Biz Markie feature (2011)
originally published in Inpress, Australia
For years Biz Markie was best known for his fluke 1989 hit Just a Friend, an off-key singalong piggybacking on Freddie Scott’s lost soul gem (You) Got What I Need. Not even his weird cameos in Men in Black II and on several Beastie Boys albums could compare. But then along came the children’s TV sensation Yo Gabba Gabba! in 2007, and with it Markie’s regular beatbox segment Biz’s Beat of the Day. And so hip-hop’s multi-talented oddball found himself a second lasting claim to cult fame.
“I was supposed to come on to do a Dancey Dance,” says Markie of the show’s signature guest-star dance bit. “My back was hurtin’, so I invented Biz’s Beat instead. It got an overwhelming response.” It wasn’t the first time he’d done something for a younger audience: Markie reworked a song from the classic kids show Schoolhouse Rock! for a 1996 compilation alongside the likes of Pavement and Moby.
It’s not so strange, then, that his segment took hold. “It ain’t no shock,” he reckons. “I always been doing things for little kids. It’s just interesting that the show was a success.” Such a success, in fact, that it’s bringing Biz Markie to Australia for the first time. He’ll perform as part of the show’s touring act — including slots on this year’s Stephen Pavlovic-curated Vivid Live Festival — as well as two solo sideshows.
Hailing from Baltimore, the man born Marcel Theo Hall is now in his mid-40s. The unlikely pop crossover of Just a Friend is decades behind him, and since then his recorded output has been incidental to his other antics. He has toured with Chris Rock, competed on the reality show Celebrity Fit Club, guested on a Will Smith album, and been sampled by The Rolling Stones. He’s also an in-demand DJ, hired to spin at parties for celebrities like Diana Ross.
“Yes, I have an incredible vinyl collection,” he brags. He owns more than 30,000 singles and 50,000 LPs, keeping track of them all with “two black books.” Though he often spins with digital music these days, Markie still goes hunting for records on tour. “I got so many records,” he offers, “but usually when I go out of the country I look and see what I don’t have that I might need to pick up.”
He won’t reveal exactly what all he’s doing on this tour with the brightly coloured Yo Gabba Gabba! crew — besides beatboxing, that is — but for his sideshows Markie will be backed by his cousin, DJ Cutmaster Cool V. He’ll do songs from three decades of albums, including Just a Friend, which he gamely performed with actor Jeff Goldblum on piano for Jimmy Fallon’s U.S. talk show last spring.
Is it tiresome having to play the same song at every single gig? “Nah, nah,” he says. “It’s still a big singalong. Every time I do it, it’s just like I did it for the first time.” As for the differences between rapping, acting, and being an all-around TV personality, he simply offers, “you just have a lot of fun. It don’t matter what you do. As long as I have fun, all of it is all good. On the hip-hop side you gotta be more creative, and on the acting side you’re being a character. I’m already a born character.”
Biz Markie hasn’t released an album of new material since 2003’s Weekend Warrior, but he’s working on one now — in his own way. “I’m being really slow and particular with it,” he admits. “I’m not really in a rush. I’ll get a couple of producers [in], but I’m doing it myself. I just do whatever I feel like doing. It ain’t like I’m on a schedule.”
Finally, the most vital question: will he ever run out of beats to do for Yo Gabba Gabba!? “Not really,” he decides. “There’s a million beats you could do.”
