Downloaded from YTS.MX
BIZ MARKIE: Drop that shit.
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
[record scratching]
["Just a Friend" playing]
Now, listen, Las Vegas, when the beat drop,
everybody gotta lose your fucking minds in here, y'all.
Oh, baby, you Sing it loud!
CROWD: You got what I need
I can't hear you, can't hear you!
And you say he's just a friend
I wanna hear you, say what?
And you say he's just a friend
Oh, baby, you
Got what I need
TRACY MORGAN: Biz looked funny, he acted funny,
his spirit was funny.
Everything about Biz was funny, even in his music.
When you make a song called "Pickin' Boogers"
about picking boogers, come on, man.
MASTA ACE: Biz was really the one
that ushered in that real fun of hip-hop.
DMC: He was the music, he was the style.
He was all the aspects of hip-hop.
My name is Biz Markie, the human on this thing...
[humming]
ROXANNE SHANTE: He had battled so many beatboxers,
his lips had gotten so big and swole up so bad,
that he had to stick them in this bowl with ice,
and he had to soak his lips the whole ride home.
You would never imagine he'd be in "Men in Black Two"
doing the beatboxing.
[beatboxing]
TARA HALL: Children were just drawn to him
by the way his looks and his demeanor.
Children really see the good in you.
Biz, he didn't drink, he didn't smoke,
he didn't do anything.
All he did, he was a collector.
Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, every old-school toy.
Biz showed me the ropes and really how to rock a crowd.
BIG DADDY KANE: This was the first time
someone actually believed in me
and said, "Yo, I wanna do this for you,"
and kept their word, like, came back and got me.
RAKIM: You get a little jealous when somebody
love hip-hop more than you.
Biz made me jealous that he loved hip-hop like that.
He's everywhere impacting people's lives in a good way,
you know, no matter where he goes.
Almost like an angel or something.
TARA: It was just fun.
It just felt like you're in like some type
of teenage love affair.
It almost didn't feel real, but it was.
It don't matter to me
If you really feel that
You need some time to be free
Time to go out searching for yourself
Hoping to find
Time to go to find
It don't matter to me if you take up
With someone who's better than me
'Cause your happiness is all I want
For you to find
Peace, your peace of mind
A lot of people have an ego hang-up
'Cause they want to be the only one
How many came before, it really doesn't matter
Just as long as you're the last
Everybody's moving on and trying to find out
What's been missing in the past
It don't matter to me if your searching brings you
Back together with me
'Cause there'll always be an empty room
Waiting for you
An open heart waiting for you
Time is on my side
'Cause it don't matter to me
INTERVIEWER: So, what do you think got you into, like,
collecting other than personal satisfaction?
BIZ: I didn't have the coolest clothes,
or I started just collecting memorabilia,
collecting tapes before Biz.
We are in our storage space.
So, that's what I'm about to show you.
These are the leather Pro-Keds,
but these are the Biz Markie edition.
"Nobody Beats the Biz."
Biz was a big kid.
He's got all his original quarterback electronic games
from I guess the '70s.
These are the whole set of "Charlie's Angels."
And here's Farrah Fawcett.
INTERVIEWER: Would he, like, just...
He obtained it.
He obtained it and moved on to the next thing to collect.
Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes.
When Biz was hospitalized, when I called 911,
and the ambulance came and they took him
to the hospital, I wasn't able to go to the hospital with him.
And immediately, I just grabbed, you know,
our daughter's composition book just to make notes,
you know, to just be clear on what the doctors
or nurses had to say to me, you know, about his condition.
I mean, I wrote every single thing down.
I really advocated for him every single day
for over a year.
BIZ: As we go back into time...
[vocalizing]
[machine beeping]
Biz. Biz.
It's Tara.
Oh my goodness, with all the COVID mandates,
I had to sneak in.
Oh, God, but I'm here.
Look at you.
You look so crusty, oh my gosh.
And your beard grew so much.
It's okay.
We're gonna get through this together, all right?
Put the ball up again, Biz, towards your head.
Good, good.
Now, throw it to the other hand.
You got it, you got it. Perfect, perfect, perfect.
I'm so proud. You're doing great.
BIZ: I grew up in Harlem, Colonial Projects,
159th and 8th, you know what I mean?
I'm gonna show you what building I used to--
where I grew up from like one to 10
till we moved to Long Island to the Deluxe with no Sky.
This is where I used to live at.
Look.
Okay, now let's go.
[laughing]
To the beat, y'all
Our big story of the next 10 years
is what happens when the city comes to the suburbs.
DIAMOND SHELL: My mom tells the story how he ended up with us.
Sadly, his mom died.
BILL PARKER: And it was a very unexpected death,
but it was very unsettling to him.
I would ask Mark about it,
and he wouldn't discuss it.
He kind of would go on to another conversation.
Mark didn't like to dwell on bad things.
And he used to always say,
if Biz is good, everybody's good.
The father just couldn't take care of Biz anymore,
and they ended up, you know, losing their house,
and they ended up living under a bridge in a tent
in Long Island.
[keyboard playing]
And that's how he ended up in foster care, 1973.
DIAMOND: His dad was having trouble
with caring for the family,
and he did what he thought was best.
MC BAAL: Long Island's very segregated,
especially Suffolk County.
It wasn't minorities getting the houses,
it was mostly white.
Then, once they got older
and started moving out, Black people started moving in,
they started renting out their houses,
that's where it became a Black enclave.
DIAMOND: I remember my mom telling me
"There's gonna be a new member in the house.
Try to be nice to him."
I was outside when he got dropped off
with the social worker.
The first thing he said is, you know, "Hey.
I'm allergic to grass." That was Biz.
What kid is allergic to grass?
That's the first story he told me.
The second story he told me as he's walking by is,
"I can only wear Pro-Keds on my feet.
The doctor only prescribes Pro-Keds for me."
BILL: He did say that.
We played ball in the street.
You threw Mark a ball, he'd catch it,
and he would run in slow motion.
Like, it was like the NFL films.
You're like, "What are you doing?"
And he'd be calling out guys' names,
like Rocky Bleier, and this and that.
He'd be run-- and you're like, "What are you doing?"
And he couldn't stop acting.
DIAMOND: We'd get up, go to church.
I was an altar boy, Biz sang in the choir.
He was terrible, he could not, oh my.
They asked if somebody wanted to sing lead.
He raises his hand and he tries to sing
"We are Soldiers in the Army."
I'm crying, 'cause he sounds terrible.
But he had support.
They're not gonna boo you in church.
If Biz wasn't good enough, then neither was I.
If he was ugly, then so was I.
But as long as we were crew, we were crew.
Bill had a paper route.
He'd spend his money on certain rap music.
Then one day, one of our boys--
my man Dap, he bought a tape from the Bronx.
BIZ: That's the first rap tape I ever heard.
He let me hear the L Brothers, there's Theodore,
Master Rob, Kevie Kev, Busy Bee, Cordeo.
One, two, are you ready?
Yes, yes, y'all, and to the beat, y'all
Rock, rock, y'all, you don't stop
Keep on to the break of dawn
And then you dip-dop...
We had the best parents in the world.
They would never tell us to turn music off,
no matter how annoying it got.
That allowed us to build into that culture.
Anybody from Long Island in the house?
Long Island is always gonna be my home.
The reason Long Island's my home,
because the real is here.
It ain't about trying to be real or faking like you real.
They're real.
Long Island
Long Island, what's up...
ERICK SERON: Hip-hop was heavy in Long Island.
I would have thought that we started hip-hop too.
We had a lot of influence, DJs, breakdance, MCs,
you know, we had everything.
That's where I got my-- my drive from
and my skills to become a rapper,
from Brentwood, Long Island.
PRINCE PAUL: There was definitely a scene
in Long Island, but the only thing
that really mattered back then was power.
It was focused on if you could be heard,
how many speakers you got stacked up,
how much power you got.
I didn't have the power, but as time went on,
was able to get better equipment
and worked on my skillset.
You know, just as far as technically DJing.
DIAMOND: One of our favorite crews was Cold Crush.
So, Biz would say, "You know what?
I'm-- I'm Grandmaster Caz."
And I'd say, "Yo, I'm JDL."
And we would write these rhymes.
And then one day, we got a Busy Bee tape.
...all the streets all through the night
And you hang with Busy Bee, you got to be all right
DIAMOND: And he loved the name, and he said,
"I think I'll be Bizzy B Markie."
And I looked at him like, whatever, man, you not Busy.
BAAL: This was our introduction
- when we'd do a show. - ELROY: We'd cue up, yeah.
When you come through the door, you pay your cash
And then you check out the sounds
More quicker than Flash
And if you bet your cash, your time will pass
'Cause then we will kick Flash right in the ass
We get down, rocking and get down
Yo, and then we'd break into a routine.
And then we'd break off into separate rappers.
- Into routines. - We had routines.
We joined a group of older guys that were DJs,
they were called New York Employees.
And basically, everybody was unemployed.
[both laugh]
Groove line on time with the rap of rhyme
Not only one of the best, but one of a kind
And then we would break it up
like the Treacherous 3.
Grooveline Crew was just a gathering of adolescent kids
that just gravitated to each other
for their love of music.
I was an MC in the group, I was MC Groove.
So, we had MC Groove, Bazooka, MC Jam, and Cool Breeze.
That was the dynamic four, and then Biz would turn around
and jump in whenever he could.
He was always on the back.
[music]
ELROY: There are so many stories about Biz,
so we don't know where... nobody can remember.
I can't remember the first time I saw Biz.
- In fact, he just popped up. - He just sorta showed up.
- Popped up. - And he was always around.
And he wanted to be down with us.
BIZ: I was cool, but I wasn't like
the super cool kid with the gear.
I tried to try out for this rap group, tried--
and you know, they said, "You can't be down,
we got our people."
So, that made me go practice and practice.
Last subject of the story is about Biz Mark
I had to work for mine to put your body in park
DIAMOND: We're in the Source Crew garage.
I can still see him egging this dude,
"Yo, when they pass you the mic, let me get it next."
"B, you got it, I got you. You got it next."
Then after he says his rhyme, he passes it around Biz,
and the deflation was so bad,
it was one of the moments where you're like,
who do you have to be here just to be part of something
that everybody else is already part of?
And I think that affected him as a teenager
more than-- almost more than anything.
[rapping]
And I don't eat spaghetti, without the meat sauce
Whether Ragu, Prego, Hunt's, or Aunt Millie
You wanna get dissed, then try to get illy
That was his biggest thing, "Get me on the mic.
Get me on the mic."
I think there was always a sense of jealousy there
or envy there,
as somebody does have talent,
they kinda want to keep them away.
But what he learned to do, and he taught me how to do,
was laugh.
Somebody would say, "Hey, you're ugly,"
and he would say...
Your mother got no neck, talking about,
"Nod your head to this. Nod your head to this."
And boom, a new way out of it.
Biz is infamous for playing the dozens and stuff like that.
Like, you know, because people cracked on him so much,
he was really good at it.
- At one-liners. - At one-liners.
Yo, when he take a shower, he's so bald,
he wash his dreams away.
Well, humor comes in from slavery,
not just hip-hop, 'cause you know, it was hot
picking that cotton out there
in that fucking cotton field all day,
so we only had three things to keep us really afloat.
And that was joking, music, and sex.
Why you think Black people have so many kids all the time?
'Cause that's what kept us alive, B.
SCOOB: We all snapped.
If you went into McDonald's after Latin Quarters,
either you was getting robbed,
or you had to know how to snap.
And we would trade snaps, and I would get stuff from him,
and I know he got stuff from me.
It's the same thing as comics, you know what I'm saying?
Like, you gotta know when to say the right thing.
To be good as a freestyler, and battles and stuff,
snapping and rapping are one and the same.
It's similar, like, you have to be able
to say the most wittiest thing to throw your opponent off.
Guess what?
Mark was very good at closing doors.
So, any door that he did not want you to go through, he shut.
I'd ask him about his family, and you know, the holes,
and he would say, "No, no, change the topic."
SUE: There are things that he just didn't wanna talk about.
He always had another story,
and another story, and another story,
and that's how he would keep you off-topic.
I think sometimes he would use that as a diversion.
BIZ: My pops, I guess he won the lottery,
and then we relocated in Long Island.
TARA: He didn't have much.
I think they had to share clothes,
share pairs of pants, and stuff like that.
He ended up collecting when he started to make money.
So, I'm sure with this collection that he has,
it's everything that he wanted,
everything that an eight-year-old
or nine-year-old boy would want.
Somebody mention a toy to him,
he might tell that person, "I got that."
But if he don't, he gonna have it tomorrow.
"I bet you ain't got this."
[laughter]
"I bet you ain't got this."
Like, "Hurricane." Like, "What's up?"
"I got something I know you ain't got."
He's the only guy from being a child to adult
who stayed a child, you know what I'm saying?
Whose chips are these?
End of this segment.
Yo, I'm like the rendition of a military mutt
when it come to Long Island. [laughing]
You know, I lived in different places.
I lived in Holbrook, I lived in Patchogue,
I lived in Bellport.
I lived in Ronkonkoma, I lived in Coram.
I was known for being everywhere.
PRINCE PAUL: He just kinda just was accepted
in every group on every neighborhood,
you know, where I would think I'm special and go,
"Yeah, you know, Busy Bee--" back then--
"Busy Bee came to my house and made a tape.
"He was just at my house last week.
He was just in--" whatever town.
I don't know how he got around, what he did.
I knew he took the Long Island Railroad occasionally.
But he was everywhere.
Everywhere.
The reason I really took it serious
is because in New York City,
they wasn't taking Long Island serious.
They looked at us like we were Martians
or from the country or something, right?
So, my thing was, I wanted to make sure
that Long Island rap was gonna make
a breakthrough regardless.
Biz Markie, believe it or not, man,
he used to come to the school.
And he used to come through on lunchtime,
and be in the lunchroom, and hitting the table,
and rapping.
But he didn't get thrown out, which is weird,
'cause he didn't go there.
We attended Amityville High School,
and Biz used to come to our high school
like every other week, just hanging out
and handing out flyers, pretty much.
I knew of Biz Markie because Sheldon,
his younger brother, was a friend of mine
who went to East Junior High as well.
I'm in my seventh grade classroom,
and they tell us that we're going down
to the auditorium.
And there's this guy Biz sitting there.
So, Biz came in and he talked the principals
into, one, buying him Burger King.
And shutting down the school for one day at first,
and he proceeded to tell us
that he has this song out called "La Di Da Di."
You know what, yo, peep this
La-di-da-di, we like to party
We don't cause trouble, we don't bother nobody
We're just some men that's on the mic
And when we rock up on the mic, we rock the mic right
And that's how I heard about "La Di Da Di."
"La Di Da Di" was Biz's song.
BIZ: La-di-da-di
CROWD: We like to party
BIZ: Sing loud. CROWD: Da-di
[Biz beatboxing]
You know what, Biz, la-di-da-di, we like to party
He literally lied his way,
and he faked it till he make it.
Biz could lie his ass off, or exaggerate, if you may say.
If I said, "Yo, Biz, I got these ill Cazals,"
he would say, "Yo, I just went to the store.
I own half of the company of Cazals."
His stories was extra exaggerated.
I never believed anything Biz said,
but everything I told him, like, "Yeah, right, Biz."
That was my common response to Biz.
It was like, "Yeah, right, Biz."
TARA: He's doing great today, right?
All right, come on, Biz, let's make a fist
with your left-- with your hand.
[Biz grunting]
Good.
Excellent.
Now, can you do it with the other hand?
Okay. Don't worry 'bout that.
Can you squeeze my hand?
[phone buzzing] Okay.
[sighs] He's coming along, right?
Excuse me. [chuckles]
Hello?
Who-- excuse me, who is this?
[scoffs] No, he's very much alive.
Oh yeah, no.
You know, TMZ, can you guys give us some respect,
some space, some privacy?
[scoffs] You're gonna do what?
VOICE: I'm a lawyer.
Yeah, I'll see about that.
I'm calling my lawyer.
Yeah, bye.
[sighs]
Yeah, don't worry 'bout that.
Yeah, anyway, he's coming along nicely, right?
All right, come on, Biz.
Yep, move your head left, right.
Make a fist again.
Good.
RAKIM: There was three lunch periods,
fourth, fifth, and sixth,
and I would wind up being down here.
As long as you could duck, you know, security,
you're good.
And one day, Biz walks up in the school, bro.
Now, you know, Wyandanch is notorious, like, you know.
It was a rough school, you know what I mean?
And you know, people from out of town,
we ain't like that too much.
Biz had that, you know, that energy, man,
where people knew, you know,
he wasn't trying to harm nobody.
So, he started doing the beatboxing,
and somebody ran and got me.
It's that little section right there when you walk in,
the acoustics over there is crazy, you know what I mean?
So, Biz is over there rocking, "boom-boom-boom-boom-boom,"
doing the beatbox.
Crowd around, you know, everybody from the lunch period,
people got up out the, you know, cafeteria.
So, I walk up, and people's like, "Yo, Ra,
yo, start-- you know, say a rhyme."
So, I walk up and just start rhyming.
Didn't even, you know, know who he was,
what his name was or nothing, just started rhyming.
[beatboxing]
BIZ: I've been doing it since, like, eighth grade.
My parents thought I was crazy,
I used to have to go to a psychiatrist,
Dr. Kondry, 'cause I would just do beatbox,
bang on the table and stuff.
INTERVIEW: And they thought you were, like, mental?
BIZ: They thought I was crazy.
INTERVIEWER: What did your friends think?
BIZ: I would do records like... [beatboxing]
[beatboxing continues, crowd chanting]
DOUG E. FRESH: There's a tradition in Harlem
where you walk down the block, and every single block
there was usually a record shop.
So, I'm walking up the street,
and every street I'm hearing the music
that's coming out-- Spoonie Gee new record,
I'm hearing Grandmaster Flash and Furious Five.
I'm hearing the bass line...
[singing bass line]
I'm like, damn, that bass line is crazy!
So, I'm just doing it, humming it all the way.
And I say, damn, but I hear the beat up under there.
So, I started trying to do the...
[beatboxing]
Then I thought, say man, I wonder if I can do
the bass line with the beat,
and if I put that together, that'll be crazy.
So, I went-- and I'm trying to do it,
you know, 'cause you can't think about it,
it's-- you gotta feel it. So I'm...
[beatboxing]
Then I'm saying, oh man, I got that.
Then there's another sound, and I put the hi-hat in there.
[beatboxing]
Then I can put the hi-hat in there,
then you gotta put this other little sound,
a click thing, or piano.
So, I'm walking. [beatboxing]
So, I go to my man Barry B's house to practice.
I'm starting to do what I was doing going home.
[beatboxing]
And he was in Lincoln Projects too.
He said, "Yo, you know what, you should do that outside."
I said, "I'm not doing that, you trying to play me,
get outta here with that." He said, "Yo, I'm telling you."
He said, "That was crazy what you just did.
You should do it outside."
So, what happened is I went outside,
and we was doing a jam at the big park.
So, when the music came, they said,
"Yo, cut the music down, do it right now!
Do it right now!"
I turn around, said all right.
[beatboxing]
Motherfuckers say "Ahh!"
[beatboxing]
BIZ: I got addicted to this thing called hip-hop,
because that was the cool thing to do.
It was costly though, 'cause you know,
you always had to go to the city and get some records
whenever somebody cutting on the tape.
[beatboxing]
PETE NICE: Biz lives on at this museum.
Biz was a mainstay at the Latin Quarters,
so he shows up all over.
That's like a recreation
of the sign at the LQ.
But this is Biz actually doing the Biz dance at the LQ.
Any time you would go to the Latin Quarter,
you would see Biz there in the, you know,
iconic Biz Markie trucker's hat.
DJ HURRICANE: Once Biz knew what he wanted to do,
he didn't miss any hip-hop event
and he didn't have any records out at the time.
To get into the business,
I met my man EK Mike C on the train,
I was coming from Long Island going to New York.
He told me, "Yo, I'm gonna introduce you to Mike and Dave.
"You hook up with them, hand out flyers,
start learning the business."
I met a whole bunch people at this time, you know what I mean?
PETE: He would show up on the flyers.
I think the earliest flyer he showed up
was like either late '82 or '83 at the Savoy Manor.
DOUG: So, then there were some promoters named Mike and Dave.
They put me on a show in Long Island, Shirley Arena.
And on this show is Biz Markie.
Lovebug Starski was on, and the Cold Crush.
MAN: Everybody in the house!
[cheers and applause]
DOUG: So, I felt like I was big-time now.
When he got off, I said, man, I see what you're doing, man.
Just keep on doing what you're doing,
and you gonna pop.
Doug E. Fresh, he's the original.
Anybody know him, put your hand up in the air.
And he turned around, he said, "Yo, what you did just now, man,
was crazy, man, that was crazy. I never seen nothing like that."
He said, "Yo, can I come to your house?"
I was like, damn. I said, this is crazy.
He asked me to come to my house like out of nowhere.
He said, "I got these two girls that wanna meet you though."
And I just said "Oh, yeah?" After he threw the girls in,
I said, "Yeah, you can come to my house."
BIZ: So, I just started going places by myself.
I started being a nomad.
I thought making as many friends
and meeting as many people as possible,
so when your record come out, they'll pick up your record.
DOUG: And he said, "Yo, I'm gonna be in Harlem.
I'm gonna come by." He had the address.
I didn't know he was coming by this day.
I come in the house, man, he's in the house!
And he was like, "Hey, Doug E.!"
I was like, who is this dude, bro?
So, he came to the house.
He's like listening to the tapes.
I'm letting him listen to Hollywood.
I got him listening to everything.
He's like, "Oh my God. Oh my God!"
Like, his mind is getting blown.
He take the tapes back to Long Island,
and he started coming to the house every single day.
And then, when I would do the beatbox,
he would stand there, looking at me like this.
Just looking at me, just looking at me.
And then he couldn't-- he couldn't go...
[beatboxing]
He couldn't do that.
So then, he was starting to figure, like,
"What could I do? How could I..."
You know, then he started to orchestrate his own style.
[beatboxing]
One of the things with Biz that was, like,
literally the most iconic things that he wore
were the Shirt Kings airbrush shirts,
like the "Pickin' Boogers" sweatshirt.
And when we visited Tara,
sure enough, we open up one-- one box,
and there's a denim airbrushed Shirt King jacket.
This is pretty cool. This is from the Shirt Kings,
you know, from 30, 40 years ago.
PHADE: I think my-- one of my funniest stories
is we were in front of Dapper Dan's,
and you know, he popped up to pick up a suit,
and there was some kids out there
that used to work for Dap.
And they was like, "Yo, that's Biz, that's Biz."
So, this one little chubby kid was like, "Yo, I'll battle you."
Biz was still into it, he was like...
[beatboxing] ...battling, the kid was like,
"All right, my go."
And he just kept beatboxing, kept beatboxing, like...
[beatboxing]
Biz always told me this, he said do something,
and be just as good as everybody in the room when you do it.
But once you're just as good as everybody else,
be better than everybody else.
And then do it because...
you want to excel.
[machine beeping]
WOMAN: Hello, Mr. Hall.
How you doing today, good?
All right, that's good.
Well...
Okay.
All right, so you know why I'm here, yes?
All right, don't give me no trouble.
All right. Give me your hand.
I'm gonna squeeze this here. Okay.
That.
- Ah. Biz! - [laughing]
You know, I can get you in trouble for that.
And you know I'll call your wife.
- [shudders] - Exactly.
Feet hurt, working a double.
Come on. The only one.
[sighing, muttering]
BIZ: I was born in 1964
Well, I'm 18, born on 90
When he was at Wyandanch High School with Rakim,
he was a better MC then,
than when he started making records and stuff.
We had a little charade in the gym,
as you call it back then, everybody got together
and they just having a good time.
Ra brought him through, introduced him,
gave him the pass to the town.
RAKIM: ...Rakim is in the house.
I came all the way up here to tear shit up,
you know what I'm saying?
But check it out... [overlapping chatter]
I know you people came to see me do the beatbox, right?
EDDIE: And once he started doing the beatbox thing,
it was over, like, everybody fell in love with him,
and Biz took off.
[Biz beatboxing]
- Right there. - Over there.
DJ was set up under the rim over there.
Yo, I used to time my shit just right.
Like, I make sure I come in at the right time,
you know what I mean, everybody-- everybody waiting.
Come up in here, our man go straight to the booth,
- grab the mic. - That's what it was.
Everybody waiting.
You call me Kid Wizard, on top, y'all
The president of poetry, that's what I am
You can call me a wiz, they call me Rakim
Every time I rock a mic, it's so unique
So check it out, y'all, because I'm reaching my peak
Biz. Biz Markie, y'all.
Give him a round of applause.
These are our Biz's Gucci sneakers.
Biz was always into the high-top sneakers.
He's got the Converse in his first promo picture,
and sneaker culture was big with Biz.
Welcome to the Albee Square Mall.
This is my second home away from home.
Here to talk about the Albee Square Mall
Letting people shop in downtown Brooklyn
Biz pops up in Albee Square Mall in Brooklyn.
People would just pop up, you know, and start performing.
And I remember Biz and guys that I saw in jams
that were, you know, the Brooklyn crew.
TRACY: My house is the Albee Square Mall
My house is the Albee Square Mall
I lived up the block in Thompkins,
so I used to go down to the Albee Square,
see Kane, and Biz, and all them down there.
I met Kane in front of McQuarry's
across the street from Albee Square Mall.
BIG DADDY KANE: This guy named Wayne, he kept telling me
about this dude in Long Island around his way named Biz Markie.
I'm like, "Where he at?" "He's in the mall."
So, I was like, "All right, introduce me to him."
So, he took me inside the Albee Square Mall.
And before we got to him, I was like,
all right, now look, I'm gonna ask your man
for a battle, and after this battle,
I don't want you telling me nothing else about this dude.
And then, after the battle, you know, Biz is like,
you know, with that crazy laugh, you know, he's...
[laughing] "That was dope."
You know, and he's like, telling me,
"Yo, you dope, man, you should get down with me.
"I be doing shows in Harlem, Long Island,
"and I promise you, if you get down with me,
I'm gonna get you a record deal one day."
And I said okay.
I always could get in any club anywhere.
So, what I would do is bring him with me.
I'd do the beatbox, he'd rhyme.
And from that point on, I was doing shows
for these promoters, Mike and Dave.
Can I get my man Big Daddy Kane?
Come out here.
What is it, uplifted, my rhymes are exquisite
And Biz would have me all over
at these Mike and Dave parties performing.
And they used to pay us in one-dollar bills like strippers.
Yo. Bring that down.
Bring that down, bring that down.
Yo. [indistinct]
RAKIM: Kicking it with Biz and seeing the passion
that he had for hip-hop started to rub off on me.
I remember when Biz was like, "Yo, it's a battle in Harlem."
So, I'm like, I'm not going to Harlem
to no battle, bro.
You know, I knew I was good.
You know, I ain't think I was nice.
I knew I was on the outside looking in.
Biz told me, "Ra, you nice, man.
"I'm telling you, man, yo, they gonna love you.
All you gotta do is just rhyme, Ra, just rhyme."
Like I said, 45 minutes later, I made my mind up,
we gonna get on the train tonight and go to Harlem.
We go to 132nd, I think Harriet Tubman in Harlem.
Mike and Dave production. Doug Fresh was there.
You know, I just remember, you know,
saying to myself, like, yo, what the hell am I doing here?
Like, you know, what'd I get myself into?
Biz entered us in a contest.
I just got up there and did my thing.
I rocked the show. I didn't win.
Kid named Kid West.
He lived right around the corner,
but that was his spot, you know what I mean?
And he was more prime than me, you know what I mean?
I wasn't used to rock-- especially no Harlem crowd.
You know, the pen started getting a little bigger
after that, 'cause now I've been inside,
you know what I mean?
CROWD: [chanting] Go Biz Mark! Go Biz Mark!
Go Biz Mark!
BIZ: Saying the new dance was the Pee-Wee Herman.
I would do the Biz dance,
and they would forget the Pee-Wee Herman.
These are like some of the rarest pieces
of hip-hop history that exist.
And you know, they represent the Juice Crew.
You know, Sir Juice right here, Mr. Magic,
one of the most seminal figures in hip-hop history,
you know, through the radio.
MR. MAGIC: WBLS 107.5, in a class by itself.
Good evening to you super listeners.
How you doing tonight, all you fly guys and fly girls?
Welcome once again to the world-famous
Mr. Magic Rap Attack on your radio.
FRED BUGGS: WBLS had been in the market
as WBLS since 1972,
and had garnered a major part of the marketplace
by being number-one general market radio station.
All right, let me introduce myself.
My name is Ty Will.
I produce a show in New York City
known as the world-famous Mr. Magic Rap Attack
that made the man DJ Marly Marl famous.
Y'all know about the bridge?
I don't believe you. Y'all don't know, y'all don't.
The bridge, the-the bridge
I was lucky enough to do an internship
at Unique Recording,
kinda like a fly on the wall
and see the technology that they was using.
And not to say they wasn't using it right,
but I felt other needs for that technology.
You know, they was putting vocals in the sample.
I was like, yo, hold up,
I could put breakbeats in the sample.
[laughing]
REPORTER: Sampling is the process
of electronically copying bits of sound
from another artist's recording.
MARLY: Then, we realized, hold on,
I got all these records in my house.
That's why I took everybody by storm,
because nobody was thinking about it.
I just kinda outthought everybody at that minute
and started using hip-hop in the sampler.
I used to be on the set with Bob Lee,
and I'm playing remixes and doing my thing.
Mr. Magic like, "Yo, man, that sound fire right there.
Who did that?" I said, "Yo, I did it."
I did a remix of "Buffalo Gals" or something.
Two buffalo gals go around the outside
Round the outside, round the outside
And he's like, "Wow," he's like, "Oh, shit.
What you do on the weekends?"
I work at Club Pegasus.
"Yo, I'll double your pay, you come up here."
That's how I got my job at BLS.
MR. MAGIC: About that time for my engineer all-star,
Marly Marl, to put on his golden mixing gloves.
[music playing]
FRED: And later on in 1983,
folks were listening to 98.7 Kiss-FM.
98.7 Kiss-FM.
TYRONE WILLIAMS: Kiss is the competition,
so now we can't get exclusives like we used to,
so that forces us to make our own records.
So, a few weeks later, that's when I met Shante,
and then we put Shante on.
Then Craig G was from our building.
That's when I met Shan in the park.
SHAN: I was doing records for six months
without having a record,
traveling around and things like that.
And then next came along Biz Mark.
You took him in like a big teddy bear.
Because I remember times when I would sneak Biz
into my house.
He would just say, "Thank you,
I just need to sleep till in the morning."
And before you knew it, it was like once Biz
got his foot in that door,
I knew that he was gonna keep that door open
for a very long time.
I will actually pop open this case.
And this is like the first time Biz was actually in the studio
to cut a record with Shante.
And this was for the Def Fresh Crew,
recorded December 11th, 1985.
And of course, it was released in '86.
And that's where it all happened right there,
where you hear Biz doing that meow mix,
and you know, you see that classic performance
of them together on video.
We came here tonight to get started
Cold, act ill, or get retarded
[beatboxing]
You wanna hear my first demo I made with Biz?
[laughing]
[hip-hop music playing]
CRAIG G: Marly had this thing where he'd invite you
to the studio on 12th Street
and make you wait four or five hours outside.
I waited every day for like three weeks.
You know, I waited on the bench,
waited around there till nighttime.
MARLY: You know, it was cats in the building saying,
"Yo, Marl, check this cat out. He's dope, he's dope."
I was like, nah. I kept it moving.
My man Mark ran back, then he came back up to me.
"Yo, you gotta go check this kid out, he's dope."
I was like, all right, come on, let's go.
So, I went back.
[beatboxing]
He did the bass.
I was like, yo, that's different.
"You should come to my house."
He came to my house a few days later-- boop.
We made the first original
"Make the Music With Your Mouth, Biz."
I'd like to introduce myself
My name is Biz Markie
Well, I'm the human orchestra called Biz Markie
Making music orally is my specialty
TRACY: Make the music, make the music
Make the music with your mouth
When he dropped that, as soon as the beat come on,
you just grab your head, like...
They call action, when you hear me do it
You will be shocked and amazed
It's the brand-new thing they call the human beatbox craze
Make the music with your mouth, Biz
MARLEY: The early Juice Crew was battlers.
They was like really trying to battle to get on.
Biz was friends with everybody.
TYRONE: Biz was persistent.
So, that showed he wanted to do it.
So, we started bringing Biz.
Biz, come here.
The first show was right here,
Coney Island, that we used Biz.
And he was MC Shan's beatbox.
BIZ: Don't take me seriously
He's only bugging
[vocalizing]
SHANTE: He went in, opened up doors,
he opened up windows.
He was pulling everybody in with him.
He was putting all his people on.
He's responsible for a lot of careers.
Y'all ready for something raw?
You think they ready for something raw?
They ready for something raw, they ready.
All right, y'all stay tuned.
Around '85, he came to me with this beat
and said that he wants to make a song
called "Make the Music With Your Mouth,"
and he wanted me to write the rhymes.
And I'm like, whoa, hold up,
um, I thought you was the beatbox.
Don't you mean I write the rhymes for me to say
about you making the music with your mouth,
and then you make the music with your mouth?
And Biz said, "Okay, Kane."
I ain't see his ass no more. [laughing]
Nine months later, you know, I'm here,
I hear Mr. Magic, you know,
"World-world-world premiere-miere-miere."
And him and Shan, they're doing our routine,
the routine that me and Biz used to do,
with the "One-two, one-two."
I'd like to introduce myself
- Who are you? - My name is Biz Markie
- Who am I? - And that is MC Shan
Shortly after that, Biz came back to my high school,
and he was like, "Yo, I'm working on a new song.
"I want to use the slogan from 'Nobody Beats the Wiz,'
but saying 'Nobody Beats the Biz.'"
Nobody beats the Wiz
ANNOUNCER: Don't miss the sensational
Sharp home entertainment sale at the Wiz!
KANE: I wanted the style to just be like...
[vocalizing]
And since he left my ass with the "Make the Music,"
this time, I ain't-- "Okay, whatever you want.
What? Okay, got you, no problem."
MARLY: Kane came to my house one day,
said, "Yo, I was supposed to meet Biz
"at the train station and give him these.
You know, I write for Biz, you know."
I was like, oh, word?
I thought Biz wrote his own stuff.
He's coming with it written,
and just recite it and put it down,
and you know, that was that.
But that's when I met Kane.
You have been playing the background
for a little while.
- You were Shante's DJ. - Yeah.
And you were writing for her and writing some stuff for Biz.
KANE: Like, I showed up from Brooklyn,
and Marly was talking to me with the chain on the door.
He's like, "Yo, I don't know what to tell you, money.
Biz ain't here."
I'm like, "All right. Well, here's the rhymes
he's supposed to use for the day."
So, I gave the rhymes to Marly,
and he was like, "You wrote this?"
I'm like, yeah.
You know, he spit a rhyme for me
that nobody knew that Biz recorded already.
I was like, oh yeah, he's definitely--
he's definitely the writer.
He's like, "Yo, you rhyme too? Let me hear something."
And I kicked a verse for Marly,
and then Marly took the chain off the door
and was like, "Yo, come on, you wanna work on something?"
He invited me in, and we worked on "I'll Take You There."
Daddy, Daddy
Hear ye, hear ye from far and near
The one they call the Big Daddy Kane is here
KANE: You know, Biz had me convinced
that you know, I should be a member,
and you know, he got them to sign me.
Every Friday, I had something new
from somebody in the crew.
That's how we blew up.
TYRONE: Stetsasonic, Eric B and Rakim,
all them came from us.
Why are we giving this away?
And we weren't really interested in the record industry.
We were just interested in having exclusives,
which led to us creating a label called Cold Chillin'.
We had "Down by Law" by MC Shan.
[hip-hop music]
The partners were myself, Marly, Magic, and Lenny.
Those were the partners. We had success.
We got Fly Ty, got my man MC Shan.
My road manager, Bernard. Hey!
He came to me and said, "Bernard, I need your help.
You're helping Erick and Parish."
And then I left. Biz like, "Yo, Bernard,
I wanna rock with you."
And I became Biz's manager
through his last days with Cold Chillin'.
TYRONE: So, now we got "Pickin' Boogers"
with Biz Markie.
- And it's called - CROWD: Pickin' boogers!
Now what I am saying might not be kosher to you
But it's still something we all have to do
CRAIG: "Make the Music" and "Nobody Beats the Biz"
was on the air all day long.
I'm the original B-I-Z M-A-R-K-I but the E
And I came to have fun and not to be number one
TYRONE: So, Cold Chillin' is now kind of a viable label.
That's when the majors are knocking on the door.
JAZZY JEFF: Biz was a part of the Juice Crew,
and the Juice Crew was pretty much everything.
You know, Marly was, you know, pretty much the Dr. Dre
before Dr. Dre.
You know, everybody wanted beats from Marly.
Marly had a squad of MCs.
What you knew was Biz was a part of the Juice Crew,
which was ultimately Wu-Tang before Wu-Tang.
TRACY: Water seeks its own level, that's hip-hop.
Biz was there with Rakim, Slick Rick, all of them.
That was Biz era.
[music]
The Biz Mark dance is second to none
TYRONE: Cold Chillin' artists were cocky.
Cold Chillin' artists felt like nobody else was as good as them.
They thought everything else was wack.
Cutmaster Cool V, Mr. Loverboy, TJ Swan.
- Word. - Yeah, and I am
the diabolical, energetical, poetical,
numerical, nu-lyrical man, B-I-Z,
M-is the M-is the A-R-Kie.
That picture on the jet when Biz is throwing
the towel up in the air, I met Biz that day.
And he's cracking jokes about me.
Like, he's-- he's nudging Kane.
"Yo, Kane. Yo, Kane."
And I'm like, man, who is this guy?
Like, dissing me? He don't even know me.
But he didn't say it to me directly,
so it was kinda like, I guess that's who he is.
ERICK: Biz knew that me and Parish
were making a demo too, so he used to be like,
"Yo, I heard you making a record,"
but kinda laughing, like he was kinda like,
a little bit disrespectful in the beginning.
'Cause one time, I saw him at the House of Pancakes,
and I happened to come in there, he's with some girls.
And he was like, saying, "Yo, so how your demo going?"
Like not supporting, whatever.
We came out and-- and we took off.
After that came out, then he was like,
"Oh yeah, Erick Sermon's my brother."
I'd like to bring up my man here, Erick from EPMD,
the E Double.
Yo, say what's up.
ERICK: You know, that's how he used to tell people.
We had lost contact with each other
for a good, like, eight years after we graduated.
And a mutual friend said to me,
"Biz is trying to contact you, he's going crazy."
Ended up calling him, and he said,
"Story, where you been?"
He's like, "I just made a video about you,
"and the whole song is about you,
"and you have to put-- you have to take the lead
in the whole song."
What comes around goes around
Uh-uh-uh, uh-uh-uh
What comes around goes around
You know what I'm talking about
STORY: "What Goes Around Comes Around,"
basically, he was saying, oh, you know,
you had all this great stuff in high school.
You had the big house,
and you were having all these parties.
Look at me now.
WOMAN: Now, Biz, check this out. - Yeah.
I know Joe's your man and all that.
Of course, 50 grand.
But is his stuff the bomb like, you know?
I'ma tell you. Joe's the bomb
because he had heart.
He had determination.
He didn't stop when people told him
that he couldn't do it, just like me.
I guess Biz just wanted to be a regular guy,
you know what I'm saying?
[overlapping chatter]
I had a shop, FJ 560, 560 Melrose.
Biz would come and work the cash register for no reason.
He was the biggest rapper on Earth.
Could you imagine, you got one of your idols,
one of the biggest guys in the world?
Like, and Biz was up in there selling t-shirts,
and socks, and mixtapes, and shit.
And I gotta be truthful, all right?
It's not gonna sound pretty.
People would say to me-- and I would get so upset--
"Why you got that retarded guy with you?"
And I would have to defend Biz all the time.
Just as much as people would think I was a DJ
because I had-- they'd say, it was like, "Yeah, DJ."
"You don't look like a DJ." What does a DJ look like?
Well, I'm a little goofy skinny kid.
Well, he was a goofy big guy, you know what I'm saying?
We just didn't-- we didn't fit the mold
of what an MC looked like, you know?
An MC looked like Rakim.
You know, a DJ looked like Eric B., you know?
That's what they look like.
And Biz was a-- might have been the first humorous rapper.
Everything about Biz was funny.
He did it to make you laugh. He did it to make you have fun.
He wasn't trying to make you feel like a killer.
G-rap did stuff to make you feel like, "Ahh!"
'Cause I'm murder, homi-cide, comma
Crush, kill, destroy with excitement and drama
Speaker, sound seeker
Biz made you feel stuff that made you happy.
In fact, he might be the only one to do that
for a long time.
Right about now, I'ma rhyme backwards
[vocalizing]
That means Black people number one today
And I rock
We did at least five or six videos for Biz.
The first one we did, me and my partner Lionel,
"Biz is Goin' Off."
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, check out this bizarre
Rapping style used by me
The B-I-Z M-A-R-K-I with the E and
Biz had his ideas ready before you even started.
Biz would go like, "Okay, so this part right here,
"I'm gonna be dressed like a woman.
"And this part right here,
you know, we gotta do it at Harlem World."
So, he knew in his mind what he envisioned.
Very rare did an artist come
with that type of vision at that time.
Word up with the kids. Ha!
MAN: Tail slate.
I met Biz with my sister
when she was working on a job in New Orleans.
One of her DJs happened to be Biz at the time.
And he was like, "Well, what's your name?"
And I said, "My name is Tara."
He said, "What-- what city do you live in?"
I said, "I live in New York."
He was like, "What's your phone number?"
So, I just yelled out my number, 123-4567,
knowing he would never, ever remember it.
Wasn't writing anything down. And I just left it at that.
That Monday came around,
and my phone rang, and it was Biz.
He was like, "I told you I was gonna remember your number."
I was like, oh my God.
People didn't understand how much of a ladies man
Biz was in his younger days.
Give me-- give me a kiss, child, give me a kiss, give me a kiss.
Ah, she gave me a kiss!
- Yo, we going... - We love him.
NICK: Biz is the one that put me up on game.
Biz is the one that showed me how to maneuver
and how to, you know, charm a woman.
One Christmas holiday, this young woman would come in,
and she'd drop off this gift.
Was he impressed? Um, probably not,
'cause then the next woman came in
and she dropped off a gift.
That's me seeing him in a different light,
that people are more impressed with him now.
And then, I'm like, okay, so this little jean shirt
that I bought you from the Gap or wherever,
I'm taking it back and getting my money back.
'Cause you know, now he's in a different--
at a different level.
CRAIG: Biz started to get some money, he was doing shows.
He started to get the jewelry and the fresh gear,
and he was having the Dapper Dan jackets.
Ooh, whoa, whoa
Biz, he had a style of his own with the sweatsuits.
No way, no way
For you to stop me now
One of the main pieces that I made for him
was a Louis Vuitton canvas short set.
He was a big guy, but he had--
he wanted, like, a regular guy's look,
and that's what I always gave him.
You know how some big guys,
there's no styles for them?
Yeah, so, I create those pieces
that a smaller guy would be more--
ordinarily would be seen in,
but I would create those for big.
Size didn't matter.
What you wanna look like mattered to me.
[sighs]
Biz designed this.
He understood the Shirt Kings.
You know, he really understood, because he was visual, you know.
So, any idea that he had,
we were able to bring his ideas to life.
So, this was all him, you know?
He's like, "I got this idea, I'm sitting on a toilet."
And I was like, oh no, what are you doing, bro?
Like, come on.
You know, he just said, you know,
"I'm gonna take rap in a whole 'nother direction,
you know, and I'm gonna be me."
BIZ: This is the official station identification maker.
He made my Biz Mark hat,
and that's what my hat is known for.
Official, y'all see it? Official.
So, this is one of the original ones
that he made when he was young.
And as you can see here, I guess he ran out of the "R."
But he used to make these hats all the time.
And you doing good with it, Biz.
I mean, look at this big ring, which I--
Biz, you're not gonna let me
walk out of here with this, right?
I'll let you hold it for a couple days.
- Okay. - Just give me the camera crew
to film me for 60 years.
TRACY: People love Biz, man.
I don't know who cut Biz in Club 2000,
but that happened.
That must have been a low-life that did that, man.
JEFF SPENCER: I got the phone call,
"Yo, go to the hospital quick.
Biz got slashed, he ain't gonna make it."
I know they took his chain and his bracelet.
You know what, Biz being angry
and me being angry was two different things.
If I'm angry, you know I'm mad.
Biz would-- it would motivate him
to push his self harder.
So, his thing to me was,
"Jeff, don't worry about that jewelry.
I could always get more, bigger and better."
And he did.
His jewelry also is a collection of toys,
but very expensive toys.
Biz loved jewelry that moved.
And these are black diamonds.
School pencil with a real eraser.
That was him, just always happy,
even in his jewelry.
Benny the jeweler.
Okay, this is the place that I met Biz, Biz Markie.
First item that Biz bought from me was a rope chain,
and he still have it.
TARA: This is very old,
meaning, you know, '80s, '90s.
This is one is too.
This is really old, this has gotta be
circa '82, '83, maybe.
When I met Biz Markie, we both had full hair.
I lost mine, he lost his.
This picture is over 25 years ago.
That was a time that, you know, I started seeing Biz Markie.
And this picture has always stayed in my office.
And any time I'm looking at the picture,
I-- I believe he's still alive, and he's talking to me,
and he's coming up with ideas.
DAPPER DAN: If I was to describe a loyal customer,
Biz Markie would probably be one of the top three.
He came as a friend from day one.
Biz Markie used to come to the store
after he'd do shows and things like that,
and we would break day together sitting in front of the store.
You know what I mean? Just talking.
You know, Biz Markie had the greatest stories in the world.
We'd just talk and watch the sun come up.
BIZ: Said what's the meaning of V-A-P-O-R-S
The meaning of this word without no doubt
Means nobody wanna be there when you're down and out
Say, how true is that?
That is definitely true. Every-- every episode
that I talked about is true.
Everybody looked at-- underrated me as a rapper.
And, but then I just sat down and wrote stuff to myself.
And it's like more of a revenge thing,
you know, like putting it back in your face.
I remember "The Vapors" came out.
I was selling crack.
Yo, when you listen to "The Vapors,"
it was real, is what it was.
The vapors, man, he was telling his story.
And it spoke to me,
because I grew up very, very poor.
I grew up with nothing. Least likely to succeed.
You know, everybody would think I'm--
you know, talk down to me or whatever the case may be.
One thing about Biz though, he gravitated toward the haters,
because his thing was to love to show somebody up.
Okay, they made a record about sneakers?
Fuck it, I'm gonna make a record about boogers.
They gonna make a record about wanting to be on?
I'm gonna make a record about vapors and people hating.
So, there was a beauty that invigorated
and elevated the hip-hop culture.
Biz was the personification of that eternally.
So, when I got my first Beamer with the system,
I would be so annoying.
I would drive around my projects for hours,
and all I would be blasting is "The Vapors."
But now things switched without belief
"Yo, Biz, do you remember me from Noble Street, chief?
We used to be down back in the days"
It happens all the time and never cease to amaze
They caught the vapors
MAN: He has a blood clot in his right arm.
We're managing it, we're controlling it.
He's good, he's not great.
We're gonna hold off on surgery for now.
We're doing the best we can under these circumstances.
Look, every hospital all over the world
is stretched to its limits.
And by the grace of God, and on behalf of my team,
we're gonna make sure that we do everything we can,
make sure we keep him here with you.
Thank you, Dr. Carly.
- Good night, Tara. - See you tomorrow.
[music playing in headphones] So, Biz.
Biz?
Biz!
Oh my God, does this have to be this loud?
[groaning]
Hip-hop don't stop, huh?
Marly had this beat that I heard it,
and I was like, what's that? I wanna use that.
And he's like, "Nah, you can't use that.
That's for Biz."
Several months later,
when we're working on my album...
I kinda hear through talks and Marly just kind of venting
that Biz wasn't gonna be doing any more recording
up at Marly's crib.
At that time, Biz and Cool V
were doing a lot of the production.
COOL V: Back in 1990, we had enough money,
so we figured, why not go buy our own studio?
ACE: And bringing the almost-completed tracks
to Marly to finish.
And when it was all said and done,
the credits would say, "produced by Marly Marl."
And so, they kinda had an issue with that.
BIZ: I mean, I gots tapes and CDs
where it says "coproduced by Biz."
You know, and then-- you know--
you know how the record business is, it was shady.
In the streets, you might hear,
"Yo, Marly said he produced that."
You have to really know what a producer is.
The little bicker and beefs with artists
probably not getting proper credit,
I just think it maybe might have been along that lines.
The producer's the cat who's touching the machine,
playing the hi-hat, playing the kick,
rocking the bass lines, and putting that shit together.
That's producing it.
Once I found out that Marly and Biz
weren't gonna be working together anymore,
I was like, "Yo, I wanna use this beat,
"but this is a Biz-sounding joint.
"So, it would be cool if I could get Biz
to be on the song with me."
And he's like, "Well, if you can get him--
if you can get him to do the song."
So, I was like, all right, bet.
So, I reached out to-- to Biz through Cool V.
He hit me back, he said Biz heard it,
he likes the song, he's down to do it.
He said, "If you can get Marly to give you the tape,
"bring it to our studio, Biz'll record it here,
and he'll give it back to you."
BIZ: I was gonna do the record with Ace,
but since me and Marly fell out, I wasn't doing nothing.
He was down with Marly who wasn't having it.
Marly's like, "Absolutely not.
"Let's just leave it how it is, 'cause it's kinda cool.
"You know, nobody never did a song
where they're mimicking another artist."
I didn't wanna make too many waves.
We left it with me, with the version
that was supposed to be just a demo
so that Biz could hear it, memorize it, record it.
That became the song "Me and the Biz."
I brought somebody with me, someone you might know
He's bound to wreck your body from the tip of your toe
So, once it came out, I never really got...
direct feedback from Biz about it.
Hey-hey-hey, it's me the diabolical
Yes, y'all, and it's time for me to fall
Into a funky beat to make you have a ball and like jump
But I got-- I got a sense from other people around
that he wasn't necessarily happy about it.
People just love it when the Biz starts to play
With my... [beatboxing] And by the way
But that was my fault. Like, I definitely should have--
should have had a conversation with him.
Dear Biz, this conversation is overdue
Tried twice before, but obviously, I'm 0 for 2
This is about our song together that never was
I thought this thought would go away, but it never does
I should have spoke my mind and been too honest
But I was caught in the middle, I was a new artist
I should have said if Biz ain't on it, we gonna scrap it
Was too afraid to make waves, so the song happened
If nothing else, I should have gave you a head's up
But when you young, the money's new
And your bread's up
And you looking at new apartments and used cars
You ain't think about damage done from a few bars
Man, I just wanted to be rhyming with Biz
Just like Kane, but I needed more time in the biz
So I could learn how to navigate that crazy crew
But yo, no need to elaborate
Shout out to Cool V for being the buffer
Without him, my connection would have been tougher
I wanna thank him for being the glue
And I want to thank you just for being you
Nobody beats you like Swan's song
This is a swan song, where's the time gone
Man, that was 30-plus years ago
But these words was never said, so here you go
I'm sorry.
Oh, this is...
Children playing, women...
[singing gibberish]
SHANTE: No one was more obsessed
with buying records than Biz Markie.
I remember him telling me 2:00 in the morning,
"Shante, just drop me off right here."
I said, "Why? This place is closed.
You gonna sleep outside?"
"Yep, and as soon as they open up,
I'm gonna be the first customer."
I said, "Oh my goodness, you crazy."
This is what I used for "Nobody Beats the Biz."
As you can see, see, it's still brand-new.
COOL V: Wherever they had records,
Biz was at the record shop searching for that beat
that we could use for our next record.
And actually, when we did "Just a Friend,"
he was looking for that record
for three years before we ever made a record.
Now, I gotta find this record.
I'm ready to go crazy, I know I got it.
On my side of the room, my dresser...
I found this rhyme book.
So, I'm going through this book, and sure enough,
it's the book he wrote "Just a Friend" in.
["Just a Friend" begins playing]
So, when he start talking about "Just a Friend,"
everybody from the record company,
to all the friends, to other rappers,
"Don't do it, don't do it, don't do it."
BERNARD: And Biz comes, and he has a cassette,
and he plays "Just a Friend" for me and Parish.
Nobody hears it.
I'm like, "This is some bullshit.
What are you doing?" And I literally
took the fucking tape and I threw it
off of Parish's back fucking porch,
like this is trash.
And he was like, "Yo, I got this idea for this song."
And he starts singing the hook.
Oh baby, you
It seemed like I heard it before,
because I'm a record digger, but I couldn't put it together
exactly where he got it from.
I was like, "Yo, kid, you are a genius."
BIZ: Try to get everybody to sing it,
and everybody wouldn't sing it.
So I said, "Well, freak it, I'll sing it myself."
JEFF: And he said, "Jeff, I know I might lie to you sometime,
"but I never told you something that didn't come true.
"I'ma do this record.
"I don't care if they don't support it.
We can push it ourself. Believe in me."
His eyes was red and they were welled up with water.
And that's the first time I've ever seen an emotional Biz.
He came up, I put it in, and we was rapping, all this.
And he said, "Look, whatever I'm trying to say..."
You, you got...
Yo, Dap, I laughed so hard, I was crying.
So, he said, "Honestly, man, so what you think?"
I said, "Biz...
yo... you gotta let that out."
Oh baby, you
Got what I need
But you say he just a friend
But you say he's just a friend
Fast forward, we are literally in Detroit.
The sound goes off, Biz goes on last,
and all he says is... You!
They turn the mic off, and the crowd sings,
and literally, you could look at his lips
telling me, "I told you, Bernard."
I'm like, wow, he's not even a rap star no more.
He's a pop star.
We were on "MTV Spring Break" in Daytona with Biz
doing "Just a Friend," and it's just, you know, mayhem.
Sing along, you, come on
You got what I need, everybody, come on
Warner Brothers felt the same way as everybody else,
especially the Black department.
They just could not-- and Biz is the only artist
in Warner Brother history
to rise in the charts from sales.
Now you're here, I was just wondering,
could you make America happy?
- Yes. - You can?
I say yes.
If it's okay with Biz Markie.
Come on, Jeff.
I'll take it from here.
Oh baby, you
You got what I need
But you say he's just a friend
And you say he's just a friend
Oh baby, you
Got what I need
But you say he's just a friend
Oh baby, you
Got what I need, got what I need, yeah
But you say I'm just a friend
TARA: "Don't ever talk to a girl that says she's just a friend."
[laughing]
He didn't, but it's all good.
We had a great base to our relationship,
which is friendship.
Girl, relax, let's go slow
TARA: I did a very famous music video for Boyz II Men.
It was called "I'll Make Love to You."
And I ended up doing about 20 or 30 music videos.
I acted, I modeled for years.
I was with one of the biggest model agencies in the world,
I was with Wilhelmina.
You know, and you made pretty good money back then.
I was busy too, I was traveling just as much as he was.
Biz never asked me to be his girl.
We weren't dating, we were friends, you know?
Just incredible friends.
So, this went on for like months and months.
So, then it got to the point where we were looking at houses.
I was buying plates, I was buying stemware.
A maybe a couple of days after that,
Biz asked me to marry him in that house.
I was just like, oh my God, I'm not ready
to get married yet, you know?
I'm not ready to just...
At the time, what I was thinking,
just stop what I was doing and be everything to someone.
He was just like, "Okay. Go on, live your life.
I'll be here when you get back," basically.
Maybe 10 years later, I came back to this house.
And I looked in the kitchen,
and everything that I bought in this house
was in the exact same spot.
I was like, "Biz," I was like, "Oh my God."
I'm like, "You still have the glasses?
"You still have the plates?
"You still-- you know, you have everything
the way I left them 10 years ago."
And Biz said to me, "Because I knew you'd be back."
We got married shortly after that.
It don't matter to me
WOMAN: Repeat after me, with this ring...
- TARA: With this ring... - WOMAN: I thee wed.
TARA AND BIZ: I thee wed.
- BIZ: Thank you. - I now pronounce you
- husband and wife. [Tara squealing]
You may kiss your bride.
Hoping to find
Time to go to find
It don't matter to me
[laughter and chatter]
Hey, move your body
Ha-ha-ha, move your body
Ha-ha-ha, ha
[record crackling]
Here is...
the lawsuit when he got sued.
Sullivan Litigation.
- INTERVIEWER: Wow. - Mm-hmm.
1991.
WOMAN: You know, I'm glad that success is coming back
and everything after that big fall
- with the sampling thing. - But could I explain to you?
With the sampling thing, only fall that it fell on
was the Warner Brothers, it didn't really fall on me.
Mike Jensen, our chief financial correspondent,
says there is trouble backstage.
MIKE JENSEN: Michael Jackson, Van Halen, Aretha Franklin,
and David Bowie all have been sampled.
PRINCE PAUL: Our situation with "3 Feet High and Rising,"
De La Soul, we had this Turtles sample,
which is very small.
The label didn't clear it, we got sued.
That set precedent in the hip-hop world
as far as, like, sampling.
It's like, this is what you don't do.
Biz comes out, knowing what we went through...
[laughing]
And I think it's a bigger suit
and has a bigger impact on hip-hop and sampling.
MIKE JENSEN: Now, however, it's being challenged
in court, successfully.
[piano music playing]
That's the melody of a 1972 hit,
"Alone Again (Naturally)" by pop singer Gilbert O'Sullivan.
He sued when Biz Markie, a rapper,
plucked off the melody and used it
for one of his songs.
Listen to this.
I was on my way to 125th
This was the first sampling case to go to trial,
and the judge threw the book at Biz Markie
and his record company,
ordered them to pay Gilbert O'Sullivan--
nobody will say how much--
and to recall thousands of copies of the album.
I don't know. It was my favorite record
at a certain time, it still is my favorite record.
But him, he could kiss my... [imitates bleeping]
Biz tried to clear something, and they said no,
and he sampled it anyway.
So, his issue was a little bit greater
than everybody else's, 'cause it was kinda like...
Ask for forgiveness, don't ask for permission.
And he asked for permission, and they said no,
and he said, "I'm gonna do it anyway."
TYRONE: That was Lenny's fault.
I had to say it, but...
And we knew about the sample issue.
We knew about it beforehand, to clear the sample.
We knew to clear the sample.
We called Lenny, Lenny said he cleared it,
and he didn't, and we put the million out, all right?
INTERVIEWER: Why do you think he did that?
Because he was trying to negotiate down.
That's why.
You know, Lenny, Lenny came from an era
where $10,000 sounded like a lot of money to him.
And he was trying to get them to take $2,500.
INTERVIEWER: If Lenny would have paid 10 grand,
- it would have been fine? - It would have been fine, yes.
MARLY: People started, like, oversampling
and taking whole phrases of records,
and that's what happened with Gilbert O'Sullivan.
They took part of the loop.
That was the sample that broke the camel's back.
To me, that was only a testament of the growth of hip-hop.
No one cared in the beginning.
Once you started getting groups selling 20--
you know 10 million records,
being larger than some of the guys
that they sampled,
it turned into a major moneymaker,
and people started coming after it.
And then, here's an 8-track,
okay, Gilbert O'Sullivan, "I hate sampling."
I think that turned Biz, you know, off,
as far as making albums.
Shortly after that, he just was like, "You know what,
"let me just DJ.
Nobody's gonna, you know, sue me for playing music."
[record scratching]
BIZ: I got bored with rap,
and you know how our label used to be.
So, I just taught myself how to DJ,
and bit off everybody and make my own.
[record scratching]
[loop playing]
Party people, that is what you call...
picking up the needle.
This is what Theodore, Grandmaster Flash,
Cash Money, Jazzy Jeff, Barry B,
all the great DJs--
God bless the dead-- Master Don,
and DST and all them, they used to do stuff like this.
The gift and the curse of being around
for a long period of time, is there's a period
when all your shit is on the radio,
and then there's a period when it's not.
I wanna get to a little something else.
MAN: Live on Street Life with my man Biz, kicking it.
Cool-ass DJ, MC.
RALPH MCDANIELS: Biz knew music as a DJ.
By the time he became, you know,
like, this kind of corporate DJ that everybody was hiring--
guys like Michael Jordan and all these other people,
you don't wanna seem like, you know, the old guy out there,
and you're just like, "I gotta do something different, man.
I gotta figure out a new way."
And DJing gave him access to the club,
which he still had-- still wanted to do.
MAN: Go ahead, Jada. Go ahead, girl.
[record scratching] Come on, now. Come on, now.
I went to do a surprise party for Jada Pinkett Smith.
I see Biz.
Oh shit, Biz, what's good, baby?
They invited you out too? You performing?
"Nah, I'm DJing."
What?
For what?
"Everything."
Come on, come on
[crowd shouting]
BIZ: How many people ready to party in here?
Throw your hands up in the air.
RAKIM: Biz is the DJ for the entertainers, basically,
and it didn't take long to click.
Like, Biz had every record that, you know what I mean?
If he ain't have it, he knew about it.
So, being a DJ I think was natural for Biz.
I love it. DJing?
They let me-- they paying me
to DJ what I wanna DJ?
Are you crazy?
I will be until my legs fall off.
He was a full entertainer.
Yes.
DJ, rap, enter...
- Host, everything. - He did it all.
Like Big Pun, I don't wanna be a player
I'm forever M-A-R-as in K-I
DJ GEMINI: We as DJs sometimes get caught up on skill,
and these-- all this technical mechanic crap sometimes.
And it was about the show with Biz.
- It was about the fun. - Entertainer.
You know, he didn't DJ for DJs.
- He DJed for the people. - For the people.
- Exactly. - You know what I mean?
NICK: Biz was the DJ of all DJs.
I was like 17 years old carrying Biz's crates
and records from gig to gig.
That was the only way I could get into the parties.
But I just remember in the '90s,
going to the Nickelodeon executives and like,
yo, you've gotta let this dude be on my show.
And clap your hands, come on, it's Nick Cannon
The one and only, you don't know me
But I'm chilling with my homies Big Will and Biz Markie
'Cause he was just that guy that everybody loved.
When he did "Men in Black," I was like, yo.
We right on the edge here.
[device beeping]
Boo!
[beatboxing]
[Biz beatboxing and humming]
Those kind of moments just made sense for him.
He was like a cartoon character.
Here's his "Yo Gabba Gabba!" boat shoe that he wore on tour.
Hey, Mr. Biz.
We were just about to start looking for the star
that's missing from DJ Lance's hat.
Well, I got a super song that just might help.
[all cheering] Wow!
Look around, look around, it's bound to be found
I'll look up high while you look on the ground
On the ground
Look behind the couch
It's gotta be somewhere inside this house
[machine beeping]
Biz has been in this hospital for four months,
and the other hospital for three months.
He has limited mobility since the strokes.
He has a concerning amount of mucus around his lungs,
multiple infections.
It's imperative-- we have to do a tracheotomy.
What does that mean, Dr. Carly?
Will this affect his voice?
Will he be able to talk? Will he able to perform?
Tara, this bed's gonna kill him.
This is our best option.
How far Mr. Hall continues his career
is up to Mr. Hall.
BIZ: We at the best Jamaican restaurant
ever in existence, it's called Genesis.
[beatboxing]
Got to do it good
When we first found out that he was diabetic,
Biz just started saying, "I don't feel good."
And for Biz to say "I don't feel good,"
it's the worst.
So, we wound up taking him to this hospital
out in Central Islip.
And the doctor said, "It's blood sugar.
"He's gonna stroke out.
He's exhausted our meter."
He said, "If I had to guess, his blood sugar's about an 800.
He should be dead."
TARA: And they couldn't believe he was actually walking
and talking with his blood pressure so high.
They told him, "Listen, you know, you gotta lose
a little weight, and I'm sure you have to change your diet."
Well, what Biz thought was,
"Well, if I just cut half of my plate
"and still eat the good things that I wanna eat,
that I'll lose weight," and he did.
That's how he ended up losing close to 200 pounds.
This was after "Celebrity Fit Club."
All right, Biz, your weight tonight...
is 344 pounds.
Ah, I ain't know that.
How do you feel about that?
Don't feel that good.
You know, to his friends, he didn't hide it.
"Yo, I got diabetes." I used to always tell him,
I was like, "Yo, just exercise and eat right, that's it.
"'Cause I know you got that sweet tooth for them cookies,
but you know, you got to lay off 'em."
TRAINER: The biggest challenge for me with Biz
is that he just doesn't know an awful lot about nutrition.
I eat from the roota to the toota.
Cookies, cakes, pudding,
hamburgers, french fries.
All the stuff I love!
TRAINER: So, learning good nutrition
from the ground up can be almost as challenging
as learning a language.
I'm diabetic, man.
You have to get it under control,
'cause you have to be here.
- Six, seven, eight. - I like that, all right.
Come on, girlfriend, walk it out, don't quit.
Don't quit.
Don't give up yet. Come on, Biz!
'Cause onset is a beast.
Onset diabetes, that's what I have.
And I just try to stay on top of it.
I only allow myself 130 carbs a day.
He won, he won all this workout equipment.
I feel good
TARA: And he lost a lot of weight.
WOMAN: Actually, you have surprised all of us,
because in the beginning, we really weren't sure
how committed you were,
but you've turned out to be extremely committed.
[grunting]
TARA: Wow. Biz!
Best birthday.
TARA: Averi made the beautiful cakes.
TARA: He was like a big kid.
It felt like I had two kids
when I had them together.
They played together.
Averi, let's, "Wahh!" Ready?
[both exclaiming]
And this is how we do the James Brown.
Three, two, one, go!
[piano playing]
Yay!
If I, you know, said to Biz,
like, "Okay, you know, you're in town,
"you know, for a couple of days, you know, let's go out,
you know, let's have date night."
And Biz would say, "Okay. Averi, you ready?"
You know, Averi would have to come along too.
They were like two kids.
He was-- he was amazing.
Yo, it's the diabolical Biz Markie.
Come check me out Sunday, June 16th,
at 99 Scott Street.
Open air for the vinyl barbecue. We spinning all 45s.
It's me, Danny Krevitz,
Operator Ms, Miss Behavior, and more.
You can get your tickets at Eventbrite.
Happy Father's Day.
TARA: It was Father's Day.
I remember it was pouring down raining that day.
It was Sunday, it was quiet.
I was upstairs, he was downstairs.
He was kinda laying around, you know, all day,
but I didn't think anything of that.
JEFF: So, he called me, "Oh, listen to this beat I just did.
Yo, I did your girl," and he put Anita Baker on.
And we sitting there vibing.
We laughed, he hung up the phone.
He was laying on the couch, he was sweating profusely.
He just looked like he was disoriented and confused.
And I didn't even ask any questions,
I jumped up, called 911.
And I was just like, please hurry,
there's an emergency here.
OPERATOR: Prince George's County 911 Center.
TARA: My husband is non-responsive.
OPERATOR: Diabetic at all? - Yes, he is.
OPERATOR: He is, okay. Do we know when the last time
his blood sugar was checked?
- No. - Okay.
[sirens wailing] - Are they there?
TARA: Well, yeah, they're here,
but I don't know what they're doing.
OPERATOR: They're probably gonna-- they have to put on
protective equipment before they come in.
[sirens continue]
Yo, Biz, it's your brother.
It's your baby brother, baby. You know what I mean?
Yo, listen, I'm sending my prayers, man.
You know, I just want you to know, yo, I love you, B.
You're a good friend, Biz. I love you.
The B-I-Z would always let DMC in his house
when this motherfucker was drunk off of Olde E.
Hey, Biz, we want-- we rooting for you, brother.
Fast quick recovery.
You already know that you done put a legacy
out in these streets that can never be touched.
And we still here to tell it,
so we want you here to tell it yourself.
I would call him, and they would let me talk to him,
and COVID was a part of why we couldn't see him.
And I would say, "Yo, B, I love you, man," and...
"When you get better...
"we got places to play and places to go.
I got you."
Now, the U.S. rapper Biz Markie has died
at the age of 57.
Born Marcel Hall in New York City,
he was beloved in the music industry.
TRACY: I was in my house, in my office.
And I just stared at the screen
and tried to take in all the information.
He a good cat.
Shit, shit hit me just like it hit me now, bro,
you know what I mean?
You know...
Shit brought me right back here.
And I'm sitting here, man, word up, but...
Yeah, G, they told me, you know, Biz passed away,
and the first thing I thought of
was rhyming in this school, bro.
Meeting him right over here, that's the first shit
that I thought of when they said that shit.
Yeah, I was stuck, you know, for a minute.
'Cause like I said, it's--
for somebody to be constantly in your life since you was 14,
I grew up with him, you know what I'm saying?
Like, so yeah, it was strange.
In hindsight, knowing that the last time
I got a chance to spend some time with him
was he was full of life, he was on stage,
he was having fun at "Wild 'N Out."
I'm the lord of beatboxing, the rap
This goes out to my man...
My last memory of him is a great one.
Rest your soul
Take my hand
Lead me on
And let me stand
I am tired
I mean, you know, hearing about it, man,
I was like, you know...
the first thing came to mind was, you know, um...
Damn.
You know?
Where the fuck would I be right now...
if not for this dude, you know what I mean?
Where would my life be if it wasn't for him?
The person that believed in me, gave me a shot,
gave me a chance.
And now I can't see him no more.
Biz's legacy to me is being yourself.
He wasn't ashamed of who he was.
He knew he was different, and he used it as a strength.
And he entertained the world doing that.
Once Biz passed away
and that became worldwide news,
I said, you know, it would be nice
if we were able to have a street sign named after him
because of his history here in Patchogue
and his contributions to the hip-hop community,
Long Island, New York, and basically the world.
TARA: Decorating his room.
There were so many reasons why I was in the hospital,
but I wanted to humanize him, you know, for the staff.
He wasn't just Patient Number 1234,
he was a real person.
He was a husband, he was a father,
he was an entertainer, he was a friend.
So, every day when I went into the hospital,
I would tell 'em stories about him,
or show them pictures,
or you know, his friends would call on the phone,
and the nurses and doctors would be in the room,
and I'd have 'em on speaker,
just so he would get as much love as possible.
Now, look at him.
[camera clicking]
MAN: Take three, mark.
- Rolling. - Stand by.
- Gigantor. - There you go.
Gigantor.
Any time you arguing about a toy,
"I got the first Gigantor. Nobody got that."
That was his thing, that Gigantor.
PHADE: All up in the Biz.
KANE: Yo, shout out to my brother
that made it possible for me to be here
and to have a career.
Biz Markie, the image of just a friend, no.
Bro, you was way more than just a friend.
SUE: Oh, wow!
- Wow. - Look at that.
Amazing.
Biz Markie have what we need
Your laugh's for the feed, I'm glad to proceed
You wanna know the story, let's begin
He put a lot of effort in
'Cause he was more than just a friend
- We miss you, baby. - Biz Markie
Have what we need
Your laugh's for the feed, I'm glad to proceed
You wanna know the story, let's begin
He put a lot of effort in
'Cause he was more than just a friend
- Wow. - You know the story
About the light and how we shine
Well, listen up, the one
I'm 'bout to tell you 'bout is mine
Sometimes people come inside your life and touch you
Sometimes people come and change things like the budget
Sometimes people see your flaws and don't judge it
And then inspire you to change your life for nothing
- Oh! - It's crazy that the way
That I remember you
When everybody else was saying similar
The way you made 'em laugh and smile
Is not the average child
'Cause homie, that's your style
- RAKIM: Biz being Biz. - You showed many
What they could accomplish
It sounded like nonsense, but then you made us conscious
- You led by example - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
You'd always have the room crying laughing
By attacking with your jokes
- That you spoke frequently - What a tribute.
One love, there can only be one of
The B-I-Z M-A-R-K-I-E eternally
I thought there'd be more to come
Things change, but I'ma still story some
Just thinking 'bout the joy your brung in hip-hop
You was kind of our own Forrest Gump
Touched the lives of many, never strapped on envy
Unique positivity is what your vibe was simply
Every breath of me will be supporting till the end
You gave me what I need and you was more
Than just a friend
Biz Markie have what we need
Your laugh's for the feed, I'm glad to proceed
You wanna know the story, let's begin
He put a lot of effort in
'Cause he was more than just a friend
Biz Markie have what we need
Your laugh's for the feed, I'm glad to proceed
- I love it. - You wanna know the story
Let's begin, he put a lot of effort in
'Cause he was more than just a friend
BIZ: Say what?
Oh, baby, you
You got what I need
You say he's just a friend
And you say he's just a friend
Have you ever met a girl that you tried to date
But a year to make love she wanted you to wait
You hear about hoochie daddy shorts?
He was wearing those back then.
They made you way more buff than you were too.
I don't know about that, man.
Was you in charge of this picture, Biz?
No, like, really? How you got muscles?
I ain't never see you with a muscle.
Love you, brother.
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, check out the bizarre
Dedication that's to my Juice Crew all-star brother
The B-I-Z M-A-R-K
In any situation he could brighten your day
He loved hip-hop, always up at Latin Quarters
And that "Vapors" video, he showed all the reporters
The story on how people thought he was kinda strange
Then he dropped "Make the Music"
And that opinion changed
Followed that up with "Nobody Beats the Biz"
"Pickin' Boogers" only proved he's a wiz, you couldn't quiz
Especially with that album, he was going off
Could tell he was an artist cut by a different cloth
Up at the rooftop sporting Dapper Dan
Shut the party down when the mic touches his hand
Always had exclusive things, was like a gift
Sometimes I hear his voice, "Bet you ain't got this"
Show him something, he be like, "I got that too"
Show pride when he beatboxed in "Men in Black 2"
And you ain't wanna challenge him to a snaps session
I tried it once and quickly, man, I learned that lesson
The tears couldn't stop when I got that phone call
Remember the last show I had at Sony Hall
Keeled over laughing from jokes he told me
He was more than just a friend that I showed the door three
Losing him was really a tough pill to swallow
Remember that stage prop he used at the Apollo
Used to stand in awe every time he killed shows
Crazy how we slide right out that big nose
"Yo Gabba Gabba!" entertaining the kids
"SpongeBob SquarePants," it makes you flip your wig
Something for the radio, Biz Mark forever
Now him and Heavy D are writing songs together
'Gether, 'gether
Okay, now I'm gonna talk about, like,
some real stuff right now.
I know, you know, Biz was an amazing person.
This was so important for me to let people know
what happened to Biz in the last year of his life.
It's so important for me to let you know
that he was not alone.
I was with him every single day.
He didn't die alone.
He went with love.
But unfortunately, after Biz died,
there's a lot of people that shocked me...
that, number one, tried to sue him.
Misappropriated some of his funds.
It all wasn't so pretty.
But you know, Biz fought for a whole year for his life.
And I'm gonna continue that fight until my last breath.