Lovebug Starski dies

Why it matters

Lovebug Starski (born Kevin Smith) died on February 8, 2018, of a heart attack, in Las Vegas. He was 57. He had been one of the original DJ-MCs in the Bronx in the late 1970s, doing the live-MC-over-records thing at parties before any of it had been committed to wax. Starski is also one of the people sometimes credited (along with Keef Cowboy) with using the phrase "hip hop" first, in his calls at parties in the late 70s. The histories vary on which of them said it first; the most common version is that both of them were using it independently around the same time, and Sugarhill Gang grabbed it for "Rapper's Delight." Starski did get to make some records of his own: "You've Gotta Believe" in 1983 was a real club hit and is the song that probably brought him to Sylvia Robinson's attention. His career never quite caught the wave the way some others' did. He kept DJing for the rest of his life. He showed up at the early-DJ documentary panels. He outlived Cowboy by twenty-nine years. You are still using the word he helped coin. He earned that.