"Just a Friend
" is by far the most well-known song by American rapper Biz Markie (April 8, 1964 – July 16, 2021), released in 1989. In it, Biz tells a story of a woman he met while on tour and how she broke his heart.
It interpolates from Freddie Scott's 1968 song "(You) Got What I Need", borrowing the piano and chorus melodies as well as the beat.
You, you got the tropes I need:
- And Knowing Is Half the Battle: Biz ends the song by explicitly stating the moral:So please listen to the message that I send
Don't ever talk to a girl who says she just has a friend - Blah, Blah, Blah: The girl gives her name as "blah-blah-blah".
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Biz makes sure to mention that the woman he meets has "a very big bra".
- Groupie: Biz first meets the girl in the crowd at one of his concerts, and she continues to hang around for the rest of the tour.
- Hopeless Suitor: Although he does have some suspicions, Biz continues to pursue a relationship with the woman, oblivious to the fact she's already spoken for.
- Interrupted Intimacy: Biz walks in on the girl and her "friend" tongue kissing.
- Let Me Tell You a Story: In the video, Biz tells his friends to ignore the two girls walking past them. He makes his point by telling a story, through song of course, about a past experience of his with a woman.
- Morality Ballad: The song tells a cautionary tale about trying to get with a girl who claims she just has a "friend".
- Relationship Reveal: The man who the woman initially claimed was just her "friend" is shown at the end of the song to be her romantic partner.
- Remake Cameo: Mario's semi-cover of the song, "Just a Friend 2002", features Biz cameoing throughout the music video, and an alternate version even has him performing on the song with Mario.
- Roman à Clef: Biz has stated that the song is based on a true story, although the girl's name has been censored as "Blah, Blah, Blah" to protect her identity.
- Rule of Three: The song contains three verses, each one ending with a variation on the phrase "just a friend".
- Serial Escalation: Each verse escalates from the previous. The girl first mentions her "friend" in the first verse, Biz hears the guy's voice in the second, and he catches the two of them kissing in her dorm room in the third.
- Shout-Out: In the video, Biz dresses up as Mozart and plays the piano during the choruses.
- Stylistic Suck: Biz's singing in the choruses is intentionally out of key.
- Subverted Suspicion Aesop: Biz decides to take the girl's word for it at first when she says the other guy is just a friend, but his suspicions are later proven correct.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: When asked if she's single, the girl does mention a guy she knows but claims that he's "just a friend". She repeats this claim when Biz hears the guy's voice over the phone.
- Waxing Lyrical: During the video's diegetic opening, one of the guys says "you... you got what I need" to one of the girls.
- Your Door Was Open: Biz waltzes into a girl's dorm room without knocking and is immediately met with the sight of her kissing another guy.
- Your Mom: The video opens with Biz and a group of friends cracking jokes about each other's moms.
