Biz Markie, known for his hit single Just a Friend, passed away on Friday. According to Billboard, his cause of death has yet to be announced, although he had been hospitalized back in April of 2020 due to his complications with diabetes and even suffered a stroke while he was in his diabetic coma last year. He was 57 at the time of his passing.
Biz Markie’s Early Life
Biz Markie was born Marcel Theo Hall on April 8, 1964 in New York, New York. He originally started as a DJ going around a lot of New York nightclubs, but eventually, he would start performing and instead of just performing at nightclubs, he started performing in colleges in the “Virginia-D.C.-Maryland-Philly college circuit.”
The Biz Never Sleeps
The rapper got started in 1988 when he dropped his debut album Goin’ Off. It wasn’t until his follow-up album, The Biz Never Sleeps, that Biz Markie would take the world by storm with his still hit single, Just a Friend.
Just a Friend was all over the charts through the late 80s, but reached its apex in 1990 when it hit No. 9 on the Hot Rap Songs. His last album, I Need a Haircut, was released in 1991.
Back in May of 2019 Biz Markie did an interview with The Washington Post where he touched on the origins of his name:
Biz Markie made rapping fun, it seemed to be his goal to bring as much goofiness to the rap game as he possibly could; mission accomplished.
