Biz Markie

The class clown of New York hip-hop, Biz Markie proved himself as adept at goofily sincere crooning and lowbrow comedy as rapping. A rap link to the Coasters of “Charlie Brown” and “Yakety Yak,” he is also known for losing the first rap-sampling lawsuit to be decided by a judge.

Born in Harlem and reared on Long Island, Biz got his start on the early-’80s downtown-Manhattan rap scene in such clubs as the Roxy and the Funhouse. In 1985 he met producer Marley Marl (L.L. Cool J, Big Daddy Kane) and made his first demo recordings. His debut album, Goin’ Off (#90 pop, #19 R&B, 1988), had such club hits as “Vapors” (#80 R&B, 1988), “Make the Music With Your Mouth, Biz” (a showcase for his human beat-box skills), and the grossout comedy classic “Pickin’ Boogers.”

Biz Markie’s triumph came with The Biz Never Sleeps (#66 pop, #9 R&B, 1989), which featured a Top 10 pop cross-over hit in “Just a Friend” (#9, 1990) - a disarmingly abject expression of romantic betrayal in which Biz rapped the verses and sang the pleading chorus in passionate, off-key fashion.

But his next album brought disaster: I Need a Haircut (with a cover showing a chainsaw being put to Biz’s head) included “Alone Again” - built on an unauthorized sample of the piano figure underpinning Gilbert O’Sullivan’s 1972 #1 pop hit, “Alone Again (Naturally).” O’Sullivan sued, and in a landmark court case, the presiding judge ruled against Biz Markie, ordering Warner Bros. to remove all copies of Haircut worldwide. The album (#113 pop, #44 R&B, 1991) quickly went out of print, and labels began making greater efforts to clear permission before using copyrighted material. Markie covered himself, and kept his sense of humor, with All Samples Cleared! - appearing on the cover as an angry judge handing down a sentence on himself. The Beastie Boys, long outspoken fans of Markie, put him on the bill of their second Tibetan Freedom Concert in 1997 in New York City, and he appeared on their 1998 album, Hello Nasty. That year he also joined jazz clarinetist Don Byron on his Nu Blaxploitation album, recorded live at the downtown-Manhattan avant-garde club the Knitting Factory.

from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)