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Hip-hop said goodbye to one of its pioneering figureheads recently. Howard Thompson — better known in circles as Hitman Howie Tee — has passed away at the age of 61.
A foundational icon from Brooklyn with English roots and Jamaican blood, Howie Tee was the kind of producer who didn’t shy away from innovation and defying the laws of hip hop. His name might not pop up in every Top 10 list, but for anyone who knows their history, he’s one of the culture’s most important behind-the-scenes architects.
Howie Tee started off as a DJ and member of the early ’80s group CDIII. They dropped two tracks — “Get Tough” and “Success” — that helped set the tone for the electro-funk era. But it wasn’t long before he moved into production and started putting up numbers.
In 1985, he helped cook up Whistle’s “(Nothing Serious) Just Buggin,” a playful but hard-hitting joint that cracked the Billboard R&B charts. But it was after he locked in with Select Records — a key indie label based in New Jersey — that Howie went on a run that helped define late-’80s and early-’90s hip-hop.
We’re talking Special Ed’s “I Got It Made,” “Think About It,” and “I’m the Magnificent.” Chubb Rock’s “Ya Bad Chubbs” and the forever anthem “Treat ’Em Right.” He brought polish without watering anything down, and his beats had bounce, edge, and soul. If you were outside back then, you know the sound.
He also had a hand in one of hip-hop’s earliest viral beef tracks — U.T.F.O.’s “Roxanne, Roxanne” — and his fingerprints are on Color Me Badd’s mega-hit “I Wanna Sex You Up,” which basically took over the airwaves in ’91. He even helped produce “All 4 Love,” which knocked Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” off the top of the Billboard Hot 100.
Since news of his passing broke, tributes have been pouring in. Questlove called him a “superproducer” and one of the most “unsung monsters” of early hip-hop.
“Man….another legend from my childhood has left us,” he wrote. “If you loved the [Special Ed classics], those early offerings from [Chubb Rock], or remember him as the sidekick to [The Real Roxanne], then you already know. And if you’re a true hip-hop head, Whistle’s ‘Nothin’ Serious (Just Buggin)’ still lives rent-free in your mind.”
He added: “Second only to Mark 45 King, I feel like Howie was such an unsung monster of a producer during hip-hop’s formative years… Mixing in TV themes & Mel Blanc & showtunes, showing pop ear candy over the hardest beats. Truly an unsung hero.”
