Long Island hip-hop legend Biz Markie's life chronicled in new film 

In "All Up in the Biz," his documentary on the fun-loving Long Island rapper Biz Markie, director Sacha Jenkins captures something you don’t often see in the world of hip-hop: a grown man shedding tears.

The moment comes as Rakim sits in the lunchroom of his alma mater, Wyandanch Memorial High School, where he first heard Biz, an interloper from another school, beatboxing in a corner and began rapping along with the rhythm. Where did Rakim’s mind go, Jenkins asked, when he learned of Biz’s death at 57 in 2021?

“And he looked at me and said, ‘I came right here where we are right now,’” Jenkins said. “It was like a strike of lightning, where the emotion overwhelmed him and he didn't hide it. He didn’t ask me to turn off the camera. This was his friend.”

It’s one of several revelatory moments in “All Up in the Biz,” which premieres Aug. 11 on Showtime (and streams on Paramount+ with Showtime). Casual music fans may remember Biz Markie only as the heavyset hip-hop jester behind the 1989 hit “Just a Friend,” but Jenkins’ film paints a fuller picture of a hard-knock kid with a cocky streak who found his purpose in hip-hop, reached an unlikely pinnacle of fame and always maintained the love and respect of his peers. Jenkins, a former music editor at Vibe magazine who began making documentaries in the mid 2010s, captures testimonials from Biz’s widow, Tara Hall, and some of hip-hop’s early major players, including D.M.C., Erick Sermon of Brentwood’s EPMD and the Amityville-raised producer Prince Paul (who also scored the film).

A few years before his death, Biz himself approached Jenkins about making a documentary on his life. “I think he wanted to tell the story of his originality, his personality and his stick-to-it-ness,” Jenkins said. There was little interest from production companies at the time, but the approach of this year’s 50th anniversary of hip-hop made the project more “palatable,” Jenkins said. “All Up in the Biz” is part of a collaboration between Showtime and the media company Mass Appeal that is slated to include hip-hop oriented films, series and podcasts.

Born Marcel Theo Hall in Manhattan, Biz survived a traumatic childhood. His mother died when he was very young; for a time, he and his siblings lived in a tent under a bridge. The young Biz caught a lucky break when he was taken in by a local family, the Parkers, and spent his formative years in Patchogue and Brentwood.

If details of the rapper’s early life remain sketchy, that’s partly because he never talked about it, according to Tara Hall. “There’s a stigmatism to it,” she said of his homelessness, but she added: “He ended up getting a wonderful family, the Parkers. I praise their name all the time.”

Biz fell in love with the new sound of hip-hop in the early 1980s — Afrika Bambaataa and the L-Brothers were favorites — and took his nickname from the rapper Busy Bee Starski. Biz became the consummate scenester, hopping from Long Island to Manhattan to the Bronx and back, armed with the latest singles on cassette. He was a showoff, infamous for rapping at other people’s high schools, but also a cheerleader: Rakim credits Biz for imbuing him with a newfound confidence after entering them both in a Harlem talent contest. Nearly everyone in the film seems to marvel at Biz’s childlike enthusiasm, optimism and energy.

“There was just something — I want to say holy,” Prince Paul said in a recent interview. “He was the only guy I know where he could go into any situation — any situation — and everybody would come out liking him.”

All the while, Biz was honing his skills as a beatboxer, rapper and songwriter. His 1988 debut album, “Goin’ Off,” featured some of what are still his best-remembered songs, including the beatbox showcase “Make the Music with Your Mouth, Biz” and the schoolyard favorite “Pickin’ Boogers.” At a time when hip-hop was edging toward tougher sounds — from N.W.A. to Roosevelt’s Public Enemy — Biz established himself as the genre’s lovable goofball.

By all accounts, few had any faith in Biz’ idea for “Just a Friend,” a comedic tale of unrequited love that would feature the rapper howling an off-key snippet of "(You) Got What I Need,” a 1968 ditty by Freddie Scott. Biz’s manager hated the demo tape so much that threw it off a friend’s back porch. Yet Biz persevered, scoring a hit that would reach No. 9 on the pop charts and turn him into an MTV star. (The song’s video was shot at Long Island University’s Post campus in Brookville.)

Follow-up singles fared less well, and in 1991 Biz was hit with a lawsuit over his unauthorized sample of Gilbert O’Sullivan’s 1972 hit “Alone Again (Naturally).” Souring on the record industry, Biz taught himself to DJ and began spinning at corporate events and celebrity parties. That’s how he met Tara Davis, a model and actor who would become his wife.

“He was in the middle of a party, and he's talking to me over the turntables,” she recalled. She gave Biz her phone number but never expected to hear from him since he didn’t write it down. “Sure enough, that Monday my phone rang,” she said. “I was like, ‘Biz?’”

A 10-year relationship followed, and the two married in 2018; they also had a daughter, Averi. Biz was hospitalized for complications from type 2 diabetes in 2020. After a year of struggle, he died in July of 2021.

“I was in the hospital advocating for him every single day,” Tara Hall said. “And seeing him that way, it's just the worst thing you can imagine.”

Jenkins came up with an unorthodox way of reenacting those difficult last days in an unorthodox way: He cast Tara as herself and a Muppet-style puppet as a bedridden Biz. “It ended up being very cathartic, actually,” Hall said. “Biz would have loved being a puppet — a real, live cartoon character.”

At his funeral, Biz was eulogized by the Rev. Al Sharpton; soon after, the town of Patchogue renamed the intersection near his teenage home Biz Markie Way. The rapper also lives on in the title of the Just a Friend Foundation, established by Hall to help support foster children.

As Jenkins sees it, the story of Biz Markie is the story of hip-hop’s power to transform a life. “Hip-hop is a Superman suit. You reinvent yourself, you become who you want to be,” he explained. “It’s about understanding the power of who you are and the power of hip-hop — and what happens when those two collide. Biz Markie is the result of that.”

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com@raferguzman