What up Preme! What chu know about shopping for gear at the downtown Seattle Army Navy store with Biz and Big Chan? Remember how funny that day was!!!!!! LOL
that story ended up in another thread didn't it? shame, that made me laugh my ass off. find it and repost chan!
I also met biz that day, briefly - we had a 40 minute discussion about breaks - everything i named he just went "I WAS THE FIRST TO SAMPLE THAT". what even the skull snaps? I WAS THE FIRST. He said many hella funny things. He showed how to make a tom-tom noise by hitting your head and stretching the skin of your neck. I think the suitcase came up too.
I tried to find the thread where Hawkeye interviews Questlove about the Mardi Gras without the bells to bump it, but no luck. If you haven't seen Questlove go into great detail about this, it's here: Questlove interview (including a pretty decent Biz impersonation)
I'm into day 2 hanging out with Biz... and got the show on tomorrow night, and I got some stories to tell, but I'll wait till after the tour to post up... damn... ahhaha...
I get a random phone call from a couple of excited young white friends. They tell me they got the hookup for a Biz show here in Vegas at the RIO... OF COURSE they ironically want to see Biz. They don't know Biz like I do, but of course I gotta go. Free Biz Markie is an opportunity I can't just skip out on.
The place is this big empty showfloor in the RIO Casino, a theater that used to be Prince's private showroom, but now it's just another waste of space in a Casino. The Biz is up there spinning a boring drakey chingy jeezy rappy serato set.
For some odd reason Biz is spinning at about 9:00 for Vegas this is really really early. He's got the whole mouth open / disinterested facial expression staring into a laptop screen. We take a couple pictures, and he lazily puts his hands up to signify he's in the same room with us.
His Djing sounds exactly like him going through his Ipod on shuffle looking for a song he wants to hear. Not exactly blending or listening to the tracks. Just kind of skipping through tracks. So then he walks off stage for a bit into the audience gives a couple people daps while somebody else gets on the decks and then he just walks out the entrance of the club and leaves.
One in a Million. Nobody Beats The Biz! We can consider ourselves lucky that we were on this planet when he was here. These stories should be put in a book together with even more stories we haven't heard yet. "Biz Stories". RIP to one of the greatest and most original people in this thing called (HipHop) culture.
With all the stories people shared here I just keep thinking of how the dude was a walking source of comedy and joy even OUTSIDE all his music.
And charisma! I remember hearing him covering "Benny and the Jetts" in the most out-of-key, mush-mouthed forgetting the lyrics kind of style, just absolutely terrible singing by conventional standards, and the crowd going APESHIT like it was the beatles on ed sullivan or some shit. I still think that's the best version of that song I ever heard.
I've always loved how Elton John was apparently horrified by his version of Bennie and The Jets, as if Bennie and The Jets were some kind of masterpiece
I've always loved how Elton John was apparently horrified by his version of Bennie and The Jets, as if Bennie and The Jets were some kind of masterpiece
EJ thinks his own feces are masterpieces. He takes himself far too seriously.
And to be fair, I think he's the first to admit it.
Great Biz stories. The Earth would be a much better place for more Bizzes.
, Biz, one of the many people I shared the conversation with, messaged me on Myspace saying he wanted to talk to me and to leave my number so he could call. After leaving him my number he called an hour later and told me that he agreed with everything I said and that he was glad that somebody wasn't afraid to speak up. He said if he would have expressed himself in the same way, people would just label him the "angry rapper". After that topic Biz proceeded to ask me what types of collectibles I had. Being a dj and record collector he knew I had other items related to hip hop. At the time, I has one of the biggest and illest vintage toy and music memorabilia collections you could find and Biz wanted to hear about it all. When I got to the point of mentioning my rap toys and memorabilia, every time I mentioned something related to him he would say, "aw man, I would have sent you that for free". Lol. Now for the record, I am a huge Biz fan at first saw him live in 1987 on the Dope Jam Tour. I"ve actually seen him live at least 10 times over the years and have most every record he put out so I don't want this to sound disrespectful. Biz was a big time liar.(Lol!) Throughout our 3 hour conversation, I caught him in several lies regarding various toys, collectibles, and records. To this day I've only heard one other person call him out and that was in a rap magazine (from Europe I think). Regardless, he is one serious collector. He even asked me about what type of old audio/video rap footage I had in my collection. I've met Biz several times over the years and he was always a cool dude. When he unleashed his mini Technique turntables to the world in New York some years back, I was there and it was crazy! Him and his homie walked into the park and his homie was pulling this big case with wheels on one end of it. Nobody thought much of it, we all thought it was just his records, needles, headphones, etc. Then, BOOM! Like I said, crazy!
The kids loved Biz and Biz loved the kids. I really miss that guy.
, Biz, one of the many people I shared the conversation with, messaged me on Myspace saying he wanted to talk to me and to leave my number so he could call. After leaving him my number he called an hour later and told me that he agreed with everything I said and that he was glad that somebody wasn't afraid to speak up. He said if he would have expressed himself in the same way, people would just label him the "angry rapper". After that topic Biz proceeded to ask me what types of collectibles I had. Being a dj and record collector he knew I had other items related to hip hop. At the time, I has one of the biggest and illest vintage toy and music memorabilia collections you could find and Biz wanted to hear about it all. When I got to the point of mentioning my rap toys and memorabilia, every time I mentioned something related to him he would say, "aw man, I would have sent you that for free". Lol. Now for the record, I am a huge Biz fan at first saw him live in 1987 on the Dope Jam Tour. I"ve actually seen him live at least 10 times over the years and have most every record he put out so I don't want this to sound disrespectful. Biz was a big time liar.(Lol!) Throughout our 3 hour conversation, I caught him in several lies regarding various toys, collectibles, and records. To this day I've only heard one other person call him out and that was in a rap magazine (from Europe I think). Regardless, he is one serious collector. He even asked me about what type of old audio/video rap footage I had in my collection. I've met Biz several times over the years and he was always a cool dude. When he unleashed his mini Technique turntables to the world in New York some years back, I was there and it was crazy! Him and his homie walked into the park and his homie was pulling this big case with wheels on one end of it. Nobody thought much of it, we all thought it was just his records, needles, headphones, etc. Then, BOOM! Like I said, crazy!
The kids loved Biz and Biz loved the kids. I really miss that guy.
Hell yeah, thanks for sharing. Biz was undoubtedly a bit of a put-on artist (so many stories of him just saying "got it!" to every rarity and obscurity ) but also a total collecting heavyweight at the same time. He had nothing to prove with what he'd done musically and with the DJ career, the insane gigs he played, but for some reason the collector urge to front like you have it all still comes out in a lot of these memories of him. RIP
Comments
that story ended up in another thread didn't it? shame, that made me laugh my ass off. find it and repost chan!
I also met biz that day, briefly - we had a 40 minute discussion about breaks - everything i named he just went "I WAS THE FIRST TO SAMPLE THAT". what even the skull snaps? I WAS THE FIRST. He said many hella funny things. He showed how to make a tom-tom noise by hitting your head and stretching the skin of your neck. I think the suitcase came up too.
Questlove interview
(including a pretty decent Biz impersonation)
This one needs to stay near the top. This must be on tons of peoples favorites list!
I'm excited to see what Sheep has to say.
I get a random phone call from a couple of excited young white friends. They tell me they got the hookup for a Biz show here in Vegas at the RIO... OF COURSE they ironically want to see Biz. They don't know Biz like I do, but of course I gotta go. Free Biz Markie is an opportunity I can't just skip out on.
The place is this big empty showfloor in the RIO Casino, a theater that used to be Prince's private showroom, but now it's just another waste of space in a Casino. The Biz is up there spinning a boring drakey chingy jeezy rappy serato set.
For some odd reason Biz is spinning at about 9:00 for Vegas this is really really early. He's got the whole mouth open / disinterested facial expression staring into a laptop screen. We take a couple pictures, and he lazily puts his hands up to signify he's in the same room with us.
His Djing sounds exactly like him going through his Ipod on shuffle looking for a song he wants to hear. Not exactly blending or listening to the tracks. Just kind of skipping through tracks. So then he walks off stage for a bit into the audience gives a couple people daps while somebody else gets on the decks and then he just walks out the entrance of the club and leaves.
The elusive Biz Markie strikes again.
- spidey
I did that, it's still there.
Just found out about Biz's stroke and coma today via instagram. I hope he will recover soon.
Any new Biz stories ?
Let's hope Biz can get better and bless us with some more
RIP to the Inhuman Orchestra
And charisma! I remember hearing him covering "Benny and the Jetts" in the most out-of-key, mush-mouthed forgetting the lyrics kind of style, just absolutely terrible singing by conventional standards, and the crowd going APESHIT like it was the beatles on ed sullivan or some shit. I still think that's the best version of that song I ever heard.
RIP
EJ thinks his own feces are masterpieces. He takes himself far too seriously.
And to be fair, I think he's the first to admit it.
Great Biz stories. The Earth would be a much better place for more Bizzes.
Back in 2007 Fab 5 Freddy and I were trading blows on Myspace regarding the VH1 Hip Hop Honors show, (you can check that story out here:
https://adventures-of-darrell-d.blogspot.com/2015/11/darrell-d-vs-fab-5-freddy_23.html
, Biz, one of the many people I shared the conversation with, messaged me on Myspace saying he wanted to talk to me and to leave my number so he could call. After leaving him my number he called an hour later and told me that he agreed with everything I said and that he was glad that somebody wasn't afraid to speak up. He said if he would have expressed himself in the same way, people would just label him the "angry rapper".
After that topic Biz proceeded to ask me what types of collectibles I had. Being a dj and record collector he knew I had other items related to hip hop. At the time, I has one of the biggest and illest vintage toy and music memorabilia collections you could find and Biz wanted to hear about it all. When I got to the point of mentioning my rap toys and memorabilia, every time I mentioned something related to him he would say, "aw man, I would have sent you that for free". Lol.
Now for the record, I am a huge Biz fan at first saw him live in 1987 on the Dope Jam Tour. I"ve actually seen him live at least 10 times over the years and have most every record he put out so I don't want this to sound disrespectful. Biz was a big time liar.(Lol!) Throughout our 3 hour conversation, I caught him in several lies regarding various toys, collectibles, and records. To this day I've only heard one other person call him out and that was in a rap magazine (from Europe I think). Regardless, he is one serious collector. He even asked me about what type of old audio/video rap footage I had in my collection.
I've met Biz several times over the years and he was always a cool dude. When he unleashed his mini Technique turntables to the world in New York some years back, I was there and it was crazy! Him and his homie walked into the park and his homie was pulling this big case with wheels on one end of it. Nobody thought much of it, we all thought it was just his records, needles, headphones, etc. Then, BOOM! Like I said, crazy!
The kids loved Biz and Biz loved the kids. I really miss that guy.