# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/lovebug-starski
# Generated: 2026-08-14T07:10:10.638Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/lovebug-starski"
name: "Lovebug Starski"
slug: "lovebug-starski"
description: "Kevin Smith, best known by his stage name Lovebug Starski, was an American MC, musician, and record producer. He began his career as a record boy in 1971 as hip hop first appeared in the Bronx, and he eventually became a DJ at the Disco Fever club in 1978. He is one of two people who may have come up with the term \"hip-hop\". Starski claimed that he coined the phrase, while trading the two words back and forth, while improvising lines with Keef Cowboy of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, at a farewell party for a friend who was headed into the Army. In an interview with Dave Hill in the newspaper The Observer, Starski explained, \"I picked up the mic and just started saying 'a hip hop, hip hop, de hibbyhibbyhibbyhibby hop'. The people couldn't believe it but it stuck.\""
tagline: "American hip hop musician (1960–2018)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Starski.jpg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "United States"
  isoCode: "US"
category:
  name: "Musicians"
  slug: "musicians"
profileType:
  name: "Singer / Musician"
  slug: "singer"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q177220"
birthDate: "1960-05-16"
deathDate: "2018-02-08"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           44.8
  momentum:             0
  historical:           8.366741333333334
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     59.99999999999999
  profileCompleteness:  75
  trendDirection:       "FALLING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
platforms:
  - platform:  "IMDB"
    url:       "https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2424314/"
    handle:    "nm2424314"
sources:
  - url: "https://www.discogs.com/artist/21906"
    title: "Discogs"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%84%D9%88%DA%A4%D9%8A%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%AC_%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%B3%D9%83%D9%89"
    title: "لوڤيبوج ستارسكى"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovebug_Starski"
    title: "Lovebug Starski"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovebug_Starski"
    title: "Lovebug Starski"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovebug_Starski"
    title: "Lovebug Starski"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovebug_Starski"
    title: "Lovebug Starski"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovebug_Starski"
    title: "Lovebug Starski"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovebug_Starski"
    title: "Lovebug Starski"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovebug_Starski"
    title: "Lovebug Starski"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://musicbrainz.org/artist/66684e42-eaf3-411c-ab0d-09a71eff1b7d"
    title: "MusicBrainz"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1560574"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Imported from discovery source: wikidata-dump