HawgWyld's Full Review: The Biz Never Sleeps by Biz Markie
Say what you want about this disc, but it was certainly unique when it was released in 1989. While rap was becoming increasingly political, controversial and sometimes downright violent, Biz Markie worked hard on just being plain goofy. Fortunately, Biz Markie's half-asleep, sometimes-slurring style of rapping was charming enough, and the man sampled from Motown, funk, jazz and anything else he could find.
The end result is an enjoyable album. Sure, there's not a whole lot here in the way of artistry, but it's certainly pleasant and humorous enough.
Now, the bad thing about this album is that Biz Markie was branded with the term "novelty act" following "Just a Friend," the big single off the disc. Remember that one? It's nothing but a drum machine, a cheese-ball, repetitive piano riff and a bunch of warnings about women who claim men they know are "just friends."
But, the highlight of the ballad (and, yes, that's the proper term, I think), is the chorus. It's a badly-sung, screwball thing in which Biz Markie croons:
You
You got what I need
But you say he just a friend
But you say he just a friend
Oh, baby!
You
Got what I need
But you say he just a friend
But you say he just a friend
Now, couple the off-key vocals with Biz Markie's inability to annunciate, and you've got something really funny. It sounds like Biz is crooning, "You got what I knee," and that just kills me. Still, it's an enjoyable song, and the chorus obscures one fact -- Biz Markie had a surprisingly fluid, off-kilter style and could tell a story quite well.
The out-of-tune chorus obscures Biz Markie's skills on another track, "Spring Again." It's kind of hard to pay attention to what the Biz is going on about when you keep waiting him to come back with the chorus and sing "It's spring again / Everybody know it's spring again" in his drunk Bing Cosby voice. Funny, funny, funny.
In retrospect, it's truly a shame the goofy chorus in "Just a Friend" pretty well defined Biz Markie's career. Simply put, a lot of the humor was juvenile, but who could resist such classics in "Mudd Foot," in which the Biz presents a new dance named after a Fat Albert character and advises the listener to "act like you're crippled, act like you only got one leg?"
Furthermore, the music is pretty straight-forward, featuring huge analog drum machines. However, you've got some intriguing samples there in such tracks as "She's not Just Another Woman (Monique)" (which is clearly inspired by Motown hits) and jazz-heavy tracks such as "Check it Out" and "A Thing Named Kim" (nasty funk) or "I Hear Music" (lots o' jazz influences). Oh, and check out the theme from those old Irish Spring commercials in "The Dragon," a track about body odor (funny!)
Now, you do hear some things thrown in here about the evils of drug abuse and such, but there's not a whole lot here in the way of socially-relevant messages. Instead, the Biz cuts loose with his juvenile humor on tracks like the aforementioned "Mudd Foot" and "A Think Named Kim," in which our hero finds himself in an uncomfortable position with a transvestite.
One other thing of interest has to do with the liner notes. A lot of this disc reminds me of rap from the early to mid-1980s, and the liner notes read like a "who's who" of old-school rap. Biz Markie lists the likes of Roxanne Shante, Big Daddy Kane and Marley Marl as members of "his crew." Futhermore, he thanks such early artists as EPMD, Eazy E, NWA, Ice-T, Whodini, Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew, Easy Rock & Rob Bass and Queen Latifah. I'm sure there are other notables mentioned and I'm just not familiar with them because, hey, I'm a white kid from Arkansas.
So, all in all, I'd say this is the best studio album of Biz Markie's career. Pick it up if you happen across it.
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