Song of the Day: July 19th, 2021 (R.I.P. Biz Markie)

Song: Just a Friend (1989)
Artist: Biz Markie
Album: The Biz Never Sleeps

R.I.P. Marcel Hall aka Biz Markie. 

Biz Markie passed away Friday the 16th at just 57 years old. I still can't believe the timing of his death (admittedly I didn't know he was in the hospital). I tweeted this right when I found out the news and yes I'm aware my sleep schedule is in shambles.

Holy shit I held an authentic Just a Friend cassette tape yesterday at this video show up in CT. Wish I grabbed it. What a shock. R.I.P. to a legend. https://t.co/wvN2ryqSlQ

— Doz #hiredozo (@DozonLife) July 17, 2021

I was en route to New York for Red Sox-Yankees on Thursday, like 20-30 minutes outside the city, when the game was canceled due to COVID. That entire ordeal is worth its own blog, but after the bad news, my friend who drove brought me to this hole-in-the-wall DVD/record/VHS tape/cassette shop in CT that he frequents since we were already so close. 


It was super cool and, frankly, a tad overwhelming with how large the selection was. I wasn't trying to read 15,000 Blu-ray sleeves. I'm on summer vacation. But it was like walking into a nostalgia factory; so much cool decor. I even touched a plastic VHS copy of Cool Runnings like the one I had as a kid. I hadn't heard the pop of plastic VHS case in close to 20 years. If they had "old-timey" snacks like Wonder Balls, it would've been perfect.

​There was sooo much cool shit; my handful of pics don't do it justice, but I moved into my new place almost a year ago, and my Blu-ray collection is still in storage containers. I have too much shit as it is. I could be considered a hoarder in the right circumstances. I had to be careful to not come home with another box worth of shit. ​

Growing Up Blink182 GIF from Growingup GIFs

​​I love music and want to support musicians, but it's hard for me to get behind the whole vinyl revival thing. My roommates have a bunch of records, and I'll admit it's a cool concept to own a physical copy of an album and all that jazz, but from a convenience standpoint, give me a Bluetooth speaker. I can appreciate the pageantry, but it's not for me.

That was until I saw this and had to ironically cop. 

My record collection now consists of one (1) authentic USA For Africa We Are the World: Plus Nine New Superstar Songs record. However, not everything in the shop was incredible. Somethings that were better left in the shelf/garbage.

I considered buying them just to break 'em, but didn't want to risk that conversation with the cashier/my $3.00 going towards his estate.

Unfortunately, those are all the pictures I took, so there's no photographic evidence of the Biz Markie "Just a Friend" cassette. This thing was literally older than I am, and it showed. I wanna say it was only $5, and I was really thinking about grabbing it just to have but figured it'd just end up collecting dust and opted not to. 

Boy, did I make a mistake as the next day, the Biz was dead. Eerie AF.

Of course, this blog sounds a lot more like a shitty story by yours truly than an homage to the late great Biz Markie, but I have a point and am just about to get there.

There are countless examples in my life where I ended up cheaping/pussying out in a situation only to have it backfire. I was offered a ticket to the Chargers-Patriots Divisional Round game and said no cause I was sort of broke. It ended up being the final home playoff win of Brady and Gronk's Patriot career. I wish I bought that cassette, and I wish I hadn't procrastinated with my awesome One Hit Wonder content idea, but I'm done pushing it back. I turn 30 this December and need to start truly living again, something that Biz Markie clearly did in his time as the Clown Prince of Hip Hop. The man simply had fun with his art. 

I've been obsessed with One Hit Wonders since I memorized the VH1 list in 2002 (Just a Friend was #81). In honor of Biz Markie's death, I am finally getting my Wonder Why idea out of development hell. You never know when life will end, and all I've done is waste time being in my own head. Biz's death, meeting Carl from Barstool Saturday night (that blog will come out today as well) and stepping on the scale today really woke me tf up. It's time to stop being such a pussy start living again. Thank you for all you did in music and pop culture, Biz Markie. I'm sorry you never got to your dozah year.