Thirty Three Jones | Desktop Site
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I haven't received a whole lot of submissions this week, and the most notable new track I've heard recently features Rick Ross getting badly outrapped by Lil Kim on a beat that's ten years old, so I raided my coworker Mike's stash of old school hip hop to get back to the essence. What I found was a tremendous recording from 1986 of Juice Crew members Biz Markie and Roxanne Shanté putting on a live version of Def Fresh Crew. With Biz Markie beatboxing in the background, Shanté delivers one of the best performances of her career, deftly managing to keep up each time Biz changes the tempo of his vocal percussions.
As with just about every track he's ever appeared on, however, Biz steals the show. I defy even the meanest of mean mugs not to crack a smile after hearing him break into maniacal laughter when Shanté prompts him with the line, "Ha ha and we laughed." The highlight comes towards the end of the track, though, with Biz doing his version of the Meow Mix jingle while still managing to continue the beatboxing. Check it out:
Biz Markie and Roxanne Shanté - Def Fresh Crew (Live Recording)
There's a video of Roxanne and Biz performing the song live up on youtube as well, but unfortunately it gets cut off after the first minute and it's not from the same show. It's still worth checking out, though, if only to see footage of a young, and surprisingly thin, Biz Markie.
Bonus video:
Biz Markie - Nobody Beats the Biz
You should be able to recognize two samples on the song taken from Shanté's vocals from Def Fresh Crew, "So Fresh" and "He's Biz Markie."
2/28/2007 07:00:01 PM posted by Fresh