Biz Markie

The Ten Best Concerts in New York This Weekend, 3/29/13

Please get out and do something. Your roommates are worried about you.

'Freestyle and Old-School Extravaganza'

30 Rock's Most Hilarious Rap References

30 Rock wraps up tonight, as the Tina Fey-penned show signs off with its final episode. During the show's seven seasons of hilarity, it's never been shy of weaving rap references into its script (a tick helped by Donald Glover a/k/a/ Childish Gambino holding down a writer's position at one point). S ... More >>

The Ten Best Concerts in New York This Weekend, 12/28/12

We're gettin' an early jump on the weekend because you've probably already checked out anyway. So here are the 10 best concerts around the city this weekend, in no particular order. The Ten Best Reissues of 2012 The Ten Best Noise Tracks of 2012 The Ten Best Metal Albums of 2012 The Ten Best Countr ... More >>

Biz Markie+Kid Capri

Q&A: Big Fun In The Big Town Director Bram Van Splunteren On The '80s New York Hip-Hop Scene

"The Beastie Boys were just silly," says Dutch-based documentary maker Bram Van Splunteren. "You couldn't do a serious interview with those guys. They were just goofing around. We had them rap down the phone but I don't remember any kind of content from that interview." Back in the mid-'80s, Splunt ... More >>

Midyear Report: 12 for '12

A dozen of the best singles from the year so far

This Week in the Voice: OBIES 2012

This week in the Voice, out today, Michael Feingold says in his essay on the OBIES that Broadway kinda sucks: "Sitting through Man and Superman and The Caretaker, after a week that had included Ghost, Don't Dress for Dinner, and Leap of Faith, I realized that I didn't hate theatergoing at all: I jus ... More >>

12 For '12: A Dozen Songs From This Year That You Should Hear Right Now

In this week's Voice I offered up a midseason report of sorts, listing 12 particularly outstanding tracks from this year. Here, for your listening pleasure, are the 12 songs in streamable form (via a combination of YouTube and Soundcloud so as to not lock anyone—or any songs—out). Happy ... More >>

Three Rappers Who Should Be The Center Square For MTV2's Hollywood Squares Reboot (And One Who Definitely Should Not)

Next month MTV2 will debut Hip-Hop Squares, a rap-centric takeoff on the "tic-tac-toe with trivia and celebrities" game show Hollywood Squares. (The non-genre-specific version of the show aired its last episode in 2004.) The show will be hosted by Hot 97's Peter Rosenberg, and MTV has announced a fe ... More >>

Beyond Jay And Kanye's Throne: Ten More Regal Seats In Hip-Hop

Coming to an arena near you this weekend: Jay-Z and Kanye West. ​Kanye West and Jay-Z's grandiose Watch The Throne tour comes to the New York City area tomorrow, and sticks around through next week—the pair perform at the Izod Center on Saturday and Sunday, and at Madison Square Garden o ... More >>

Ten Highly Entertaining Videos By Biz Markie

​Biz Markie is hip-hop's most brilliant buffoon. An adept beatboxer, endearingly entertaining rapper, and deliberately awful singer, Biz coined classics during hip-hop's late-'80s golden era and rolled with Marley Marl's almighty Juice Crew. Then he pulled his biggest prank: sampling and getti ... More >>

Ten Great Neighborhood-Specific Brooklyn Rap Anthems

​This Saturday, the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival will conclude with shows by Brownsville's mighty M.O.P., who will perform their rambunctious brand of rap down under the Brooklyn Bridge, and, er, noted Queens representer Q-Tip. Rappers from Brooklyn have never been shy about proclaiming their her ... More >>

Blue Note Records' Ten Best Sample Sources

Blue Note's cover art: Also an inspiration. (Original on the left, homage on the right.)​Hip-hop artists have never been shy about sampling songs from the vaults of the Blue Note jazz label, and few have pilfered with as much creativity and gusto as A Tribe Called Quest's one-time de facto lea ... More >>

Rock-Critic Pop Quiz #10: Name The Hosts Of Yo! MTV Raps

​Recently our hackles were raised after a concerned Park Slope resident (or, as reports increasingly indicate, a gifted troll) sent out a petition hoping to keep a new club from playing the hip-hop music (gasp!) in yuppietacular Brooklyn. We could not imagine the anarchy if rap music ever hit ... More >>

The Top Ten Best Worst Singing Rappers

​These days, there's nothing attention grabbing about rappers who sing, whether it's Andre 3000's amped squawk, an Auto-Tune-enabled Kanye West, or Lil Wayne's upcoming Riker's Island shower room spirituals. This week the canon sees new album additions from one-time Goodie Mob member Cee-Lo Gr ... More >>

Live: Matt & Kim Bring Their Nuclear-Powered Cheerfulness To Webster Hall

ENTHUSIASM. Pics by Rob, more below.​Matt & Kim Webster Hall Wednesday, October 27 Better than: Most other "don't-worry-be-happy"-type situations. "I'm going to refer to this Wednesday night as 'Friday night' from now on!" shouts Matt, as the young-and-pretty Webster Hall crowd roars and Kim ... More >>

Live: Biz Markie Regales A Bunch Of Ad-Agency People, And Why Not

The maddest man of all. Pics by Chris, more below.​Ad Week is over, but you'd never know it from the glut of agency parties happening constantly around town. If it's a weeknight and you're looking for something to do, just talk to your closest ad buddy, because chances are they can break you i ... More >>

Live From The Bizarre But Much-Improved Paper Magazine Nightlife Awards

Mia Moretti, co-winner, Best DJ (seriously). Pics by Puja, more below.​"There's nothing that says 'party' and 'class' like a bomb-shelter basement in Midtown," joked drag comedian Murray Hill last night. "This is bullshit!" It was one of the many loving jabs taken at the sixth-annual Paper Mag ... More >>

Week in Review: Apollo Kids

​In the week one of this blog's authors inspired a short play about juggalo zombies and Lady Gaga, we celebrated by announcing the 2010 Village Voice/Redeye Distribution Day Party, featuring the great Marnie Stern, Hooray For Earth, and a bunch of others, including a wonderful special secret g ... More >>

Ten Pioneering Pieces Of Hip-Hop Street Art

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Triple Self Portrait. All images courtesy the Eric Firestone Gallery.​Street art has enjoyed a steady resurgence in rap over the last few years, with Kanye West and the Clipse jostling to let KAWS design their album and magazine covers, 50 Cent and Busta Rhymes appearing ... More >>

Take Donald Glover, Aziz Ansari, and Das Racist's Joke Rap Seriously

A new generation of MCs grapple with how funny they're allowed to be

Adam Green Playing "Surprise" Full-Band Show $6 Tonight at Lit Lounge

Should you be in the mood this evening for a sloppy tribute to Billy Corgan's GF, a Biz Markie cover, being called a "barbarian," or nonsensical asides about things like Stinky the Ferret or leaky flasks, get yourself to Lit Lounge tonight where ex-Moldy Peach wiseacre Adam Green is playing a $6 " ... More >>

Biz Markie+Lost Boyz+Rakim

Lissy Trullie EP Gets A Release Date

After playing the same lovely set of songs at a various spots in downtown NYC for the last handful of years, sometime-model and fashion plate Lissy Trullie finally has a record label, a studio EP, and a release date. Her Self-Taught Learner, named for the dreamily calm track that remains her best ... More >>

Live: Adam Green and Lissy Trullie Cover Biz Markie at Santos

VHI and Slick Rick, Together at Last at Hip-Hop Honors

The channel's cheerfully confounding tribute to rap's golden oldies

A Running Diary of Hip-Hop Superfest Rock the Bells

The exquisite joys of a sunny Sunday afternoon on the LIRR, Mos Def's basketball uniform, and De La Soul's late-'80s nostalgia

CityParks Summer Concerts: Performers So Old School They Used To Gang Bang With the Flintstones

Tonight: ESPN2's It's The Shoes Host Bobbito Garcia @ APT

Video Game Music Supervisor: Best Job Ever?

Ghostface: Best Rapper Ever?

Sample Sale

Too much joy: Who gets royalties from 'Happy Birthday'?

Hiphop Turns 30

Whatcha celebratin' for?

Rap, Rage, REDvolution

As hip-hop emerges as an empowering voice for indigenous youth, mainstream rappers still objectify Indian country

Listings

Party Patrol

A New Federal Law Could Spoil Your Summer Fun

The Blessed Version

Let One Hundred Edits Bloom

The Targets Shoot First

Music

Vibrators

Mental Machine Music

A to the B

We got your hip-hop hall of fame

Gag Reflex, 35 Cents Off

Zooted, Blooted, Sclamslooted

Pretty Fly as You Feel

The Director's Cut

Two Realists

Consumer Guide

Six of these 12 picks recast known compositions, and only two of the six are in the rock tradition. But I did find one medium-obscure alt band worth writing about. One.