The ancestors and angels aligned over Filipino-American, Mark Teodosio, born in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. His growth in the most notorious Hip Hop Mecca in the world set the tone for this warrior with words through the gritty experience of growing up during the late 90s and early 2000s when originality mattered, the street codes were held higher and the culture of Hip Hop was at its peak.
Forged from then to now, evolving from studio to stage Mark has dropped two albums “Be Your Own Hero” in 2019, a string of singles during the 2020 quarantine to finally release a “Bayani Soundtrack” in 2021. He hasn’t compromised his quality for a pop image or sound but displays that versatility of making world appealing music with songs like “CHANGES” from the Bayani Soundtrack & “Afterglow” from his previous release.
Merch and Comics Available on www.savidesigns.nyc
While dropping musician recent years the Fil-Am Native New Yorker decided to transition into writing a comicbook series called the Realest Bayani in 2018 (Bayani = Hero in Tagalog) inspired by the suicide of his cousin, Marlon Ramos (name of protagonist) and an ode to Mark’s own self realization as a product of the Filipino diaspora. This comicbook includes aspects of precolonial Filipino history, superhero origins mixed with indigenous mythologies of the islands as well as a darker version of our near future. Currently his self publishing company TCNY: The City Needs You has published 4 Issues of the series funded by 2 successful Kickstarter campaigns with plans on dropping the final books in 2022.
Choosing to authentically represent Filipino culture in a medium like American comicbooks & Hip Hop as a music genre is not an easy mission and has been an uphill, but glorious journey for Mark T. The Filipino Street Hero has yet to be unmasked for the world to see until then time will tell who’s the realest. With the completion of the comicbook series in 2022, debuting his mixtape with DJ DROP on 12/31/21, a roll out of a few singles and Bayani Soundtrack Vol II Mark has an arsenal of content to keep people interested and tapped in.
