The 2023 BET Awards began by paying tribute to Biz Markie with “Just A Friend” during the show’s opening performance.

The BET Awards this year will salute the music that has influenced numerous generations by honoring 50 years of hip-hop. Unfortunately, a lot of the pioneers of hip-hop have passed away recently. The opening act of the awards night was followed by a singalong memorial to Biz Markie, who passed away in 2021.

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The most popular song in Biz’s career, “Just a Friend,” was performed by Big Daddy Kane in front of the entire crowd. A set by Lil Uzi Vert, the Sugar Hill Gang, MC Lyte, Kane, and D-Nice was followed by the homage. It’s unfair to sum up an artist’s body of work in the context of their biggest success, but wow, was that ever a hit. At the BET Awards tonight, E-40, Master P, Ice Spice, Latto, and GloRilla are among the other musicians scheduled to hit the stage.

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The producer-MC, whose real name was Marcel Hall, developed his own style over the course of five albums, most notably 1988’s Goin’ Off and 1989’s The Biz Never Sleeps. His mix of half-sung (and purposefully off-key) choruses, captivating beatboxing, and silly humor would earn him the moniker “Clown Prince of Hip-Hop” and pave the way for gloriously bizarre rappers like Ol’ Dirty Bastard.

The rapper’s influence went far beyond hip-hop’s greatest lament for the friend-zone, even though he was considered one of the genre’s biggest one-hit wonders (VH1 ranked his 1989 hit “Just a Friend” at Number 81 on their 2000 list of the top one-hit wonders of all time).

The rapper, who was born in Harlem and raised in Long Island, was a part of the renowned Juice Crew, a group of rappers from Queensbridge put together by DJ Mr. Magic and Marley Marl and including Big Daddy Kane, Masta Ace, Roxanne Shante, and Kool G Rap.