While many of his peers struggle to remain relevant recording the same type of albums they did when they were half their age, Heavy D has reinvented his career and his sound and shifted his priorities from being a star to being a dad. With his latest album, Vibes, Heavy’s going back to his Jamaican roots, impressing fans and critics in the process.

Interview by: Sabrina Ford

The Source: Were you worried about how this project would be received by longtime fans of Heavy D, the rapper?

Heavy D: My core base has also gotten older and a little bit more cultured. I was going on the assumption that they feel the way I feel. I knew once they gave it a chance that they would recognize the quality and the passion and walk away feeling satisfied.

How did you approach this project differently?

It’s almost 23 years that I’ve been in this business. I was in the studio recording a traditional Heavy D Hip-Hop album and I made records that were good but my passion just wasn’t there anymore and I felt it was time to move forward. I’ve always wanted to do a reggae album, being Jamaican.

I’ve always tried to incorporate a reggae song on all of my albums and over the past seven years, I had about 70 or 80 songs I’d recorded. I had all these good reggae songs I was really excited about and a good friend of mine was like, I think it’s time to do this.

I was able to come up with an album concept rather than just trying to have hit single after hit single. I went back to having fun. I can honestly say, probably after my third or fourth album – it’s not that it wasn’t fun but it was just like, ‘Now, I gotta make something better than the last thing. Oh what are people doing now? And I gotta get a big chain, I gotta get Rolls Royce.’ And it’s like, ‘Wait, who am I, I’m not even my own man.’

When I got into this album, I got really excited about it like back in the early days when I was just making records just for the fun of it.

How did you react to learning you were nominated for the Best Reggae Album Grammy?

I was excited. I haven’t made an album in 10 years, so to come back out and be recognized by my peers… it’s just comforting to know that people are respecting my creativity. Hopefully I sell a lot of records and if not, at least I know in 20 years my daughter can look back and say, ‘My dad did quality work.’

Will there be a Vibes tour?

Hopefully, yes, but that will have to go around my daughter’s schedule so maybe something in the summer and on weekends.

I haven’t performed in years, and around the Grammys I’m doing a couple things here and there - it will be exciting.

Romance is always a reoccurring theme in your music. Are you a romantic guy in real life?

Oh yes. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I’m a sucka for love.

Are you feeling any of the Hip-Hop on the radio these days?

I don’t listen to it. And it’s not because I’m like, ‘This sucks. Back in my day…” It’s just, you outgrow certain things and what the majority of the artists are speaking to is not what my life is. My life is waking up at six, taking my daughter to school, going to PTA meetings.

What else have you been working on? Any film or television projects in the works?

Absolutely. Brett Ratner is producing the first film I’ll be leading in. I wrote it with my partner Avery O. Williams. It’s a cop thriller and I’m pretty bad ass.

I have a long relationship with Brett. He directed some of my earlier videos like, “Nuttin’ But Love.” I wrote the script and I took it to a lot of people to get notes – Denzel read it, Will Smith, Laurence Fishburne - and I came out with what I think it real quality.

And on the producing side, I produced the “Guns & Roses” record for Jay-Z and Lenny Kravitz, “Feel It in the Air” by Beanie Siegel, Carl Thomas, “Summer Rain,” and I have a record on Anthony Hamilton’s new one called “She’s Gone.”