Famous for “Just a Friend”
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New York rapper Biz Markie has died
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Biz Markie at the 2018 premiere of the Netflix movie “Roxanne Roxanne” in New York.
Photo: dpa/Andy Kropa
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New York The music scene in New York is in mourning: the US rapper Biz Markie, whose greatest hit was “Just a Friend” in 1989, is dead. The musician died on Friday evening at the age of 57 in the presence of his wife Tara.
The manager Jenni Izumi confirmed to the broadcaster CNN and other US media. There was initially no information on the cause of death.
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Markie was nicknamed “The Diabolical” and was also known as the “Clown Prince of Hip Hop” because of his funny lyrics. He was born with the real name Marcel Theo Hall in 1964 in the Harlem district of New York and grew up on Long Island just outside the city.
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Originally known as a beatbox artist, he was part of the genre-defining Juice Crew. In 1998 he also had a guest appearance in the song “Will Smith, Meer Gayne” by the German group Fünf Sterne Deluxe. He was hospitalized in 2020 because of severe diabetes.
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Biz Markie’s death marks the latest in a long line of rap artists to die in the past few months. The best-known case: Earl Simmons, known as DMX and with tracks like “Ruff Ryder’s Anthem” or “X Gon ‘Give It To Ya” a superstar in the industry at the turn of the millennium. His death at the age of 50 on April 9 after a heart attack and days of artificial respiration caused great consternation among fans and colleagues.
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On April 17th, the rapper Black Rob (“Whoa”), who became known at the side of P. Diddy, died at the age of 51. Gift of Gab, born in 1971 and co-founder of the duo Blackalicious, died on June 18th of kidney problems.
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In recent years, however, violent deaths of stars of the genre have made headlines again and again: King Von (hit album: “Welcome to O’Block”), who died in November 2020 after a shooting in Atlanta, was only 26 years old. In March 2019, at the age of 33, Nipsey Hussle was shot dead outside his Los Angeles clothing store. These shooting dramas brought back memories of the 1990s, when the murders of Tupac Shakur, 25, and Notorious BIG, 24, kept the music world in suspense.
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“We mourn a real Harlem son tonight,” wrote New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Twitter on the death of Biz Markie. With a typical New York sense of humor, he turned hip-hop on its head.
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