Biz Markie

Marcel Theo Hall — known to the world as Biz Markie, the Clown Prince of Hip-Hop — was born on the eighth of April 1964 in Harlem, New York City. His early years were marked by loss: his mother died when he was very young, and his father was unable to care for him. From 1973 he was raised in foster care, in the loving home of Eloise Parker, for whom he remained thankful all his life. He grew up on Long Island, in Brentwood and Patchogue, and graduated from Longwood High School in Middle Island in 1982.

He came up through New York's nightclubs, prized first for a rubber-limbed gift for beatboxing, then for a warm, comic rapping voice all his own. He became a pillar of the Juice Crew collective and signed to Cold Chillin' Records, where his humor and heart set him apart in hip-hop's golden age.

In 1989 "Just a Friend," from the album The Biz Never Sleeps, carried him to No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and to platinum certification — its off-key, joyful chorus becoming one of the most beloved singles the genre has ever produced. In 1991 the landmark case Grand Upright Music, Ltd. v. Warner Bros. Records, over his track "Alone Again," reshaped the industry by requiring samples to be cleared before release.

He carried his warmth into television and film for decades — Men in Black II, Yo Gabba Gabba!, Empire — and died on the sixteenth of July 2021 in Baltimore, from complications of type 2 diabetes, at fifty-seven. A foster son who became a family to millions, Biz Markie is honored: the joyful voice who taught the world that a friend, and a laugh, can outlast us all.