Before Eminem reshaped rap forever, the few white rappers most people could name were Vanilla Ice and Marky Mark. Before Mark Wahlberg made a name for himself as an actor, he was that Marky Mark. So, he is qualified to make statements about rap more than many other celebrities, and this time he made the right ones.
Marky Mark
Mark Wahlberg’s music career was not that random and did not stem from deep resonance with the culture. First of all, his older brother, Donnie, was part of the boy band New Kids on the Block. Mark himself tried his hand there in the tender age of 13, but left quickly. His next move was to drop out of school and start leading a life of petty crime and drug dealing. Mark was also involved in harassing a group of Black kids with racial slurs and several racially motivated attacks. After one, against a Vietnamese man, he was charged with attempted murder, which was later reduced to criminal contempt, pleaded guilty and received a two-year sentence. He did not serve it, having spent 45 days in the correctional facility. Mark’s older brother helped him turn his life around.
Donnie put together a group of Black artists to perform alongside his brother. They got a name Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. Donnie also wrote and produced for them a breakthrough single, “Good Vibrations”. It was a catchy, “feel-good” pop/rap track that ended up in the Top 10 in 1991. Mark’s bare chest and the image of a bad but sweet boy went a long way. The older brother also arranged for Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch to open for New Kids on the Block, boosting their popularity. Life was good. Marky Mark’s first album was doing well, and his good looks landed him a modelling gig with Calvin Klein. However, to balance the sweet persona and the bad boy sex appeal was not easy. Eventually, Mark started getting involved in altercations again, including one with Madonna’s entourage, another with a security guard, and, finally, breaking the jaw of a guy who later sued him for that.
Cancellation
It all started looking bad and then came to a halt in 1993, when on British TV, Mark refused to condemn the statement of another show guest, Shabba Ranks, that gays deserved to be crucified. Moreover, Mark praised him for his “candour”. For Marky Mark’s main audience, young women and gay men, it was too much. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) protested to Klein about his use of a homophobe to sell men’s underwear, and threatened a boycott. The second album flopped. Mark’s public apologies did not help much, and he went to Germany to restart his career from there. We know the result – Mark Wahlberg is not a rap star but a famous, well paid actor.
Rap Authority
So, it was a little bit of a context for a question, with which a reporter intercepted Mark Wahlberg in the street: “Who is the best rapper? You, Eminem, Vanilla Ice?” Maybe it was an attempt to make Mark look at his history, but he seemed very well informed about current events. His picks as the best rappers are Millyz and Token, both fellow Bostonians. And not to let his answer be misinterpreted as if he thought that they are better than Marshall, the actor defined them as “the next guys”, the best of their generation. “Eminem is a GOAT”, states Wahlberg.
The time when he called Eminem an asshole under his breath during an interview, and Em retaliated on “Drug Ballad”, is in the past. Mark gave Eminem his flowers many times since, and Marshall called him one of his favourite actors. Time is a great equaliser. Their beginnings were to some extent similar – difficult early years and rap as the way to change their lives for the better, notoriety and the public backlash, but also so different in the attitude towards the genre and the perception. At the end of the day, each of them finds their own way and inner peace.
