And this new album would be almost conceptual in its execution. Almost seven years into his recording career, Heavy D had been known for infectious, radio-friendly hits. Songs like "Mr. Big Stuff" and "We Got Our Own Thang" and "Is It Good To You" put Heavy D & The Boyz squarely in the mainstream, leading to collaborations with both Michael and Janet Jackson, TV guest spots and Sprite commercials. But in the wake of multiplatinum succcesses like MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice, Hip-Hop was starting to get tough on "pop-rappers." There was suddenly criticism that these artists were watering down the artform for mass consumption. Even newcomer Tupac Shakur had taken some verbal shots at Heavy D during an appearance on BET in early 1992. Heavy D & The Boyz decided to toughen things up a bit on their new project.

These songs weren't going to suddenly about street life and crime, but they would be more personal, and more somber, in tone. This was going to be a look at Heavy D the man.

“(This will) allow more intimacy and allow my fans to see me (better),” the rap superstar told Variety at the time. With his career on a higher plateau than ever, Heavy was also witnessing that seismic shift happening in Hip-Hop. Even before Dr. Dre released his opus The Chronic at the end of 1992, rap music was vying for a certain kind of credibility. East Coast artists like Redman and EPMD were reinventing what it meant to be hardcore, and Heavy D & The Boyz were paying attention.

No, Blue Funk is not Heavy D & The Boyz's foray into gangsta rap. But the sound is most definitely harder than the new jack swing style they'd been famous for up to that point. For the first time, superproducer Teddy Riley wasn't involved in the album's production. Alongside Heavy's mainstays Tony Dofat and Boyz member DJ Eddie F, Heavy would recruit the inimitable DJ Premier and Heavy D's rising star cousin Pete Rock to create the sounds for Blue Funk. Pete Rock & CL Smooth dropped their classic debut Mecca and The Soul Brother in spring 1992, and that album (alongside Rock's production for other stars like Public Enemy) made Pete Rock one of the hottest producers in Hip-Hop.

Rock had been working alongside Heavy D & The Boyz for years, often co-producing album cuts and remixes with Eddie F. But now, he was centerstage. And the result was Heavy D & The Boyz's most soulful, jazz-inflected album. Songs like "Truthful" were familiar territory: Heavy D rapping about romance. But the feel and tone of the song, and the album, felt like a more mature effort than audiences were used to. Tony Dofat produced the track, which also featured supermodel Kim Porter as Heavy D's love interest in the music video.

Dofat's ear for samples is a great strength of Blue Funk. The superproducer would helm singles like "Truthful" (which also opens the album) and "Who's The Man?," a song often cited as Heavy D's embracing of a darker, tougher image on the album. That track features a stellar flip of Steve Miller Band's "Fly Like An Eagle."

"Great musicians who made funk only had a little break that was maybe a minute-and-a-half," Dofat said of sampling in a 2019 interview with Melodics. "With the creativity of hip-hop, we turned that one little break into another full song. Our little secret back in the 90s for finding the right songs was to look at people’s reactions when you play music. If they’re not acting crazy then you’re not doing a good job.

"It’s all based on two-and-four bar loops and just keep looping it back. Once you have that skeleton it’s gonna be hot and everyone will love it. If you just keep adding elements that don’t fit, you’re gonna mess it up and end up overproducing. That’s why the biggest hit records are the ones that are simple and contain the least amount of instrumentation."

Like the aforementioned Mecca and The Soul Brother, as an album, Blue Funk is tied together by jazzy interludes. The theme is Heavy D being interviewed by a journalist, and he offers glimpses into his thoughts as a man and life as Heavy D. It segues into everything from romantic odes such as the reggae-inflected "Girl" (an ode to love and Black womanhood), to the pained "It's A New Day," which addresses the death of his older brother, Tony, who was murdered. It opens with Heavy D addressing the perceptions of the ghetto from those on the outside, while remaining empathetic to what goes in communities. The Pete Rock-produced track is reminiscent of Mecca..., and Heavy examines the violence and poverty.

"Talk Is Cheap" features Heavy D addressing studio gangsta-dom and rap tough guys. Once again presenting the idea that real gangstas aren't talking about what they might do, it's one of the album's most pointed moments.

Blue Funk would prove to be a commercial disappointment compared to the sales of Peaceful Journey, although the album was a gold-seller. Many critics interpreted the tougher sound and hood commentary as an attempt to turn Heavy D & The Boyz into a gangsta rap act, but upon closer listen, it's an album that serves as Heavy D's transition out of his famous, candy-colored suits and new jack steps phase. The title track is still one of rapper's best singles, and the lackluster commercial reception to Blue Funk belied a positive reception among hardcore fans.

“I remember making that beat in the basement, and Hev grooving to it," Pete Rock told COMPLEX in 2011. "Once Hev hears something and starts grooving to it, he’s gonna make something with it. So that’s what happened, and how ‘Blue Funk’ came about. I remember the record [I sampled], but I don’t put that type of information out, it ruins the fun. I’ll let people find it on their own. If you know it’s a sample, then find it. It’s out there for people to find. I’m not gonna just give it to you like that. No one’s really supposed to do that as a producer."

“I use the SP-1200 still. It’s a dinosaur drum machine. They didn’t make any after that [or update it at all]. I got three of them.”

Blue Funk may now seem like an anomaly in Heavy D's oeuvre, but it's become one of the most celebrated albums he'd release and one of the more underappreciated gems of the 1990s. It's also the last project from Heavy D that would be overseen by his manager and Uptown Records A&R Sean "Puffy" Combs. Puff had been working with Heavy D since 1990, when he'd been brought in as an intern by Uptown president Andre Harrell. On Blue Funk, Combs was instrumental in bringing in a new artist he'd just signed to rap a high-profile guest spot on the album's closer "A Buncha Niggas." Christopher "Biggie Smalls" Wallace would make his first appearance on the famed posse cut, which also features 3rd Eye, Rob O, Guru of Gang Starr, and Busta Rhymes. Soon after, Puff would depart Uptown and take Biggie with him.

Heavy D & The Boyz would bounce back commercially with their next album, 1994's Nuttin' But Love For Ya. And of course, Puffy and Biggie would soon be household names that same year. So Blue Funk stands as an interesting snapshot in the careers of all involved. And a truly stellar project from an artist showing that he was unafraid to push himself out of his musical comfort zone.