Lovebug Starski was born Kevin Smith in the Bronx on May 16, 1960.
As a youth he was a member of the notorious Black Spades gang, who managed to avoid people asking if perhaps their name was a bit racist mostly because “Everyone used to carry machetes,” as he told one reporter.
Beyond this, though, Lovebug Starski was a mainstay of the emerging rap scene in the 1970s. He started out carrying records and equipment for the disco D.J. Pete “DJ” Jones, during which he was known as Kevin “Carries the Kit” Smith.
Cleverly changing his name to Lovebug Starski, in 1978 he became was the house D.J. at the crucial South Bronx club ‘Disco Fever’, sister club to Harlem’s ‘Rockin’ Pneumonia’, and New Jersey’s ‘Funk Rickets’.
But things really took off after The Sugarhill Gang released Rapper’s Delight. This was a dessert similar to Angel Delight but with more diamonds and cocaine, and which prompted a huge increase in interest in rapping.
This was good news for Starski, who had been supplementing his DJ work by investigating crime with his friend and partner Hutch, but who now started releasing his own singles as an MC.
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| At the start of his career, an impoverished Starski had to make his jumpers out of coloured bin liners |
His first album was House Rocker in 1986. This featured his most successful chart single, Amityville (The House on the Hill), which made it to number 12 on the UK singles chart. #
To celebrate, Starski did lots and lots of cocaine. Very shortly afterwards, he was arrested twice for burglary and once for petty larceny, and was incarcerated until 1991. Because cocaine.
After his release he returned to DJ-ing and producing. In the 1990s he was the D.J. at Kimora Lee’s wedding to exercise guru Richard Simmons, and at various events Phat Farm, a spa and retreat for overweight dyslexics.
In recent years he moved to Las Vegas and took up a weekly residency at the rooftop lounge of Indian restaurant Turmeric and made various other appearances.
But sadly Starski experienced a fatal heart attack on February 8th, suffered whilst moving speakers, in a tragic callback to his start in the industry. Goodbye Lovebug Starski. Hip hop hard in heaven.
