Mark Subra

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Mark Subramaniam, also known as Mark Subra, Mark Essential and recently Mark Bonafide (born July 1, 1979) is one of the pioneers to fuse R&B, Hip-Hop/Rap and Soul in Singapore. He is the co-founder of Singapore's premier critically acclaimed urban group "Bonafide". Subra is of mixed Indian and Chinese descent and attended Boon Lay primary, Jurong Secondary and IBMEC.

Subra was a rapper in "Bonafide" with fellow partner and secondary school classmate Taufik Batisah, who won the first "Singapore Idol" Competition in 2004 and went on to pursue a solo career in music.

[edit] Music Profile

Mark has been in the local R&b Hip hop music scene since 2001 and has been making a name for himself in Singapore and is known in Malaysia for his works with Malaysian Hip Hop group TTC's albums and performing occasionally in Kuala Lumpur. He has performed in Zouk in Singapore, The MTV Jams party in Jams the club, The Annual hiphop festival for 3 years in a row, headlining the most recent one. Songwriting and rapping for several Taiwanese and Mongolian groups and producers. He adopts a smooth style of rapping which most expresses his choice of topics in songs namely about love, relationships etc. He also sings back-up, writes and produces his own songs and collaborates with new bands.

Subra's most notably big break came when he, Taufik Batisah and a few others, after winning a competition, were chosen as the opening act for the successful American group Black Eyed Peas, and alongside with "Trivalation" and "Wicked Aura". A certain concert-goer wrote in to express his surprise and happiness with the group's performance at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

That gave way to many more performances and landed him another opening act with Jin the MC, who had a showcase in Singapore. Shortly after, Taufik joined the "Singapore Idol" competition and later, went on to win the title, but still active in his musical partnership with Mark, performing together from time to time, most notably appearing as a guest artist on the Idol's first ever showcase which was well-received.

Later on, as Taufik couldn't be in an official group with Mark due to his contractual obligations, he went on to create a new project-based group, with 3 other members who performed together for the Black Eyed Peas opener to form Bonafide Vintage Flav'r. They released an EP called The BVF Project to rave reviews in magazines such Lime, Aging youth and most notably achieving 3½ Stars in The Straits Times Life! Album Review.

Subra has also co-hosted Singapore radio station 98.7 FM Home Show with Daniel Ong and also the "2nite" show on Power 98. Their debut single "Feels Good" which Mark wrote the infectious hook and co-produced it with one of Malaysia's finest producer Fiquetional. The single went straight to Number One on the "2nite" show climax charts. It received airplay in just about every major English radio station. Malay radio station "RIA FM" rotated 3 songs from the EP on the airwaves.

[edit] BVF (Bonafide Vintage Flav'r)

Appearing on Lime Magazine and Straits Times Life section, BVF (short for Bonafide Vintage Flav'r) was the first local group to be featured on the Friday weekly Life section dedicated to Local Music)

BVF was also approached to write the theme song for Team Singapore. This was featured as one of the main songs for the IOC meeting that recently took place. On the 24th of July this song was officially launched by none other than our President, S. R. Nathan.

This group was nominated for “Best Music” in the Streetstyle awards held at Zouk on the 16th Dec 2005, Best local act and Best local song in 2006 year end awards in 98.7 fm

Unfortunately, the successful group disbanded since it was a project-based union, also citing reasons such as creative differences, although there were many factors and reasons unknown for the split.

[edit] Recent accomplishments

Subra also wrote and produced (with local rapper/producer Rauzan) and performed 2 songs for Levi's new Redwire Jeans which was launched in July 2006. These songs can be found on Levi's official website under the R&B and Hip Hop section of the promos.

He appeared in Taufik's second album, All Because Of You on a track called "Stuck up Girl"

Mark is currently working on his solo project titled The Bonafide Experience, which will be executive produced by Don Richmond and Taufik, although information about this album is kept under wraps. This album will showcase a wide array of styles, his diverse music taste and influences throughout his whole life. He cites that this album will be revolutionary for Singapore's urban music scene.

Subra was most recently crowned Class 95 FM's Jean Danker's 'ToyBoy', edging out another 4 challengers for the title.