| I wasn’t supposed to sing the [chorus]. I asked people to sing the part, and nobody showed up at the studio, so I did it myself. |
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Biz Markie in Kensington, London, April 6, 1988.
(David Corio/Redferns/Getty Images)
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“I wasn’t supposed to sing the [chorus]. I asked people to sing the part, and nobody showed up at the studio, so I did it myself.”
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Jester Friend
History will remember him as the court jester of hip-hop, as the singer of the most gloriously off-key chorus in pop chart history and as the guy who got an entire genre in trouble by sampling the piano intro to an Irish singer-songwriter's weirdly catchy song about loneliness, depression and suicide without asking the Irish singer-songwriter if he'd be cool with it. "Act first, ask for permission later" is how the titans of business and tech disruption put it these days, but BIZ MARKIE wasn't particularly trying to disrupt anyone or anything, he was just trying to make Biz Markie music in an era where rules were being written and rewritten on the fly and record companies were going to battle against other record companies.
Biz Markie music was funny, witty, joyful, sometimes silly—OK, often silly—with big, bold old-school beats. He was old school himself, one of the most engaging and lovable of rap's pioneers. He could boast and toast with the best of 'em but he wasn't particularly looking to fight the power, unless that power stood between him and a toilet seat or between him and a booger that needed to be picked. Or between him and a great ELTON JOHN song. Or him a HELEN REDDY record. There's no shame in being an unabashed pop fan, and there should be no shame in being a court jester either, especially if you're good at it. LITTLE RICHARD was a court jester. The BEASTIE BOYS were court jesters. LIL NAS X is a court jester. Court jesters are often three steps ahead of everyone else, using humor to trojan horse their way through the closely guarded doors of cultural gatekeepers. Jest first, ask for acceptance later, or something like that. The Biz, Rolling Stone's ROB SHEFFIELD writes, was "a jester with soul."
The first three Biz Markie albums—made with lyrical help from his friend BIG DADDY KANE but with charisma, presence and rapping and beatboxing skills that are entirely his—are classics. They're also absent from the streaming world, with a single greatest-hits record serving in their stead, and I confess I'm not sure if that's a vestige of Biz's infamous legal battle with GILBERT O'SULLIVAN (and related sampling issues), an unrelated issue with his label, COLD CHILLIN' RECORDS, or just poor catalog management. But I'll note that album number four, the one pointedly and amusingly titled ALL SAMPLES CLEARED!, is missing too. The singles remain. "NOBODY BEATS THE BIZ." "VAPORS." And of course "JUST A FRIEND," the top 10 hit he swears he wasn't trying to have, the wobbly vocal that inspired future generations of non-singing rappers to sing anyway, except that he, unlike them, didn't have access to Auto-Tune, and his, therefore, is 10 times more memorable. "Just a Friend" is shameless, beautiful and deeply heartfelt. It serves as its own karaoke version. And it afforded its wobbly singer a long second career of syncs and TV and movie gigs, while the rest of us got to keep feeling that joy. Not nearly long enough though. RIP.
Free Falling
It's "freedom day" in the UK. Covid-19 restrictions were more or less lifted at 12:01 am local time today, despite general confusion about what that means and despite evidence from elsewhere in Europe that it might not be such a great idea. More on this in the coming days, probably, but for now, do the photos in this NME roundup of reopening night for clubs cheer you, scare you or a little bit of both?
Got You in Its Sway
Mary's dress, it sways. It does not wave. That's the shocking (to some) official word from JON LANDAU, co-producer of BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN's "THUNDER ROAD," the song with the (we are now told) swaying, not waving, dress, which became the subject of a rock and roll Yanny/Laurel debate thanks to a July 3 tweet from the New York Times' MAGGIE HABERMAN. Landau, who is also Springsteen's longtime manager, seemingly settled the debate with an email to the New Yorker's DAVID REMNICK that backs Haberman's sway-ish reading of the song's opening line while contradicting the wave-like beliefs of a sizable chunk of Springsteen's fanbase (not to mention the printed lyrics on the BORN TO RUN album, which are now officially a "typo").
Me, I might've been swayed by the pronouncement from this seemingly definitive source if he hadn't added, in his email to Remnick, "By the way, 'dresses' do not know how to 'wave.'" By logical extension, that argument would require us to reject everything we thought we knew about LED ZEPPELIN (because, by the way, "heaven" is not accessible by "stairway") and LIL NAS X (because "Gucci" does not make "cowboy hats"). That's two steps too far from me. I will continue to sing "waves" both in the shower and in the arena at my next Springsteen show. You, like Bruce, are free to sing whatever you want. Just make sure it has a long A.
Etc Etc Etc
The overnight headlines are saying, not inaccurately, that BILL ACKMAN's special purpose acquisition company, PERSHING SQUARE TONTINE HOLDINGS, has pulled out of a blockbuster deal to buy 10 percent of UNIVERSAL MUSIC. And then, in smaller print, a little further down the page, they mention that an Ackman-controlled hedge fund, PERSHING SQUARE HOLDINGS, is now in line to buy up to 10 percent of Universal instead. Which suggests the deal won't be as innovative as Ackman was hoping it would be but the news isn't as shocking as the headlines want you to be believe it is. Universal, it appears, is still likely to get the investment, and the shareholders in Ackman's SPAC, who had expressed skepticism in the deal, get to breathe a little easier. An above-the-fold story for SPAC newsletters; below-the-fold for everyone else... One more thing about Biz Markie: He was a passionate, knowledgeable, serious collector of music and other collectible things. This is a great tribute from QUESTLOVE, who knows a thing or two about collecting himself. "Biz built me man," he writes... Did "BUTTER" butter butter?... JASON HIRSCHHORN goes down a "BEHIND THE MASK" rabbit hole, following a favorite song's improbable decade-long journey from RYUICHI SAKAMOTO to MICHAEL JACKSON and ERIC CLAPTON (who, speaking of rabbit holes, doesn't appear to believe in masks, but that's another rabbit hole for another day).
Rest in Peace
THERESA VELASQUEZ, a Miami DJ, label founder and Live Nation executive. She was identified on Saturday as a victim of the collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Fla. She was visiting her parents, who also died in the June 24 building collapse... GRAHAM VICK, British opera director and founder of the Birmingham Opera Company... DOLORES CLAMAN, Canadian pianist and jingle writer best known as composer of the theme song for the CBC's "Hockey Night in Canada"... ELLIOT LAWRENCE, 1940s and '50s pianist and big-band leader.
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| Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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Rolling Stone |
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| Farewell, Biz Markie: Remembering the Wild-Style Chaos and Diabolical Genius of Hip-Hop’s Old-School Joker King |
| by Rob Sheffield |
| Whether freestyling, beatboxing, rocking the party, or making booger jokes, the late New York MC brought wit and wisdom to rap and beyond for 30-plus years. |
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Reasons to Be Cheerful |
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| The Sounds of Healing |
| by Michaela Haas |
| When musician Yoko Sen ended up in the hospital, she was overwhelmed by the cacophony of noise. What if all those beeps and alarms could sound like music instead? |
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Bloomberg |
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| Ackman Abandons SPAC Deal for Universal Music Stake |
| by Thomas Seal |
| Bill Ackman will buy a stake in Universal Music Group with his hedge fund rather than his blank-check company after the U.S. looked set to block the planned deal citing stock exchange rules. |
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The New York Times |
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| For U.K. Bands, Touring Europe Is Now a Highway to Brexit Hell |
| by Alex Marshall |
| It’s not just that musicians need visas. Band merchandise is now a complicated export, and most tour vans are only allowed to make three stops. |
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Bandcamp Daily |
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| Independent Black Artists Are Changing the Landscape of Country Music |
| by Marcus K. Dowling |
| Artists like Aaron Vance, DeLila Black, and D'Orjay the Singing Shaman are reclaiming the genre’s Black roots and encouraging its future. |
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Culture Notes of an Honest Broker |
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| Can We Stop Talking About 'Rebranding' Classical Music? |
| by Ted Gioia |
| I offer some skeptical views based on my own (often painful) experiences with rebranding. |
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Loud And Quiet |
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| Little Simz has nothing left to prove |
| by Gemma Samways |
| The North Londoner is already an acclaimed artist, actor, fashion icon and more – but with her new album, she's about to transcend even her own sky-high standards. |
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Billboard |
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| Come On and Slam: How Quad City DJ’s’ ‘Space Jam’ Became the Theme of Online Mashups |
| by Caitlin Kelley |
| The real cultural imprint of "Space Jam" lies outside of its big-picture trappings. As it turns out, “slam remixes” took the song’s legacy into overtime. |
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Dangerous Minds |
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| Extreme Record Collecting: Confessions of an analog vinyl snob |
| by Richard Metzger |
| Sorry, but this is not going to be one of those analog vs. digital rants that goofball audiophile types like to indulge in at the drop of a hat. In fact I probably should have just called it something like "Why you should never buy new vinyl versions of classic albums." |
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Entertainment Weekly |
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| RETRO READ: Biz Markie on 30 years of 'Just a Friend': 'I just wanted to make a story rap record, not to go pop' |
| by Todd Gilchrist |
| Three decades on, the song has still got what you need. |
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The New Yorker |
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| A Springsteen Mystery Solved |
| by David Remnick |
| Jon Landau, the Boss’s longtime close collaborator in matters musical and financial, offers a definitive answer about what Mary’s dress is doing in “Thunder Road.” |
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Music Business Worldwide |
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| A new SPAC has $325m to spend -- and it’s got its eye on the music industry |
| by Murray Stassen |
| I2PO will make its debut on the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange on Tuesday, July 20. |
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Complete Music Update |
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| The things people still get wrong about streaming – dissecting the Economics Of Streaming report |
| by Andy Malt and Chris Cooke |
| Andy Malt and Chris Cooke discuss the culture select committee of the UK parliament’s report based on its inquiry into the economics of the music streaming business, including the key findings, what the committee got wrong, and an important question that should probably get answered before anyone instigates a “complete reset” of the entire music streaming business. |
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The Ringer |
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| ‘McCartney 3, 2, 1’ Is Revelatory--Just Not in the Ways You’d Expected |
| by Ben Lindbergh |
| The six-part Hulu doc is a journey through the former Beatle’s memory, but shines most when his songs take center stage. |
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Tape Op |
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| Mad Professor: The Sound of the Studio |
| by Geoff Stanfield |
| Neil Fraser, known as Mad Professor, is a cornerstone of dub’s second wave and the owner of Ariwa Sounds, a studio and record label in London. We caught up to chat about his early days, working with Lee Perry and Massive Attack, the economics of running a studio, and his favorite reverbs and echoes. |
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The Washington Post |
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| The continued impact of jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove |
| by Shannon J. Effinger |
| Roy Hargrove was a gateway into jazz. For younger listeners who respected the tradition but felt it lacked a tangible connection to the present, the jazz trumpeter - who emerged as a blazing talent in the 1990s - was able to delicately straddle hard-bop and hip-hop, serving as a generational translator for the genre. |
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The Forty-Five |
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| As live music returns let’s make gig spaces more inclusive than ever before |
| by Jenessa Williams |
| As the nation gears up for the return of live music, Jenessa Williams takes a look at some of the organisations and initiatives making gigging an accessible activity for all. |
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The Guardian |
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| ‘It was the easiest thing I’ve done’: how the dad of a rock star wrote his first album at 72 |
| by David Renshaw |
| After his father suffered a heart scare, psych-popper Connan Mockasin enlisted him to make an experimental EP. Who knew it would be such a breeze? |
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VICE |
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| Should You Still Stream Britney Spears? |
| by Carter Sherman |
| “Do not consume the music. Do not consume the product. Do not consume anything from Britney the brand,” said one ardent fan. |
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| Music of the day |
| "Biz Is Goin' Off" |
| Biz Markie |
| "I will be an emcee till I'm old and grey / And I can even rock the mic with tooth decay." |
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YouTube |
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"I will be an emcee till I'm old and grey / And I can even rock the mic with tooth decay."
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Remember to practice these at home!
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| Music | Media | Sports | Fashion | Tech |
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“REDEF is dedicated to my mother, who nurtured and encouraged my interest in
everything and slightly regrets the day she taught me to always ask ‘why?’” |
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| Jason Hirschhorn |
| CEO & Chief Curator |
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