Biz Markie: Weekend Warrior

If you're in the mood for a blast from the past, take a ride with the clown prince of hip-hop, Biz Markie, as he drops his first disc of new material in nearly ten years. The MC brings his knucklehead rhymes, frequent non sequiturs, and loopy flow to bumping tracks that recall the big boom-bap beats you hardly hear anymore. What the Biz does is pretty fundamental, as he drops more names than a publicist on crack and offers up delirious scenarios and free associations. The rhymes throughout are basic, but they are put in a unique, original context that make them infinitely more interesting than the endless parade of cliches you get from many rappers these days. That's not to say that Markie succeeds throughout. Cuts such as "Mos Finess" feature clunky production, and "Bad Day," a narrative that outlasts its welcome, features Biz singing the chorus in a key only he can understand. But what separates the set of songs from almost any other disc in hip-hop right now is its purity of spirit and love of the rap game from years gone by. "Weekend Warrior" finds Markie fighting the good fight for old-school hip-hop.