All Up in the Biz

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Biz Markie was the clown prince of hip

hop.

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He paved his own way in the industry and

in turn opened doors for future legends.

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He was like a big kid and larger than

life.

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Even in death.

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Nobody beats the biz.

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Nobody beats the Biz

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the Biz.

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But what was the late, great Biz Markie

really like?

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Welcome to Hip Hop Movie Club.

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This is a show for Gen X hip hop fans who

want to relive the glory days and

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reconsider classic and modern hip hop

films from a current day perspective.

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Together we'll explore some of the larger

societal issues raised in these films.

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If you've

seen today's movie before, then you'll

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learn some fascinating trivia you might

have missed.

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If you haven't seen today's movie before,

then we'll help you decide whether this

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film is worth your time.

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Either way, you'll be a smarter hip hop

fan by the end of this episode.

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The next 30 minutes or so, you'll get all

this and more.

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We're three old heads who put their old

heads together to vibe on these films for

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you.

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I'm DynoWright, podcaster, filmmaker,

long time hip hop fan, and I got to see

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Biz Markie make a surprise appearance at a

Beastie Boys / Tribe Called Quest show.

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I'm JB, 80s and 90s nostalgia junkie, long

time hip hop fan, and Special Ed’s, “I'm the

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Magnificent” is one of my all time favorite

tracks, and I will often jokingly sing the

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first verse when fake bragging about

something with my family.

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I'm Boogie, a DJ, long time hip hop fan.

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I've seen Biz Markie perform as an MC

during I Love the 90s tour and also as a

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DJ for a concert we held at Rider

University.

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Ooh.

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In this episode, we'll answer the

question, was Biz Markie more than just

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a friend?

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All Up In The Biz is a documentary movie

celebrating the life and impact of the

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beloved Biz Markie.

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The playful Biz left an indelible mark on

the world of hip hop and all those who he

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encountered including other hip hop

legends such as Rakim, Big Daddy Kane,

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Doug E. Fresh, and entertainers Tracy

Morgan and Nick Cannon.

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All Up In The Biz is available for viewing

on Showtime or for purchase on Amazon

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Prime Video.

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All right, let's get right into it.

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Boogie, what did you learn about

Biz Markie’s upbringing from this episode

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that you didn't know prior?

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Yeah, so most of what I knew about Biz

Markie was that he was from Long Island.

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But what I didn't realize is that he was

originally from Harlem and he lived there

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until he was 10 years old.

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And he said, after his mom passed away,

his family ended up homeless.

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And then Biz ended up in foster care.

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And he said, he became good at snapping on

people because people would always try to

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test him.

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And he said, he knew how to close doors.

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and didn't share too many aspects of his

upbringing.

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I guess it was a little traumatic for him.

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I said one of the first tapes he heard was

the L Brothers from the Bronx.

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I was like, okay, that's throwback right

there.

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And he heard Busy B rhyming and said, you

know what, I'm gonna make my name Busy Biz

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Markie.

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And I was like, that's kind of dope.

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But yeah, I liked that he used to roll

with the Groove Line crew.

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I heard them mention like,

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before, but I didn't hear too much about

them until this documentary.

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And then also, one of the things that I

caught was that we were talking about the

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Vapors.

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I knew that it was actually a true story,

but the actual name of the Source Crew,

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that was actually their name.

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I was like, oh, he used the actual name in

the video.

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So that was, that was, I was a little wild

right there.

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Great stuff.

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DynoWright, any comments about upbringing

of Biz Markie that you'd learned?

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I mean, I didn't really know anything

about Biz Markie, surprisingly.

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And so everything was new to me.

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It was, I'm glad they talked about his

struggle to get noticed and how he, he was

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doing the dozens and he was snapping and

what he got accepted.

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People accepted him.

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So his persistence went a long way.

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Yeah, I learned about, I guess,

non-traditional upbringing with multiple

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foster siblings.

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And he was always a character, they were

saying, a couple of the foster siblings

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were saying.

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One of the first things he said to them

was, I'm allergic to grass and medically,

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I need to wear Pro-Keds.

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That's a medical condition.

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And when he was running around, like

playing football or whatever, he would

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literally run in slow motion.

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Like he was always hamming it up.

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Yeah.

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That was funny.

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Some of the interesting facts about

Biz Markie or insight into how he was, was

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that playful nature.

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I loved seeing how he was such a major

collector of all things retro.

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Always wanted to say, I bet you don't

have this or have the first one of these

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ever made.

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That was awesome to see.

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You guys pick up on some of those things

as well?

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Absolutely.

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The Charlie's Angels figures.

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I'm a big Charlie’s Angels fan from, from

the seventies.

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Totally down with this.

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The Rock'em Sock'em Robots that he was

saying, you know, I still got my Rock'em

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Sock'em Robots up in the attic so I can

relate to that.

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And I'm a collector of things too.

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I got old Transformers and G.I.

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Joe figures and Silverhawks and He-Man and

all that stuff.

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Yeah, got a bunch of that stuff upstairs.

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And then Biz Markie's widow was holding up

that 70s electronic handheld football

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game.

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I loved that game so much.

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It was a great game, Electronic

Quarterback.

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Oh man, my brother and I on these long car

rides, we would play that back and forth.

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It was just the red dashes, how you would

go behind the defender and you can pass

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through the one defender.

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Hours and hours we would play on that

thing.

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I wish I had that again.

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I knew they did re-release it like a few

years back.

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I gotta, you can get that.

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That was cool.

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Yeah, my cousins and I had various

versions.

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We had football, baseball, soccer.

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Those games were cool.

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It's like, it's so entertaining.

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It's so funny when you look at it now, now

an app on your phone is like so much

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better.

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Compare that to like Subway Surfer app or

one of these things that the kids have.

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And you're like, Oh my God, I can't

believe we were entertained by these

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dashes and dots, but we were.

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Weird.

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Hahaha.

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Yeah, and I'm so addicted to Subway

Surfer.

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So I'm like laughing on the inside when

you said that I play like every day.

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Oh, that's a great.

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That's mad fun.

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That's funny.

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Any other interesting facts about

Biz Markie’s

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come up.

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That you picked up on.

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Yeah, I think like I knew that he was

generally like throughout the hip hop

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community, but it was just cool to see how

he made friends by traveling all over the

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place and meeting artists.

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It started off how he used to go

from school to school, like performing

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la-di-da-di, which is kind of funny

because I'm like, dude, you got on by

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perpetrating.

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And then he's saying, you know what?

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Yeah, that was...

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I was like, he lied!

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He was a liar.

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He said that was his song.

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So it was like a fake it to make it.

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They said he was faking it till he makes

it.

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He would go to the schools and start

performing La Di Da Di and saying it was his

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song.

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Aw man, that's hilarious.

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And I like how Rakim said how he walked up

to Wyandanch and just started beatboxing.

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Rakim was like, oh, that's a beat.

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And then he just walked over and started

freestyling on the beat.

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And they just started bonding over that

and he started traveling all over Long

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Island and different boroughs.

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And it was funny because as they were

interviewing different people, everybody

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was just kind of saying the same thing.

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I don't know, he just kind of appeared.

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He was just there.

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He just kinda appeared.

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He was just there.

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Like nobody can really pinpoint where he

just popped before the scene.

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It's like he just was there all of a

sudden.

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And it was cool.

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Like, you know, Doug E. Fresh was talking

about how they became friends and how he

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just popped up at his house and just was

hanging out.

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He just kept coming back.

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Dapper Dan had, you know,

similar stories.

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It's like, that was kind of cool.

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Like he just...

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He just became so beloved because he was

so personal and just wanted to meet

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people.

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That was really cool.

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That was the most impressive aspect of

this for me, is his hustle that he had.

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He was an MC and then he fell in love with

Doug E. Fresh's beatboxing and he said,

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teach me how, and he would show up at his

house every day for like three weeks and

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just study him and learn the beatboxing

techniques.

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And then later on when that quote unquote

scandal came about with the sampling and

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he got in trouble for the sampling.

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He's like, that's it, I'm done with this.

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I'm gonna learn how to DJ.

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And he became a world renowned DJ, huge

corporate parties, huge celebrities would

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invite him.

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He just taught himself how to spin and he

just kept reinventing himself, which was

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incredible.

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That sampling controversy was the song

“Alone Again” by Gilbert O'Sullivan, the

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lawsuit.

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It was a shame because he was denied to

clear the sample, but he just proceeded to

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use it anyway.

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Some said that he should have just asked

for forgiveness rather than permission,

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like instead of just use it.

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Cause back then, if he didn't know, how

much hip hop is Gilbert O'Sullivan

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listening to?

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And it wasn't like there was social media.

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Like he may not even got word that song

was out.

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So sometimes it's better just go for it.

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Right, there's a lot of groups that

sampled a ton of stuff back then that they

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got through before the sanctions really

started coming out.

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Yup.

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But I think that soured him to the whole

record industry and then transitioning to

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a DJ and he made it to the top of the rung

there.

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Yup.

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He used to, I've seen clips of him.

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He used to DJ sets using just 45 records.

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So he would just have 45s.

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And he had a pair of custom made Technics 1200s that just for 45s.

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And I'm like, wow, like.

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I don't even know how much money it cost

to get those because just to get a pair of

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Technics 1200 by themself, you will run a

bit at least, you know, if you want to get

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a new pair, you're gonna run at least a

grand.

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Or so you're looking at 500, at least 500

up and then you get them customized for

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the 45s.

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I'm like, wow, that's crazy.

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But he's an amazing, he was an amazing DJ.

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Yeah, I love his story of how he emerged.

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And like you said, he just showed up

everywhere when he got tied in with this

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Mix Master Mike and Dave, the promoters.

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And then I love the story how he met Big

Daddy Kane over at Albee Square in

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Brooklyn.

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And he, at first he came there to battle

him.

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And then he's like joking around with

them.

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He's like, listen, I got to introduce you

to these guys.

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Mike and Dave gets Big Daddy Kane on the

shows.

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It gets his name out there.

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And he says, I'll get you a record deal.

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He just kind of threw it out there and he

followed through with it.

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Craziest thing too, is that Biz entered

Rakim in an MC contest in Harlem and Rakim

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did not win that contest.

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I'm like, how does he not win MC contests?

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Seems impossible!

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I need to find who this guy is that beat him and we gotta

hear some of his stuff.

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Come on now.

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And Rakim was yeah.

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He said the guy's name, I forget what it

was.

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Yeah, he did.

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I can't remember.

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He said he saw.

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Yeah, he said it was in his, you know, he

was in Harlem.

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So that probably had a little sway to it,

but still.

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Rakim we talking about!

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Exactly.

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And Biz hooked up Big Daddy Kane with

Marley Marl.

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Everybody Marley Marl was, you know, he

wanted to, he was, he had so much

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influence back then.

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He was the guy to go see and Biz had that

direct contact with him.

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Um, I love this one quote that Jazzy Jeff

put out there.

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He said, Marley Marl was Dre before Dre

and the Juice crew was Wu Tang before Wu

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Tang.

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That one stuck with me.

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Yeah, yeah, the Juice crew, they was a

conglomerate of just raw hip hop talent.

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Like all of them have bars, every one of

them.

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They all have bars, all of them.

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I mean, Shan and Craig G and Kool G and

Shante and Biz.

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Like they all, and then Kane on the scene,

like Masta Ace, they all, all of them had

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rhyme skills.

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This for days, bars.

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And like Marley Marl was like a super

producer back then.

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And he had such reach because he had

direct line to WBLS.

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So whatever he had, he got direct line to

the airwaves with no middleman.

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That was crazy.

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That you could put, you could cut a song

with him and it'll be on the radio the

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same day.

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And they had tie into Uncle Ralph

McDaniels with Music Video Box.

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Cold Chillin' Records was born out of

this.

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And then, Biz’s influence was not only

in, you know, the hip hop music industry.

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You see Nick Cannon knew him from, used to

carry crates for him, I think.

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And Biz taught Nick Cannon how to charm the

women.

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And now the amount of kids he has, he did

a good job.

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I had to throw something like that out

there.

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Oh man.

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