Two decades and a day have passed since the passing of Troy “Trouble T-Roy” Dixon, dancer for Heavy D and the Boyz. The Mt. Vernon-born dancer was tragically killed at the age of 22 in a performance accident while touring with the group in Indianapolis.
While some Hip Hop fans may not recognize his name immediately, his legacy has been embedded into the very fiber of Hip Hop music. Two years following the accident, Mt. Vernon duo Pete Rock and CL Smooth paid tribute to T-Roy in their critically acclaimed masterpiece. “T.R.O.Y. (They Reminisce Over You).” Now, on the 20 year anniversary of T-Roy’s passing, XXLMag.com reminisced over Dixon and his legacy with CL Smooth, former Heavy D and the Boyz band members Eddie F. and G-Whiz, and Dixon’s now-20 year old daughter Tantania.
“I’ll be honest with you, though, I think the group [Heavy D & the Boyz] really lost something when Troy passed, obviously, but it’s like I think even though the records were gettin’ bigger, the group was growin’ apart ’cause Troy was a lot of things,” said Heavy D producer/DJ Eddie F. “He was the glue to the group. He was the one person that really brought everybody together, because he was really great friends with [G-Whiz], Hev, and me, but all separately. We all knew each other, but Troy was the one who knew everybody as a friend. So he was the glue of the group.”
CL Smooth also discussed the making of the seminal “T.R.O.Y.” He says that his aim with the song was to capture his own vulnerability and pay tribute to his fallen friend.
AD LOADING...
“I didn’t really look at it and say to myself, ‘Yo, I need to do this’,” explained Smooth. “My whole plight was to make the best record possible for people to like, for people to respect and know it’s genuine…Take the skirt off everything and just bare yourself. What you feel is your vulnerability on one record and I felt like that’s what I wanted to do and that’s what I wanted to capture, my vulnerability, to say this is what I really love.”
Follow this link to read the full story.
