Mark’s ‘1999’: NCT Rapper Drops His Solo Anthem—Here’s Why It Will Be a Great Success

Greetings to my current and new blog followers. There is exciting news coming up in the K-Pop world that I am sure many of you are aware of. Mark, rapper from NCT is coming out with a new album titled The Firstfruit featuring his lead single, "1999" named after his birth year. What's especially interesting about his upcoming album is that it's essentially like an autobiography of his life growing up in Canadian cities such as Toronto and Vancouver (Source X: @joyfulmarkly).

The Tracks and Their Connection to His Autobiography:

First, let's take a short look at some of the tracks that we know will be connected to his life story. 

• "1999"- this is an obvious track that connects to both Mark's birth year and his birth city of Toronto (Source X: @soompi ). If you have not watched the teaser yet, I embedded it below. It is a very interesting preview of his upcoming album and I really like his message at the end. The guitar in the background adds to the excitement of the upcoming single and album because it makes it feel like we are in for a compelling narrative as fans in addition to the rest of the approaching smash hits (NCT, YouTube, 2025). 

• "Toronto's Window"- this is going to be the first track of his album. Though it is the first song, it is not the flagship track of the whole album. In contrast to "1999", this track is probably going to be more instrumental courtesy of Code Kunst's piano skills (Source X: @joyfulmarkly). "1999" seems more like it will include both pop and rap elements in it.
• "Raincouver"- as the sixth track of Mark's album, "Raincouver" will touch on his pre-teen years (perhaps other parts of his childhood too) growing up in Vancouver before moving to Seoul in 2012 (Source:Kpopmap X @cry4lmk). We know so far that it will contain soft beats to match with the reflective vibe of the song in addition to fitting in with the weather of Vancouver (Source: X @joyfulmarkly). What a creative and descriptive title to give to a song! It sounds like it will be another reflective hit in the album!
• "Fraktsiya"- this is the fifth track that will take a different focus compared to the previous three mentioned. In "Fraktsiya", Mark will tie in many hip hop elements, 808 bass and synths; but what I am especially excited for him tying in some Christian undertones in the song because I know that he is a Christian and I am a Christian fan of K-Pop and J-Pop (Source: Genius.com, X @r/NCT). This is overall very exciting news.

Tracks We Don't Know That Much About Yet

• "Flight to NYC"- this is the third track of the album and so far there are no sound clips or teasers. The skit that was done for this song hints that it may be shorter than two minutes (Source: KpopStarz). It could be about a literal or figurative trip of his to New York City. In many K-Pop and J-Pop music videos, I see many of cityscapes in the background, so for this music video, I am expecting it will be about the flight and show a lot of details of his experiences in New York City. I expect this to be a quieter song compared to "Fraktsiya".
• "Journey Mercies"- this is the eleventh track of the album and we know less about this song than we do about the others (Source: X @markfcore). We can guess based on the name that it is about his journeys in life such as overseas to Seoul or around Canada/the U.S.. We can also guess that it will tie in more about his Christian faith because of the word "Mercies". Since we do not know that much about this song yet, it makes me very excited to listen to it when it comes out soon.

Why "1999" and All of the Tracks Will Be a Great Success

So a recap on "1999", just based on the video and the information that Mark presented to the audience about his faith and life story, we can predict that it's going to be very successful. The video has over 300k views since March 23rd showing that it is trending in the K-Pop world (NCT, YouTube, 2025). The hype and suspense brought about by all of the tracks (including the other five I listed here) is going to make fans want to listen to the album as soon as it drops (Source: X @xneojunx). For those who follow NCT as a whole or those who are big K-Pop/J-Pop fans, but have not heard of or followed Mark's music yet, I think that many of them will be interested in this album just based on the quality of its story telling, singing and background music. 

My hope also as a Christian K-Pop fan is that Mark's music influences them to draw closer to Jesus. What are you all looking forward to in Mark's soon to be latest album? What song or beat do you think you will like most? Feel free to voice your excitement in the comment section below either before or after the album comes out. If after, you can just simply write which song you liked the best. Head's up everyone, Mark's The Firstfruit album will be out April 7th, at 6:00 P.M. Korean Standard Time!