Biz Markie’s knack for gracing a hip-hop track with vivid lyrics and his trademark beatboxing has swayed countless amounts of fans around the globe for over 20 years.
And as Markie, born Marcell Hall, famously professed on his 1988 track “Nobody Beats The Biz,” when it comes to rocking parties he is “a nymphomaniac, brainiac for doing” his dance, which is something he has been doing more frequently this year as he celebrates his 50th birthday and the 25th anniversary of his classic hit “Just A Friend.”
Since its release in 1989, “Just A Friend” has gone on to etch its mark in pop culture, resonating every few years with a new generation of fans. The song has turned up in various advertising campaigns and provided the chorus for teen singer Austin Mahone’s 2012 hit “Say You’re Just A Friend.”
In a recent interview with The Huffington Post, Markie said that recording the notable track — which interpolates Freddie Scott’s “(You) Got What I Need” — took a full five years, due to Markie’s quest to find the song’s hard-hitting drums. That search eventually concluded thanks to Markie’s close friends, the hip-hop pioneers Grand Wizzard Theodore and Danny Dan the Beatman.
“I was looking for the drums since ’84, but I never knew the name of them,” Markie told HuffPost. “Grand Wizzard Theodore brought me to Danny Dan the Beatman’s house. So we were playing around and made a tape.”
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Read More At The Huffington Post.
