Mark Battles

Mark Battles (born September 2, 1991), is an American rapper, songwriter and record producer from Indianapolis, Indiana. He is the CEO & Founder of his own record label Fly America. Battles first received recognition for his 2012 hip hop single "Last Night" which placed second on MTVu. On May 3, 2014, Battles was labeled as an 'Artist To Watch' by FoxWeekly.^[1]

Battles has worked with various major hip hop recording artists including Kid Ink, King Los, Lola Monroe, Wale, Lil Wayne, Dizzy Wright & Ab-Soul.^[2] Battles has released several mixtapes since 2011 of both original and remix tracks including his most recent collaboration album with Bad Boy recording artist King Los.^[3] The collaboration mixtape with Los called "Broken Silence" was covered by rap news outlets and was premiered on Vibe Magazine & New York's Respect. Magazine.^[4][5]

Early life

Battles was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, to his mother Chiffonda Ducking. Battles has three siblings, 2 brothers, named Anthony and Carl battles and 1 sister.^[6] Mark started rapping under a different stage name before using his current rap name. Mark graduated as Class of 2009 from Pike High School located in northern Indianapolis. Mark's inspiration comes from hip hop legends like Big Pun, Eminem and 2Pac.

On August 31, 2006, Mark's brother Carl Battles was riding the backseat seat and Mark was in the front seat while being driven by his sister Aishareika to school. In the morning hours, Aishareika's car collided with a pick up truck on Northwestern Side near 71st street near their school Pike High School.^[6] Carl, Aishareika and Mark were sent to the hospital from the crash scene.^[7] Carl was shortly pronounced dead after arriving at the hospital. Reports say both cars were speeding on a yellow light and the incident had prompted the roads near the school to be enforced with speed enforcement cameras.^[8] In one of Mark's songs titled "One For The Money", he mentions and pays tribute to his brother at the end of the track.

Musical career

2005-2012: Career beginnings

Mark started rapping officially at age 15. Inspired mostly of rappers like Big Pun, DMX, Jay-Z and Drake. Mark started his own independent record label and movement called Fly America which is his brand that is seen and heard through his music.^[9] In 2012, Mark released his first major mixtape called Walking Distance with appearances from Kid Ink, Lola Monroe and King Los. Mark's music video single Last Night was remixed by Kid Ink and was released without a music video. Most of the material in the mixtape was produced by Mark's DJ & producer, DJ Yung 1. Mark's most famous singles were "Ugh Oh" featuring Los, and Last Night, which was featured on MTVu Freshman and hit second place for air time on MTV.^[10][11] Mark has remixed numerous famous hip hop songs which have appeared on his mixtapes.^[9] On November 2012, Mark released the first part of his mixtape series Saturday School.

2013-present: Broken Silence

In 2013, Mark signed his first recording artist Derek Luh to his record label Fly America.^[9] On March 15, 2014, Derek was ranked #9 by Fox Weekly as an 'artist to watch.'^[12] During 2013, Mark has released Part 2 & 3 of his Saturday School mixtape series and has been touring. Mark has performed alongside MGK in a sold out show in 2013. On October 17, 2013, Vibe Magazine premiered the first single titled "Can't Stand Us" off of Mark's collaboration mixtape. The single featured both French Montana & Derek Luh. On December 27, 2013, Mark released his collaboration mixtape with King Los. The mixtape featured hip hop artists Wale, Curren$y, Ab-Soul, French Montana, Dizzy Wright, Cyhi Da Prynce and Chevy Woods.^[13] The first single was released titled "Got A Feeling" and featured King Los & Wale.^[14]

On January 28, 2014, Mark Battles announced a release date for his new mixtape Black Einstein. The free tape drops on HotNewHipHop.Com on February 20, 2014. He also revealed that the project would feature Dizzy Wright, Joe Budden, Curren$y, French Montana, Euroz and more.^[15]

The music video for the first single off of Black Einstein mixtape was released on January 30, 2014. The video didn't pick up steam until days later, where it racked up millions of Worldstarhiphop views. The video features Wale and Derek Luh.^[16] On February 20 Mark Battles released his mixtape "Black Einstein" for free download.^[17]

On August 12, 2014 Battles released his newest work, Preseason.^[18] This mixtape was eagerly awaited due to Battles' consistent reminders on his Social Media accounts. Battles released a single off of Preseason called "The Truth" using the iconic Reggie Miller choke as his cover art for it. This single was highly praised and perfectly sets the mood for the rest of the mixtape.

Discography

Mixtapes

• Good Morning America (2011)
• Walking Distance (2012)
• Saturday School
• Saturday School 2 (2012)
• Saturday School 3 (2012)
• Broken Silence (2013)
• Black Einstein (2014)
• Preseason (2014)
• Lost In Reality (2015) (with Dizzy Wright and Euroz)
• Shelter Food (2015)

References

External links

• Official website
• Official Twitter
• MTV Artists Page