Rapper and singer Biz Markie died July 16, 2021

Marcel Theo Hall (April 8, 1964 – July 16, 2021) was known as Biz Markie and was an American rapper and singer. He was best known for his 1989 single “Just a Friend”, which became a Top 40 hit in several countries, was ranked 81st on VH1’s 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders in 2000, and was Number 100 on VH1’s list of the 100 greatest hip-hop songs of all time in 2008.

Biz Markie was born in Manhattan in Harlem, New York City on April 8, 1964 and was raised on Long Island, where he spent his teenage years.

Biz Markie was quoted as saying “Biz comes from the first hip-hop tape I heard. It was ’77, ’78, from the L Brothers. Grand Wizard Theodore was the DJ, and the rappers was Kevvy Kev, Master Rob and Busy Bee Starski. I loved Busy Bee. Busy Bee just stuck with me. My name used to be Bizzy B Markie, and after a while I put the Biz with the Markie. My nickname in my neighborhood was Markie.”

Biz Markie was sometimes referred to as the “Clown Prince of Hip Hop”.

Biz graduated from Longwood High School in 1982, and began his career in New York City nightclubs. He later gained regional recognition by performing at colleges in Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Biz Markie released his debut album “Goin’ Off” in 1988, which included the lead single, “Make the Music with Your Mouth, Biz”, as well as underground hit singles “Nobody Beats The Biz”, “Vapors”, and “Pickin’ Boogers”.

On October 10, 1989, Biz Markie’s second studio album entitles “The Biz Never Sleeps”, which was produced by Markie, his cousin Cool V and Paul C., was released on Cold Chillin’/Warner Bros. Records. “Just a Friend”, in which he alternates between rap and caterwauling, was the lead single from “The Biz Never Sleeps” and became Biz Markie’s most successful single, reaching No. 9 on the Billboard charts.

Biz Markie’s third studio album “I Need a Haircut” was produced by Markie and his cousin Cool V. and released on August 27, 1991 on Cold Chillin’/Warner Bros. Records.

Sales of “I Need a Haircut” were already low when Biz Markie was served a lawsuit by Gilbert O’Sullivan, who claimed that the album’s “Alone Again” featured an unauthorized sample from his hit “Alone Again (Naturally)”.

Gilbert O’Sullivan’s claim was upheld in a landmark ruling, Grand Upright Music, Ltd. v. Warner Bros. Records Inc. that altered hip-hop forever, finding that all samples must be cleared with the original artist before being used. In accordance with the ruling, Warner Bros., the parent company of Cold Chillin’, had to pull “I Need a Haircut” from circulation, and all companies had to clear samples with their creators before releasing the records. This development reflected the increasing popularity of hip-hop and the financial stakes over which releases were set.

Biz Markie responded in 1993 with the mischievously titled “All Samples Cleared!”, but his career had been hurt by the publicity from the lawsuit, and the record suffered accordingly.

For the remainder of the 1990s, Biz Markie occasionally made television appearances, including guest appearances on “In Living Color”, the recurring game show sketch “The Dirty Dozens” and in “Ed Bacon: Guidance Counselor”, as well as being in the 1993 superhero film “Meteor Man” and in a 1996 freestyle rap commercial on MTV2.

Biz Markie also made numerous guest appearances with the Beastie Boys on “Check Your Head” in 1992, “Ill Communication” in 1994, “Hello Nasty” in 1998, and their anthology “The Sounds of Science” in 1999.

Biz also rapped on the song “Schizo Jam” on Don Byron’s 1998 release and on the track “So Fresh” alongside Slick Rick on Will Smith’s 1999 album “Willennium”.

In 1996, Markie appeared on the Red Hot Organization’s compilation CD, “America Is Dying Slowly”, alongside Wu-Tang Clan and Coolio, among others, which was meant to raise awareness of the AIDS epidemic among African-American men.

In 1997, a sample of a Biz Markie recording appeared in the Rolling Stones’ song “Anybody Seen My Baby?” from their album “Bridges to Babylon”.

In 1999, Biz Markie appeared on Len’s song “Beautiful Day” on their album “You Can’t Stop the Bum Rush”, as well as on Alliance Ethnik’s album “Fat Comeback”.

In 2002, Biz Markie appeared in the movie “Men in Black II”, with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, playing an alien parody of himself, whose native language sounded exactly like beatboxing. He also provided rap vocals and sang the hook for the remixed version of Mario’s single “Just a Friend 2002”, which sampled his own song from 13 years before.

Between 2002 and 2003, Biz appeared in episode 5 of the TV series Fastlane playing himself as a nightclub DJ. In 2003, he appeared in the international television series “Kung Faux” performing a series of voice-over characters featured in a variety of episodes.

In 2005, Biz Markie detoured from his recording duties to appear on the first season of the television show “Celebrity Fit Club”, which challenged celebrities to lose weight by a combination of diet and exercise, and lost more weight than anybody else in the competition.

In 2006, his song “Pickin’ Boogers” appeared on the soundtrack of the Volition video game Saints Row.

Biz Markie began opening for Chris Rock on the comedian’s 2008 “No Apologies” tour, with Markie’s act included spinning records ranging from old school hip hop to Lynyrd Skynyrd and then performing “Just a Friend”.

In December 2009, Biz Markie appeared in a RadioShack commercial, repeating the line “Oh Snap! Guess what I saw!” from his song “Just a Friend”.

In 2010, Markie appeared on VH1’s 100 “Greatest Artists of All Time”, providing commentary throughout the series, although he was not included on the list.

On November 9, 2010, Biz appeared on the Aquabats! new EP, “Radio Down!” on the title track. On November 11, 2010, Markie sat in with the Roots on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon”, and performed “Just a Friend” with the actor Jeff Goldblum.

Biz Markie guest starred in the “SpongeBob SquarePants” episode “Kenny the Cat” in the episode’s title role, and his voice acting work also includes the voice of Snorlock the Beatboxing Slug in an episode of “Adventure Time”.

In 2014, Markie appeared in the Syfy network film “Sharknado 2: The Second One” and threw a ceremonial first pitch for an Oakland Athletics baseball game.

In 2016, his song, “Just a Friend” was featured in the Netflix Series “Love” as an ending theme for episode 4, and appeared on the Fox TV series “Empire” as himself, where he performed “Just a Friend”. He also made an appearance in the song “The Noisy Eater” off the album “Wildflower” by the Avalanches. .

Biz Markie was the DJ on the VH1 game show “Hip Hop Squares” between 2017 and 2019, a spin-off of the popular game show Hollywood Squares. He also rapped alongside singer Ke$ha on the Flaming Lips song “2012 (You Must Be Upgraded)”. He made an appearance in the season 3 finale of the ABC series “Black-ish” in 2017 and performed a personal version of the song “Just a Friend”, in which he added the names of the characters.

In April 2020, Biz Markie was hospitalized due to severe complications from type 2 diabetes and in December 2020, it was reported that he was staying in a rehabilitation facility as a result of a stroke he had suffered after going into a diabetic coma.

On July 1, 2021, rumors of Biz Markie’s death circulated on Twitter but his representative told Rolling Stone magazine “The news of Biz Markie’s death is not true, Biz is still under medical care, surrounded by professionals who are working hard to provide the best healthcare possible.”

Biz Markie died fifteen days later, at a Baltimore hospital, on July 16, 2021 at age 57.

On September 25, 2021, the intersection of South Street and West Avenue, across the street from his then-home, was dedicated as Biz Markie Way.

Check out Biz Markie on Amazon