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Hip-hop artist Heavy D died Tuesday after collapsing outside his condo in Beverly Hills, and as the music community and other fans offered condolences, an autopsy was on tap to pin down the 44-year-old's cause of death.

Power producer Russell Simmons on Wednesday remembered his friend, saying in part on the Global Grind, "Rest in peace Heavy, you were the only rapper everybody always loved. You never rapped a mean word about anybody ... you only spread love. You were truly the overweight lover. You will be greatly, greatly missed."

Heavy D, real name Dwight Arrington Myers, had trouble breathing when he arrived home after a shopping trip, L.A. Now reported. He was conscious when authorities arrived, but died later at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Authorities said that he may have died from complications of pneumonia, with a source telling The Times' Andrew Blankstein the rapper had seen a doctor for a cough in recent days.

PHOTOS: Heavy D | 1967-2011

Toxicology test results related to autopsy will likely come in six weeks, coroner's spokesman Ed Winter said. Though no illegal drugs were found at Myers' condo, he had been prescribed medication recently and "We need to see what's in his system," Winter said.

Beverly Hills police said in a statement that "there are no obvious signs of foul play, and at this time his death is believed to be medically related." Heavy D, who was 6-foot-4, weighed more than 300 pounds when he died, TMZ reported.

News reached the Twittersphere via Grand Master Flash, who wrote "I was just told Heavy D passed away." LL Cool J on Wednesday posted a picture of himself, Simmons and Jalil of Whodini with Myers, when they were "still teenagers on the grind." Lenny Kravitz, Timbaland, Rob Thomas, Flo Rida, MC Hammer and Kerry Washington were only a few of the celebs noting Heavy D's passing.

The Ministry also liked this tweet, from writer Jamilah Lemieux: "Few rappers have been so LOVING in their references to women as Heavy D. Maybe even less so today than ever. That made me love him."

Pop & Hiss has a rundown on Heavy's claims to fame, which began in the 1980s when he headed up hip-hop group Heavy D & the Boyz and later included the song "Now That We Found Love" (hear it below) and, recently, an appearance in the new Brett Ratner film "Tower Heist." He also wrote the theme songs to "MADtv" and "In Living Color," and performed at the Michael Jackson tribute concert in the UK in October.

Not one person packed into New York's sold-out Roseland Ballroom on Oct. 29 would describe Kaskade as quiet. He's well-known for writing some of the loveliest melodies in dance music, replete with acoustic guitar strums and sweet-voiced nymphs. However, the 40-year-old DJ/producer does things differently live.

When Kaskade dropped fan favorite singalong "Be Still" from 2006's "Love Mysterious," it was over a walloping bass beat that made it more of a command than a soothing suggestion. "Eyes," the first single off his latest album, "Fire & Ice" (Ultra), had its lullaby-like vocal by Mindy Gledhill launch into a shower of power synths.

But despite his boisterous big-room DJ sets during the last decade, Kaskade (born Ryan Raddon) has been quietly establishing himself as one of dance music's true institutions. Successful even before electronica's explosive past few years, he continues to gain momentum with each subsequent release and tour-without the benefit of big hits or fanfare.

"Fire & Ice," his seventh album and first double-album, was released digitally on Oct. 25 and posted his strongest first week thus far. It debuted atop Billboard's Dance/Electronic Albums chart and at No. 17 on the Billboard 200 with 20,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. A physical release will follow Nov. 8. "Crossing the country on the Identity tour this summer really helped with the momentum," manager Stephanie LaFera says. "We made a point to start letting fans hear the new music in the shows and in his tour videos on YouTube. By the time the release date was here, people were ready for it."

Kaskade is one of dance's true road warriors, regularly playing more than 100 DJ shows per year. In 2011, he headlined the 19-date Identity Festival, playing for 140,000-plus fans at venues like San Diego's Cricket Wireless Amphitheater and the Nikon at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, N.Y. He has the only double-residency in Las Vegas: Wynn's Encore Beach Club and Cosmopolitan's Marquee. His two-night, Halloween-themed stint at Roseland was a sellout.

LaFera -- who was a one-woman show before launching Atom Empire, the electronic music arm of Troy Carter's Atom Factory, last month -- utilized other new-media tools to set Fire ablaze. SiriusXM's dance-dedicated BPM channel did a Kaskade station takeover during release week, with significant on-air exposure and tagging plus a playback of the entire album. "Most stations wouldn't do that. It's pretty huge," LaFera says. "They're the one radio resource that we as a dance act really have." An iTunes preorder program let fans stream snippets of every track for two weeks prior to release. Vevo provided main-page exposure during release week for the video to second single "Turn It Down." The clip shows Swedish singers Rebecca & Fiona dancing to the beat, while a trio of figure skaters spin and twirl. It garnered more than 600,000 plays in five days.

Spotify will offer users exclusive content-probably a remix-and a Kaskade playlist. These aren't songs he'd play while DJ'ing, LaFera says, but "more of what he listens to as a music consumer."

Perhaps the most seductive and unique elements of Kaskade's music are the lyrics. Nine of Fire & Ice's 10 tracks (disc two contains remixes of the same set) are full vocals, a rarity for a dance artist. At Roseland, the crowd seemed to sing as much as it danced. "I want the words to reflect things that I'm feeling or situations that I have gone through . . . things that anyone can relate to," he says. "Dance music can be fun, but it can also say something and be more than just party music."