I go for what I know doing a show for human beings
I'm guaranteed to rock I make the ladies scream and shout
I'm bound to wreck your body and say turn the party out
The Mardi rapper toe-tapper always having fun
And when you hear the Biz Markie, I get the job done."
Marcel Theo Hall (April 8, 1964 – July 16, 2021), known professionally as Biz Markie, was an American rapper, beatboxer, and singer. Known as "the Clown Prince of Hip-Hop", Markie's humorous, self-deprecating style and skilled beatboxing techniques was a contrast to the more hardcore contemporaries of the time, though he wasn't above dropping a Boastful Rap once in a while.
Markie is best known for his lone top-40 single, "Just a Friend", and an infamous lawsuit
that forever changed the landscape of the hip-hop industry by requiring that any future music sampling be pre-approved by the original copyright owners to avoid a lawsuit, forcing many producers to scale back their sample usage, or interpolate samples instead.
In addition to his solo work, Markie was also linked to Marley Marl's Juice Crew and, later on, Funkmaster Flex's Flip Squad. He also had a recurring segment on Yo Gabba Gabba!, called "Biz' Beat of the Day", where he'd beatbox a new beat every episode.
Markie continued to tour and record into 2020, until he was hospitalized in April of that year due to diabetes-related complications, including a coma and a stroke. Markie would remain hospitalized until his death in 2021.
Discography:
- Goin' Off (1988)
- The Biz Never Sleeps (1989)
- I Need a Haircut (1991)
- All Samples Cleared! (1993)
- Weekend Warrior (2003)
Nobody beats the Biz' tropes!
- Badass Boast: Say it with us now: Nobody beats the Biz!
- Boastful Rap: "Nobody Beats the Biz" is his most famous example. It's mainly a party tune, but he makes it clear no one can rock the party with their rhymes like he can.
- Fair-Weather Friend: Overlapping with False Friend, Gold Digger, Professional Butt-Kisser and Social Climber, "Vapors" features Biz telling stories about himself and his Juice Crew associates TJ Swan, Big Daddy Kane and Cutmaster Cool V, and how the various people in their lives that refused to give them the the time of day suddenly started being nice to them after they became national stars, in hopes of getting a piece of their pie."Radio, TV, and even the press
Know the meanin' of V-A-P-O-R-S
The meanin' of this word without no doubt,
Means nobody wants to be there when you’re down and out
Once you’re established and got a lot of money
Everybody wanna be your buddy and honey
Like tall buildings they call skyscrapers
Can you feel it? nothing can save ya,
For this is the season of catching the vapors!" - Nose Nuggets: "Pickin' Boogers""So go up your nose with a finger or two
And pull out one or a crusty crew!" - Sampling: Biz' massive lawsuit over illegally sampling "Alone Again (Naturally)" by Gilbert O'Sullivan caused sampling to become so prohibitively expensive, it effectively forced hip hop producers to get creative with sampling via interpolation, or reduce the number of samples used in a record. It also effectively killed Biz' already dwindling career, though he leaned into the controversy of the lawsuit with his next album's title, All Samples Cleared!
- Stylistic Suck: The chorus of "Just a Friend" is deliberately sung off key, which became a trademark of Biz'. But as "The Biz Vs. The Nuge" proved, Biz could genuinely sing when he wanted to
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: In "Just A Friend", when Biz asked the girl 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.
- Your Mom: The video for Biz Markie's "Just A Friend" opens with Biz and his friends engaged in The Dozens.
