Throwback: Happy 60th Birthday, Prince Markie Dee!

2026 has gotten off to a terrible and uneasy start for most of us. But we’re here in February. Of course, February is a super busy month: It’s Black History Month, which I’ve made sure to celebrate in some way on this site for much of its history. But there are also a number of important birthdays in music history that we must celebrate. So let’s get to it. 

• Big Boi celebrated his 51st birthday on February 1
•  Rick James was born 78 years ago on February 1
• Stan Getz was born 99 years ago on February 2
• Stone Temple Pilots‘ Robert DeLeo celebrated his 60th — yes, 60th y’all! –birthday on February 2
• LCD Soundsystem frontman and DFA Records founder James Murphy celebrated his 56th birthday on February 2 
• The legendary Graham Nash, known for his work with Crosby Stills and Nash, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, The Hollies and as a solo artist, celebrated his 84th birthday on February 2
• The Temptations‘ second and longest tenured lead vocalist Dennis Edwards was born 83 years ago on February 3
• The Offspring‘s guitarist Noodles — born, Kevin John Wasserman — celebrated his 63rd birthday on February 4
• Guns N’ Roses‘ Duff McKagan celebrated his 62nd birthday on February 5
• Bobby Brown celebrated his 57th birthday on February 5
• The legendary Bob Marley was born 81 years ago on February 6
• Natalie Cole, the daughter of the legendary jazz singer and pianist Nat King Cole was born 76 years ago on February 6
• James Dewit Yancey, best known to the entire world as J. Dilla, one of the most influential and important hip-hop producers and beatmakers was born 52 years ago on February 7
• Motley Crüe‘s Vince Neil celebrated his 65th — yes, y’all, 65th! — birthday on February 8
• French touch pioneer and one-half of acclaimed electronic outfit  Daft Punk, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, celebrated his 52nd birthday on February 8
• Singer/songwriter and musician Carole King celebrated her 84th birthday on February 9
• The legendary Roberta Flack was born 89 years ago on February 10
• Sheryl Crow celebrated her 64th birthday on February 11
• D’Angelo was born 52 years ago on February 11
• Bad Brains‘ founder and frontman H.R. celebrated his 70th birthday on February 11
• Acclaimed singer/songwriter, pop star and actor Brandy celebrated her 47th birthday on February 11
• The Doors‘ Ray Manzarek was born 87 years ago on February 12
• Michael McDonald celebrated his 74th birthday on February 12
• Joy Division and New Order co-founder Peter Hook celebrates his 70th –yeah, y’all, 70th! — birthday on February 13
• The Monkees‘ Peter Tork was born 84 years ago on February 13
• Singer/songwriter, poet, author, comedian, actor and radio host Henry Rollins celebrated his 65th — yes, y’all, 65th! — birthday on February 13
• Peter Gabriel celebrates his 76th birthday on February 13
• Freedom Williams, whose sonorous baritone flow was part of C+C Music Factory‘s biggest hits of the early 1990s celebrated his 60th birthday on February 13
• Brian Holland, one-third of Holland-Dozier-Holland, the legendary songwriting and production team behind the classic Motown sound celebrated his 85th birthday on February 15 
• Incubus‘ frontman Brandon Boyd celebrated his 50th — yes, y’all, 50th! — birthday on February 15
• Duran Duran‘s Andy Taylor celebrates his 65th — yes 65th y’all — birthday on February 16
• Ice T, the controversial pioneer of West Coast gangsta rap and of rap metal with his equally controversial metal band Body Count celebrated his 68th birthday on February 17 
• James Ingram was born 74 years ago on February 17
• Foo Fighters‘ Taylor Hawkins was born 54 years ago on February 17
• Kamasi Washington, who celebrates his 45th birthday on February 18
• Dr. Dre who celebrated his 61st birthday on February 18

Co-founder of pioneering, old-school hip-hop outfit The Fat Boys, Mark Anthony Morales, a.k.a. Prince Markie Dee was born on this day 60 years ago.

Along with Darren Robinson, a.k.a Big Buff, Buff Love, Buffy, The Human Beat Box, The Ox That Rocks, and DJ Doctor Nice, and Damon Wimbley, a.k.a Kool Rock-Ski, Morales founded the group as the Disco 3 in the early 1980s. After winning a talent contest at Radio City Music Hall in 1983, they signed a contract with the show’s promoter, who recommended that they rename themselves The Fat Boys.

During their roughly decade long run together, the trio released seven albums. Three of them were certified gold with 1987’s Crushing reaching platinum, thanks to album single “Wipeout,” which peaked at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The trio starred in three movies, 1985’s Krush Groove, 1986’s Knights of the City and 1987’s Disorderlies. But along with that the trio, as part of the 80s pioneering wave, were important in pushing hip-hop to the mainstream and making it a global phenomenon.

We lost Prince Markie Dee a few years ago. But let’s remember his role in making hip-hop what it is today.

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