Heavy D death from natural causes, coroner says

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Los Angeles coroner's office says Jamaican-born rapper Heavy D died of natural causes...

Luther Vandross was outed as gay after his death.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles coroner’s office says Jamaican-born rapper Heavy D died of natural causes.

The self-proclaimed “overweight lover” of hip hop, who became one of rap’s top hit makers with a combination of humor and positivity, collapsed outside his Beverly Hills home on Nov. 8. The 44 year-old rapper, whose real name was Dwight Arrington Myers, died later at a hospital.

Coroner’s office spokesman Craig Harvey said Tuesday that weight and a transcontinental jet flight were contributing factors.

The cause of death was pulmonary embolism and deep leg vein thrombosis. He also had arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

Heavy D became one of the genre’s most integral stars in the late 1980s and early 1990s. His hit “The Overweight Lover’s in the House” played up his hefty frame.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.

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