WASHINGTON — They first burst onto the hip-hop scene with hit records back in the 1980s.
This Sunday night, Biz Markie and Doug E. Fresh hit the Renaissance Hotel in downtown D.C. for the fourth annual All White Party, at which all guests and performers must wear white.
“Everybody wear white. Everybody’s gonna get dirty. I’m throwing tomato juice on everybody! No; I’m just joking,” Biz Markie tells WTOP. “Terry Frasier is one of the top promoters in the country to me, and every time we do something, it’s always a good time. … It’s always a great event.”
The event is a chance for hip-hop fans to experience two pioneers of the beatbox.
“Me and Doug E., we’re the ones that made up the beatbox. He’s No. 1. I’m No. 2,” Markie says. “We made our own style. My family’s his family. His family’s my family. You know how it goes.”
The best of friends met back in 1982 during a show in Long Island — and bonded over shoelaces.
“You know when the big, fat shoelaces were out?” Markie nostalgically recalls. “He brought me to a store and I bought every shoelace, because you know at that time, it was scarce to get the big, fat shoelaces. After that, I got in good with him, his family, Barry B and Chill Will. I used to hang with everybody. I wasn’t just hanging with Doug E., I was hanging with everybody.”
This group — known as Doug E.’s Get Fresh Crew — slayed countless tracks, from “La Di Da Di” to “The Show,” both of which took the hip-hop world by storm in 1985.
“Besides him being a perfectionist, Doug E. Fresh is just a special kind of character,” Markie says. “There will never be another Doug E. Fresh. … He’s the Sammy Davis of our time. Me and him don’t need a record to entertain you. You know how a lot of people need a hot record out? We don’t need no record out. It’s just us. There will never be another one of him. He’s like a Frank Sinatra of hip-hop. When he’s gone, no matter how much other people do this, there’s never another one like him.”
In the fall of 1989, Biz Markie landed his own smash hit, “Just a Friend,” sampling Freddie Scott’s 1968 song “You Got What I Need.” The song went platinum and hit No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100.
In 1994, Markie moved from Long Island to the greater D.C. area. It was here that he crossed paths with a rising hip-hop star, D.C. native DJ Kool.
“When I first started hanging down here in the DMV area, (DJ Kool) used to do a club called East Side. He used to let me get on and DJ, even though I wasn’t very good,” Markie says, laughing. “First time I met Kool, it was the Bronx. He was doing a show and the show didn’t go over well. The crowd just didn’t understand. … If you ain’t from New York hip-hop, you know what I mean? But I got on the mic and said watch, in about a year or two, this guy (DJ Kool) is gonna be a big hit — and it happened.”
It sure did. In 1996, DJ Kool landed a smash hit with “Let Me Clear My Throat,” which hit No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100. Kool repaid the favor by recruiting Markie and Fresh for the catchy remix.
More recently, Markie became a household name for a new generation thanks to the Nickelodeon puppet TV program “Yo Gabba Gabba” (2007), in which he provides “Biz’s Beat of the Day.”
“I DJ’d the night before in L.A. and I was real tired, my back was hurting, and I was supposed to do the ‘Dancey Dance.’ I got lazy and I didn’t feel like doing it, so I said, ‘Why don’t I make a Biz’s Beat of the Day?'” Markie says. “It went on the pilot, and the pilot was overwhelming.”
Nowadays, Markie resides in Bowie, Maryland, and is a valued veteran of the D.C. hip-hop scene.
“When I was (first) here, DJ Kool and Nonchalant were the hit rappers. Now you got Wale,” Markie says. “I’m glad that a guy named Wale from here made some real rap records. … He’s a good dude.”
The Markie-Fresh story continues Sunday as hip-hop’s “Odd Couple” plays the Renaissance Hotel.
“He’s Felix and I’m Oscar,” Markie jokes. “He’s neat and I’m sloppy.”
Click here for ticket information. Listen to the full interview below.
