Biz Markie & DJ Lovebug Starski
Jackie Robinson Park, Manhattan
Wednesday, August 8th
Has there ever been anyone like else Biz Markie in hip-hop? Has there ever been anyone like The Biz in all pop music? A master free-style rhymer, Biz presented himself as a figure of fun while somehow maintaining his street cred. At a time when rap was getting increasingly serious-minded, Biz’s opted to write from the point of view of an eighth grader, and on songs like “Pickin’ Boogers” and “Just A Friend,” he delivered his hilarious raps in a tongue-twisting style or a loud, out-of-tune sing-song. But he was never just a novelty, and his beats were always cutting-edge. More than twenty years after he first emerged, it’s still true that “nobody beats the Biz.”
Lovebug Starski was there at the birth of hip-hop: some even claim he was the first to call it by that name. He was house DJ at the legendary club Disco Fever (featured in the classic rap film Beat Street) and manned the wheels of steel at Club Harlem World and Rennaisance as well. He provided the soundtrack to the 1986 film Rappin’ and released his debut House Rock later that year. Though a stint in jail broke his momentum, Lovebug Starski has never forgotten how to keep a party movin’.
