Biz Markie Was More Than “Just a Friend” (GQ)

What does it mean to be a clown prince? In the hip-hop space, rappers Flavor Flav and the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard (not to mention Humpty Hump) found themselves saddled with the sobriquet. Morris Day’s comical persona in R&B never quite rose to clownish proportions, but came close. The term is defined as “a coarse, clumsy, rude person” and the backhanded compliment of “royalty when it comes to fools.” An idiot, some say.

The diabolical Biz Markie was nobody’s idiot.

Marcel Theo Hall, known worldwide as the rapper Biz Markie, died in a Baltimore hospital on Friday of an undisclosed cause, after a decade-long battle with Type 2 diabetes. He was 57. Known as the jocular beatboxing MC who helped bring success to hip-hop’s Cold Chillin’ Records label of the late 1980s, Biz stood at the center of the Juice Crew: the loosely knit rap supergroup featuring Big Daddy Kane, Roxanne Shanté and MC Shan. Biz was also an accomplished DJ and made memorable cameos on film—including Men in Black II and the children’s series, Yo Gabba Gabba! Though most familiar for wailing off-key while wearing a Mozart wig in the visual for 1989’s “Just a Friend” (a Top 10 hit), Biz deserves accolades for far more than that one moment in the pop culture sunshine.