Listen: Just A Friend / Biz Markie
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A solid ten years before the turn of the century, Biz Markie’s ‘Just A Friend’ was a hit. A mainstream, BILLBOARD Top 100 hit, #9 to be exact.

This was 1989 into 1990, when Young MC’s ‘Bust A Move’ and Kool Moe Dee’s ‘Wild, Wild West’ were sharing slots on the US Pop charts with De La Soul’s ‘My Myself & I’ and A Tribe Called Quest’s ‘I Left My Wallet In El Segundo’. Biz Markie, with most of the Cold Chillin’ roster, fit right in.

Looking back nowadays, they collectively made up the sound of an era gone by, before most hip hop became major label controlled, processed and manufactured. And way before Biz Markie’s beat boxing went out of style.