It would seem that Biz Markie's copyright on Just a Friend is about to expire as we head into 2010. Either that or Biz just decided that he was finally going to cash in on the one true crossover hit of his career, as 2009 has seen him license the song out to at least three companies.
It started with the Heineken commercial last spring featuring four drunk hipsters and a taxi driver singing even further out of key than Markie on the chorus. In November, Biz followed that up by appearing as a dancing Christmas tree in a rather bizarre marketing campaign put together by Radio Shack built around a free ringtone remix of Just a Friend. Finally, earlier this week, Biz teamed up with Andy Milonakis to promote a company devoted to renaming the songs in your iTunes library. Doesn't seem like a business model with much longevity to it, but at least it gave Biz a chance to throw on a costume and squeeze one last royalty check out of his hit single before the New Year.
For the record, I'm not actually mad at Biz for making a few bucks off of his most famous single. I just hate to see him continue to promote himself as a one hit wonder, when he contributedsomuchmoreto hip hop than just that one song. If you're at all a fan of Markie's, I highly recommend picking up a copy of his new Ultimate Diabolical album, which features some of his best singles and videos.
12/15/2009 8:00:51 PM posted by Fresh
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