview with Dave Hill in the newspaper The Observer, Starski explained, "I picked up the mic and just started saying 'a hip hop, hip hop, de hibbyhibbyhibbyhibby hop'. The people couldn't believe it but it stuck."