Mark Lee (or Lee Minhyung) is probably one of the most famous idols of k-pop’s 3rd and 4th gen, between being in both regular groups NCT 127 and NCT Dream, several projects with NCT U, and of course, supergroup SuperM. And he’s also quite a successful solo artist, debuting his first album in 2025.

Here are my credentials: Though I have mixed feelings on the many units, albums, and concepts that make up NCT as a whole, Mark has always been one of my favorite members, for a lot of reasons. Suffice to say for now, I admire his artistry and his creativity and I think he’s very talented. It’s funny, because I come at this with an odd kind of trepidation: I really want to love all his music as much as I love him, and I honestly don’t know if I will. So let’s get into it!

Single #1: Child

Child has been on my list to cover for a long time, which may seem surprising if you’ve read a lot of my reviews. I’m not usually that big a fan of hip-hop, or songs without many peaks and valleys that just kind of coast, but Mark, despite being NCT’s main rapper (and dressed the whole MV like he’s doing Eminem cosplay), actually spends over half the song singing. And he has a genuinely lovely voice too, which isn’t at all what I expected the first time I clicked on it. There’s something so soothing about his voice, even when he’s rapping. The sing-talk doesn’t feel like it comes out of nowhere either, instead like a natural progression of the stream-of-consciousness sound of the whole track.

Mark actually wrote the lyrics for Child as well, and you can tell by the way he delivers them; the quiet, hesitant “Who do you think you are, why are you hanging my heart and shaking it?”, the almost angry “I envy Propane, I need to blow up now”, and of course the titular, heartbreakingly plaintive “I’m a child, I can’t be the person you want.” I’ll be honest, it’s a track that took a lot of time to grow on me, but it’s slowly tiptoed its way into becoming one of my favorites, not just from NCT or from a soloist, but of the genre in general.

Single #2: Golden Hour

If ever there was a song that’s a hell of a tonal shift, it’s got to be Golden Hour. I know it’s not entirely fair to compare it to Child, since it’s a completely different kind of song, but…I hate it, I’m sorry. More than my own preferences, I hate that it doesn’t feel like Mark. I know that it’s supposedly based on beef Mark had with Gordon Ramsey (about an egg? On Twitter? Clearly I should brush up on my NCT internet lore), but it feels more like SM shoved him into a song to capitalize on “drama” for views. There’s some good in it, sure, but a lot of that’s due to Mark’s charisma and absolutely nothing to do with the song itself. It’s like a lot of different ideas slammed together without any of the necessary connective tissue, and not in a unique or somewhat intentional way, like Child’s interesting structure. It just feels messy.

Single #3: 200

200 feels like it melds Child and Golden Hour, sounding sonically much more like Child, but combining pop, hip-hop, and an edge of rock in a similar (but better) way to Golden Hour. Again the sing-talk and singing work well together and flow well too; I especially like the little vocal runs he goes on during the verses and pre-choruses. As a 2000s baby, it really gives me the feeling of 2000s / early 2010s boy band music, but with a distinctly kpop—distinctly Mark—spin. This is Mark’s first “love song”, I think, but there’s nothing that explicitly romantic about it, though it hints in that direction, and I really love that. It’s very comfortable.

While I liked Golden Hour’s video, it didn’t feel like a good match for its song. This one is just the opposite; it’s not only a great video, but it’s a great fit for 200. The many references to Spiderman are a lot of fun, and combined with the various animations and comic book design panels, they’re a delight. The transitions here are excellent, by the way, happening right on the beat and adding in a great dose of humor. The moment where Mark combines the “Rockstar” hook and Spiderman’s iconic rock n’ roll web shooting handsign sticks out as particularly funny. The last moments where the house collapses around him and he just starts head banging are both amusing and quite endearing too. Perhaps endearing is the operative word for the whole track.

Single #4: Fraktsiya

Fraktsiya is a collaboration with Lee Youngji, whose EP 16 Fantasy I’ve been meaning to cover in my solo rankings series for a while now. I have a long-standing heavy dislike of featured rappers in kpop songs, because they often feel superfluous and out of nowhere, but I think she really works here. While his last few songs have been mostly singing, this one is basically entirely rapping, and it fits well. Unlike Golden Hour, I think this song has a lot more “good” in it, chiefly the bridge and interesting outro, and I can acknowledge that their rapping is technically quite good. That being said, I just don’t like it. As impartial as I try to be on this blog (at least most of the time), sometimes I just don’t like a song, just because. And this is one of those times.

I don’t know if I’m reading too much into it, but a couple of the outfits Mark wears in this MV—chiefly the fur coat with several gold necklaces and what appears to be a durag—veer a bit too close to cultural appropriation for my liking. We know Mark can rap. He can do it in the letterman jacket and a polo, like he does in the rest of the video. And that’s not even mentioning the blaccent he adopts in a lot of the song, which I’ll discuss in a minute.

Single #5: +82 Pressin

If you’ve been on the blog for a while, you’ll know that both Mark and Haechan are two of my favorite idols. And not only do I love them separately, but I love them together, and so, suffice to say, I reacted like Christmas came early when I heard about their collaboration for +82 Pressin. The MV follows the two of them as a pair of assassins who just can’t bring themselves to kill each other. It’s mainly in black and white, but features little pops of red for emotion: in the scoreboard that ranks them against each other, in Mark’s eyes when he’s struggling with his feelings, and Haechan’s shirt when he debates whether to shoot or not, creating a noir feel that’s distinct from his other, often very colorful videos.

As for the song itself, I think I enjoy the idea of it more than I like the music. I do really wish it had the kind of sprawling chorus that its pre-chorus promises, because that would make a stronger package in general. It’s a little bit hilarious that they even said “we’re dropping like the chorus” in the build-up, as if to rub salt on my (very tiny) wound. But I will never turn down an opportunity to hear Haechan’s voice, so I’m not really complaining. And, on a more personal level, I’m happy that they got to do the collaboration they’ve always wanted to. My one real gripe is, must we return again to the very culturally appropriative clothes again? Like, I get it, the baggy clothes and the gold jewelry and the backwards baseball caps are the aesthetic Korea associates with “hip-hop”. But Mark is Canadian. He knows better.

Interlude: Blaccents In K-pop & Mark’s Rapping

There’s several times, especially in Golden Hour, Fraktsiya, and +82 Pressin that Mark raps with what I’d consider a blaccent (learn more about the term and its history here). It’s really nothing new for kpop, unfortunately, or for many non-black people here in America who adopt the voice for comedic purposes. Awkwafina is probably the most prominent example in recent years, but Lee Youngji, who featured in Fraktsiya, does it too, as do many, many idols.

As someone who’s a linguistics major, I want to say that adopting accents is very common while learning a language. For a quick personal anecdote, I speak German (albeit not fluently) with a distinctly Austrian accent, because the first German I really heard was Austrian German, and the first songs I learned were by Austrian artists. It was actually my teacher who pointed this out to me, because both I and my peers weren’t well versed enough in the language to be able to tell the difference between my pronunciation and so-called “Hoch Deutsch”, or Standard German. I normally wouldn’t mention this at all because I know it’s often an unfortunate byproduct of idols who don’t speak English mimicking the voices they hear making music they enjoy or the way they’re instructed to rap by their company or English teachers and thus not really their fault.

But Mark, as we’ll get into, is from Canada and lived in New York for several years. Though it’s not really my place to speak on a blaccent, I can speak as someone who grew up not even an hour from where he did and say he really doesn’t have an excuse. Also, I’ve heard him speak English for several hours and this is not what he sounds like. He also doesn’t sound like this in his more emotional tracks, like Child, or most of the time when he’s singing in general; it’s an affect he’s deliberately putting on, only while rapping, which is a bit uncomfortable. I want to say that I don’t think he’s doing it with any ill intention, but the man is 25 years old. He knows better, that’s the crux of it, and I don’t think I could call myself his fan if I didn’t hold him to account the way I did with BigBang or Mamamoo. I believe he can do better.

Single #6: 1999

1999 is named after the year Mark was born, and…is nothing like I expected it to be, but this time I mean it as a positive thing. It’s pop to the max, with a hefty dose of funk and some injections of gospel, alongside a backing choir that’s a delight. So is Mark’s falsetto, which he sings the majority of the song in, another very pleasant surprise for me. Just when you think the song is winding down, Mark has one more surprise: that full-to-bursting bridge, bleeding right into the outro, which may be the best part. In my opinion, the odd structure and the interesting lyrics with lots of wordplay make this one of his best songs; rather poetic, in fact, that his first ever single, Child, was much the same way.

As for the MV, it’s a lot of fun too, comparing his own birth in 1999 to the fears people had of the world ending in the year 2000. It’s colorful and retro in a way that feels timeless, as well as quite sweet, including scenes of him playing hockey with his child self, him dancing goofily in the office, and him dancing on the street with people from both Seoul and Toronto. If 200 was all about Spiderman, this one is very Superman.

Album #1: The First Fruit

The Firstfruit as an album is divided (somewhat informally) into four parts: Toronto, 1999; New York, 2006; Vancouver, 2011; and Seoul, 2013, the four cities that have meant something in Mark’s life. It’s a little meaningful for me too, because while Mark was born in Toronto, 1999, I was born in New York, 2006.

There’s so much to talk about in this album. There’s the nostalgic, detailed Raincouver, which bounds along with a jazzy easy-listening beat and sounds like it could be the soundtrack for a slice-of-life kdrama. The very next song, Loser, is similar, but it’s acoustic and far more melancholy, though it manages to build into something far more desperate in its final minute, which elevates the whole thing. Too Much’s central, painstakingly gentle hook of “’cause your love is too much…it’s the only love worth fighting for” is such a powerful, bittersweet closer too. Then, of course, there’s Mom’s Interlude, which is just a conversation between Mark and his mother, and features her piano playing in the background. It’s only a minute and a half long, but every time I hear it, and especially hear her end by asking him, “what did you have for lunch today”, I just get the overwhelming need to call my mother and tell her I love her.

I think that, if I had to pick a favorite from the album, it would be Journey Mercies. While the whole album is clearly very personal, there’s something about this song that just hits differently. There are many songs that describe a toxic love story, but few that get across the feeling of it with so much compassion for every complication. With lines like “so I brought this confession, hate that I gave you up for ashes // turmoil gave birth to a journal, I’m still writing”, it’s like every word has something lurking underneath. It’s the kind of track that grows on you, that grows up with you, and I can already feel it starting.

Mark said on one of his interviews that he hopes people listen to the album through from start to finish, and give him a chance. The best compliment I can give him is that I did do that, twice. Once like I usually do, at my desk to turn my ramblings into some semblance of clarity. Once with my headphones in bed, in my pajamas, holding my childhood stuffed animals, eyes closed, just breathing. I actually wasn’t feeling so well when I wrote this review—that’s why it’s here two days after the album came out—and I mean it when I say that there’s something about the album that feels a little like healing. I hope it felt like that for him too.

Verdict: TL;DR

I’m glad I did this! Like I said at the beginning, I didn’t know what to expect going into this review, but I’m very happy to report that I really enjoyed it. I didn’t think it was possible, but I became an even bigger fan of Mark’s through it. I listened to his radio show while editing, and I’m sure if you asked my roommate, they’d say I had the biggest smile the whole hour. I could spend my own radio show talking about how much I loved his work, but neither you nor I have the time, so we’re moving on.

My Top 5 songs were Child, Journey Mercies, 1999, Loser, Too Much, and 200, with Mom’s Interlude as an honorable mention. Mark gets an 9 out of 10 from me. One thing I can say about him is that he doesn’t compromise his vision for something that’s easy, and his music is introspective and honest in a way that’s unusual for kpop. I have a lot of respect for him for pursuing that in an industry that’s very unforgiving. I’ve said countless times how talented he is at singing and performing, but that can only take you so far if you have subpar material, and no one could accuse him of that.

That being said, I obviously have my criticisms, the blaccent chief among them, and there’s something to be said for the fact that I just don’t like several of his singles, whether that’s because of personal preferences or issues with structure, and so on and so forth. But on the whole, I feel like his body of work really shows you who he is, what he believes in, and why, which isn’t something every artist can say. And so I can say, I’m very proud to be his fan and very excited to see where he goes next.

Next time, we’re onto Part 2 of the CRAVITY deep dive. Tschüss!