Biz Markie
Hip-hop clown prince BORN 1964
Biz Markie was a true one-off. An inveterate high school prankster, the Long Island-raised Marcel Theo Hall was an instinctive beatboxer and playful rhymer whose pinpoint rhythmic mimicry for Roxanne Shante on 1986 rap hit Def Fresh Crew brought him into the ambit of New York’s all-powerful Juice Crew collective.
The crew’s jester, 1988’s Marley Marl-produced debut Goin’ Off marked him as an endearing eccentric whose idiosyncratic style took in goofy humour (Pickin’ Boogers), cautionary tales (Vapors), gold standard party bangers (Nobody Beats The Biz) and an infallible skills showcase (Make The Music With Your Mouth, Biz). While Top 10 fame arrived with the stymied romance of 1989’s deliberately off-key Just A Friend – complete with its video’s slapstick Mozart impersonation in a powdered wig – his sample-heavy style was put in jeopardy after a landmark lawsuit from Gilbert O’Sullivan (for using a 20-second burst from Alone Again (Naturally)) was upheld by a federal judge. Ordered to pay a hefty $250,000 in damages, the verdict transformed the rules of hip-hop production overnight. And while 1993’s All
Samples Cleared! mocked the ruling by basing half its tracks on renditions of Allen Toussaint’s Get Out Of My Life, Woman, the lawsuit effectively stalled Markie’s recording career.
Bar a scattershot 2003 comeback (Weekend Warrior),
Markie traded off his legacy thereafter – voicing cartoons (SpongeBob SquarePants, Adventure Time), making film cameos (Meteor Man, Men In Black II) and starring in TV shows (In Living Color, Wild ’N Out). He lost more weight than any other contestant when he triumphed on 2005’s Celebrity Fit Club, but it was a small win in a pitched battle against type 2 diabetes. He was also warm-up DJ for the Beastie Boys and collaborated with them on a loopy, garbled version of Elton John’s Bennie And The Jets in 1999. In whatever capacity he was in, The Biz never failed to rock a crowd.