HIP hop music is often a potent voice for those with difficult life experiences. In fact, this genre of music has been the saving grace of various marginalised communities throughout history. For Mark Navin Lourdes – known professionally as Mark Prosper – it has been no different as hip hop became an outlet for him to express his thoughts and individuality.
“What drew me to rapping was the need to voice out the struggles faced by my community. I felt rap was the perfect tool. And when I found out about the local rap scene, I was really into it.”
Although he had learned to make his rhymes and lyrics earlier, things only kicked off professionally after meeting his close friend Black Yoda in college.
“He was producing beats back then and he wanted a rapper to rap for him. So, we formed a group, RMP Collective My and we started rapping.”
Aside from his group endeavours, Mark has also steadily been making his mark in the industry with his recent solo works.
How did you come up with your stage name?
Mark is my first name and Prosper is because I like the word. To me, it does not necessarily mean being prosperous in the financial sense. It can also mean in other areas where you can put in effort.
What was the inspiration behind your latest single, Prosper Yoda?
Like the title says, it was inspired by our names Black Yoda and Mark Prosper. The song is basically about the message we have for our past selves.
Back then, we were quite rebellious and overconfident. So, we wanted to do a song to remind ourselves to remain humble.
And if you go through the song, the verses talk about our past selves and the chorus speaks about our current selves.
For the instrumental beat, we wanted to incorporate drill music. We felt its particular sound and concept fit the song. It also helps that the sub-genre is relatively new to the local Tamil music scene.
How was the process of recording the music video?
It was directed by me and my team. We wanted the video to feature our neighbourhood. We wanted to show where we came from. So, we just shot in our neighbourhood. The process was fun because it was the first music video that my team and I directed and edited.
So, we learned everything from pre-production to post-production. It was a learning process I really enjoyed. Thanks to this experience, I can now film and edit for other artistes under our collectives for their solo works.
Would you say current social issues and local politics are a great source of inspiration?
Definitely! I take inspiration from my surroundings, whatever is happening around me. I feel it is much easier for me to talk about it. You are inspired because it frustrates you. For instance, I have a song with Sykadelik called Unity about the social issues faced by my community. So yeah, social issues and local politics definitely are a great source of inspiration.
What are some of the challenges you have faced as a local act?
As a fairly new independent rapper, you are starting from ground zero. You have no experience. From publishing to producing your music, you are learning everything from scratch.
Initially, I did not know how to project my voice to the mic. So, learning from zero was a struggle. The next thing would be to get exposure for my music. To get people outside my social circle to listen to my music. It can be tough to reach out to listeners. The final one would be to balance my music and my daytime job. Fortunately, I have been able to pull it off.
What is next for you?
Right now, I am focusing on my group’s collective debut EP.
It will be a collaboration EP that consists of all my members, because we wanted to come up with the collective stuff first and then the solo.
As for its sound, every track will have a different sound. We want to feature the different genres of rap music to cater to a wide range of audience. And we hope to drop it by the end of this year.
