20 Years Ago Biz Markie Got The Last Laugh

His 1993 album, All Samples Cleared!, was neither his most successful nor most critically acclaimed, but its mere existence was a triumph of sorts, with Biz waggling his famous tongue in celebration. To understand all this, we need to go back a couple years, to his 1991 album I Need a Haircut, and, more specifically, the song “Alone Again.”

Thematically, “Alone Again,” is like other Biz songs where he sets himself up as a “lovable loser,” the kind of guy whose friends ditch him to hang out with girls or who rocks a show only to have to walk home by himself after. Musically, “Alone Again,” samples several bars of the familiar piano riff from Gilbert O’Sullivan’s 1972 hit, “Alone Again (Naturally)” and Biz sings part of O’Sullivan’s hook for his own chorus (off-key, naturally). On the surface, “Alone Again,” seemed to follow a very similar template to Markie’s biggest hit, 1989’s “Just a Friend” which also riffed off a piano loop and song hook borrowed from Freddie Scott. Behind the scenes though, a storm began to brew.

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