Long before becoming a respected monkey wrangler and making porn palatable for the masses respectively, Mark Wahlberg languished in shadow of his older brother, Donny. Whilst garnering success as a gay pinup boy for Calvin, Marky felt the need to develop a straight fan base. And what better way than crossing into the defensively heterosexual domain of rap music.
Drawing on Donny's horde of producers and industry connections, Marky attracted soul vocalist Loleatta Holloway to his project of creating hetero-pop music. Loleatta's distinctive vocal stylings brought a modicum of credibility to the otherwise meretricous Funky Bunch. Her voice is barely contained by Marky's poor hip hop skillz and she dominates their first single "Good Vibrations" from debut album Music For The People. The number one status of this first single was both Marky Mark's crowning glory and the albatross around his neck. Indeed, Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch are popularly referred to as one-hit wonders due to them being unable to follow up their first musical outing. The second LP, You Gotta Believe, received a tepid critical response and peaked at number 14. His openly homophobic comments at the time didn't help.
Unlike most popular white rappers (e.g. Beastie Boys, Vanilla Ice), Marky gave credit where credit was due. Instead of simply sampling Loleatta, she was involved in production and had equal billing on the single, labelled as "Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch with Loleatta Holloway". If Vanilla Ice had done the same for David Bowie/Queen, the world would be a safer place.
After fading into relative obscurity, Marky reverted to the name with which he was christened.
Discography - Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch
Music for the People, Interscope, 1991
1.Music for the People (Wahlberg/Wahlberg) - 4:19
2.Good Vibrations (Marky Mark/Marky Mark/Spice) - 4:25
3.Wildside (Reed/Spice/Wahlberg) - 5:07
4.Bout Time I Funk You (Johnson/Jonzun/Wahlberg/Wahlberg) - 4:29
5.Peace (Wahlberg/Wahlberg) - 5:28
6.So What Chu Sayin (Wahlberg/Wahlberg/Wood) - 4:41
7.Marky Mark Is Here (Wahlberg/Wahlberg) - 4:00
8.On the House Tip (Spice/Wahlberg) - 3:42
9.Make Me Say Ooh! (Spice/Wahlberg) - 3:43
10.I Need Money (Wahlberg/Wahlberg) - 4:29
11.The Last Song on Side (Castor/Pruitt/Wahlberg/Wood) - 3:59
You Gotta Believe, Interscope, 1992
1. Intro: The Crisis (Taylor/Wahlberg) - 1:02
2. You Gotta Believe (Marshall/Maxwell/Wahlberg) - 4:32
3. Gonna Have a Good Time (Spice/Wahlberg) - 4:32
4. Loungin' (Featuring Donnie D)(Marshall/Maxwell/Wahlberg) - 4:26
5. Don't Ya Sleep (Blocker/Doyle/Verde/Wahlberg) - 2:53
6. I Want You (Introducing Trez) (Spice/Wahlberg) - 6:09
7. The American Dream (Featuring Donnie D) (Johnson/Marky Mark/Spice/Thomas/Wahlberg) - 5:22
8. The M (Taylor/Wahlberg) - 2:03
9. Get Up (Taylor/Wahlberg) - 3:25
10. Super Cool Mack Daddy (Marshall/Maxwell/Taylor/Wahlberg/Wahlberg) - 4:43
11. I Run Rhymes (Featuring the Funkiest Bank Known to Man) (Johnson/Marky Mark/Thomas) - 5:16
12. Ain't No Stoppin' the Funky Bunch (Featuring the Funky Bunch) (Blocker/Doyle/Verde) - 4:03
13. Last Song on Side B, Pt. 2: Go On (Featuring Daddy Screechie) (Brain/Maxwell/Wood/Young) - 4:41
14. The Solution (Wahlberg) - 1:03