Preezy Brown
View all posts by Preezy Brown April 9, 2026
View Gallery 18 photos Evelyn Freja for Rolling Stone Biz Markie was one of hip-hop‘s most beloved figures — an artist whose humor, humanity, and unmistakable voice made him an enduring cultural touchstone. This week, on what would have been his 62nd birthday, a private unveiling of the late rap icon‘s personal archives offered a rare, deeply personal look into who he was, bridging generational gaps while celebrating his larger-than-life personality and vast array of interests.
“This is the first one,” says Tara Hall, Biz Markie’s widow and the driving force behind the exhibition. “I felt like today’s his birthday, why not show this to the closest people to him, the friends, the family?”
The exclusive exhibition, held at Invite Only Studios, was deliberately intimate — an environment Hall described as both creatively aligned and secure for the fragile artifacts on display. “Invite Studios is the perfect location because it’s a music place,” she says. “It’s a place where people are creative. It’s safe for the art. It’s controlled. I feel very comfortable in this space. So, that’s what makes it the best.”
What filled the room was not just memorabilia, but a living, breathing timeline of hip-hop history, as told through more than 50 carefully preserved items. Among them: Biz’s wallet, notebooks, handwritten lyrics, demo tapes, master recordings, and even his food stamp booklet. There were artifacts like the rhyme book in which he penned his breakout hit, “Just a Friend,” alongside cultural relics like a “Just a Friend” cassette single, an autographed microphone, signed sunglasses, and paperwork from the landmark Grand Upright vs. Warner Bros. lawsuit that reshaped sampling law.
Biz Markie’s SL-700 Technics turntables Evelyn Freja for Rolling Stone The collection also included SL-700 Technics turntables — items Hall identifies as sacred in Biz’s world. “His most prized possession are those SL-700 turntables,” she says. “I’ll tell you a story. After Biz passed away, I finally got through a lot of the emails, and someone asked me, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m so sorry I missed the funeral. Did you bury Biz with his little turntables? They were his prized possession. ‘No, I didn’t, ma’am.’”
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There were sneakers — 1986 Adidas, preserved in their original box with receipt — as well as vintage press kits from the 1980s, jewelry collections gleaming with gold, and even pieces from Biz’s famously eclectic toy collection, including Black Barbie dolls. Each item functioned as both artifact and anecdote, offering insight into a man whose passions extended far beyond music.
Hall’s journey to this moment began in the quiet aftermath of loss in 2021. “The idea started really after Biz passed away, and I started archiving all of these things. And just box after box, everything I’ve looked at, everything I put away, I’m like, ‘This stuff shouldn’t be put away, this stuff should be seen,’” she says. “I ended up finding cool things, like the rhyme book that he wrote ‘Just a Friend’ in. The pieces of paper that he wrote ‘Make the Music With Your Mouth Biz’ when he should have been in school. It was in some type of composition book. Just things like that. I’m like, ‘I think I have something here. I think I have a quintessential collection of hip-hop.’”
Biz Markie’s widow, Tara Hall, is the driving force behind the exhibit. Evelyn Freja for Rolling Stone That rhyme book, she adds, remains her most treasured piece. “For years, it was on the side of my bed in a drawer, and I never looked. And I just happened to come across it and I’m like, ‘This is like the holy grail of rap.’ But that I love.”
What’s on display, however, is only a fraction of what exists. “Biz has tons and tons and tons of things,” Hall says. “Anything that you see out there, there are 100 more of them. He has tons of rhyme books. He has tons of Barbie dolls, black Barbie dolls. So much jewelry. All his jewelry is incredible. It’s gold jewelry. He has a huge record collection with thousands of records. Biz has so much. I think I can fill up an entire building for any museum. This is a tiny little snippet of what he has.”
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Her role in preserving that legacy, she admits, began almost accidentally. “When Biz was here, I just thought it was just a collection of junk. You know, just unkempt stuff. So, I would just always organize. He would come in and bring a whole bunch of stuff, and I was just constantly organizing for him. He wouldn’t let me throw away anything. But now I know why.”
Attendees at the exhibition were also treated to unreleased demo recordings, including a rare early tape titled “Slugo.” “I won an item in an auction and it happened to be a two-inch [reel], but it was the very first time that Biz was in the studio and he was beatboxing,” Hall says. “He was actually trying to get a [record] deal, and that’s what that tape is. It’s never been heard before. We’re going to play it for the folks today. It’s beautiful. It’s 24-year-old Biz beat-boxing, trying to get a record deal.”
Whether those recordings will ever see a wider release remains uncertain. “We’ll see. We’ll see,” she says. “I don’t like to over-promise things. I like to do things and then let people find out about them as opposed to talking about them, and they never happen. So, let’s just keep it at that.”
Photographer George DuBose in front of his photo of Biz Markie. Evelyn Freja for Rolling Stone Complementing the archival display was a major artistic reveal from legendary photographer George DuBose, whose lens helped define Biz Markie’s visual identity. For the exhibition, DuBose unveiled a never-before-seen portrait from the photoshoot for Biz’s debut single, “Make the Music With Your Mouth Biz” — a release now marking its 40th anniversary.
“These pictures were from his first single photoshoot that I did,” DuBose says. “This is what the event’s about: raising charity for the Biz Markie Foundation.”
His involvement came after a transatlantic reconnection, when Hall came to visit him in Germany, where he now lives. The newly unveiled portrait captures a young Biz at the threshold of his career — playful, experimental, and unmistakably himself. DuBose recalls the session vividly. “Biz was wearing black short pants and a striped shirt. ‘You look like a football referee,’ which I thought was unusual, but at the time there weren’t any special clothing companies for hip-hop, except for maybe Dapper Dan. But there was no Karl Kani; there was no Tommy Hilfiger.”
The shoot itself was as DIY as early hip-hop. “Funny story was Biz had his hat made with this special font that I didn’t recognize,” DuBose continues. “And after I did the photo shoot, I asked Biz, ‘Where did those letters come from?’ And he told me that there were shops in Times Square where you could get those letters put on a T-shirt or a hat. So I had to go to a shop in Times Square and buy all the letters from ‘Make The Music With Your Mouth Biz.’”
Technically, the image is rooted in analog precision. “It was a Hasselblad, which makes square pictures, because the record covers used to be square and CDs were square, so the square camera format worked better,” DuBose adds.
Beyond technique, DuBose emphasizes the spirit Biz brought to every frame. “Well, I didn’t know him hardly at this time,” he says. “Biz was always funny. I mean, he was a clown and he was always joking. Only one time I saw Biz in a bad mood. He was always in a good mood. He always had funny ideas, and I helped execute his ideas.”
That energy, he believes, is what continues to resonate. “To go back and listen to the music… This is 40 years ago. Young kids weren’t even born when this stuff came out, you know? So, I hope that this opens up the incredible humorous material that he created, and it keeps his face in the public.”
For Hall, that enduring connection is the exhibition’s emotional core. “I love it. I get messages from people every day, all day, about Biz,” she says. “Biz obviously made people feel a certain way and feel good about themselves, which was absolutely beautiful. He’s appreciated and very missed by the world. Of course, my family and I, but Biz is missed across the board. He was an awesome human being.”
