Artist Highlight: Mark Lee
An overview of the career of NCT’s busiest member, Korean-Canadian rapper Mark.
Mark, born Mark Lee of Toronto, has been a member of NCT since he was 16 years old. In the seven years since then, Mark has shown many versions of himself throughout his many debuts.
NCT
Mark made his NCT debut in NCT U’s first unit known as “The 7th Sense” unit on April 9, 2016. The unit, composed of Mark, Taeyong, Doyoung, Ten, and Jaehyun, reunited for the track “Baggy Jeans” on NCT’s latest album Golden Age. Nearly three months after his NCT U debut, Mark debuted in NCT’s fixed sub-unit NCT 127. Shortly after his 17th birthday, Mark debuted in the sub-unit NCT Dream with the single “Chewing Gum”. Due to scheduling conflicts, Mark and fellow member Haechan are often absent from certain NCT Dream activities, as to give priority to their participation in NCT 127. Despite this, Mark is the leader of NCT Dream and balances both groups as well as he can. Since his debut, Mark has been actively writing and composing various NCT songs, even ones that he is not featured on. This includes the Korean version of the recently released single “Marine Turtle” by Chinese members Kun, Xiaojun, Renjun, and Chenle.
SuperM
Three years after his NCT debut, Mark was announced as a member of SM Entertainment's supergroup SuperM. The group consists of EXO’s Baekhyun and Kai; SHINee’s maknae Taemin; NCT 127’s Mark and Taeyong; and WayV’s Ten and former member Lucas. On October 4, 2019 the EP SuperM was released alongside the music video for the title track “Jopping”. The EP debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart and peaked at 33 on South Korea's year-end chart. The group has been inactive since Baekhyun’s military enlistment on May 6, 2021. Due to multiple members enlistments, the group has yet to make a comeback.
Solo
Mark's first solo song “Child” was released February 4, 2022. The song peaked at no. 8 on U.S Billboard Charts and 23 on the South Korean Gaon Digital Charts. A year later, he released his second solo song “Golden Hour” as a part of NCT’s NCT LAB. Mark has expressed his desire to make an official solo debut with a rap album; however, any confirmation of a solo project from the rapper has yet to be made.
Edited by Lacey Diluvio