Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch

As the younger brother of New Kids on the Block roughneck Donnie "Donnie D" Wahlberg (who produced and cowrote most of the former's music), "Marky Mark" Wahlberg was a zero-cred rapper who scored with 1991's "Good Vibrations." With a high-energy, hip-house sound similar to that of "The Power" by Snap! and a memorable video featuring Marky Mark curling bricks in the rain, "Good Vibrations" (no relation to the Beach Boys classic) helped Music for the People go platinum. Surrounded by an all-black crew (the Funky Bunch) and flexing in Calvin Klein underwear ads, Marky Mark continued to mix pop aspirations with a tough-guy attitude on his second album, You Gotta Believe, but he couldn't repeat the commercial success of his debut. Having put himself on ice with couplets like "Freezer might as well be frostin'/Cuz I'm the baddest white boy in Boston" (from "Super Cool Mack Daddy"), Marky Mark appeared to be no more than an extended footnote in the New Kids on the Block story. But soon Marky Marky reverted to his given name and made his acting breakthrough as a studly porn star in Paul Thomas Anderson's acclaimed film Boogie Nights. This kicked off a string of major films roles for Wahlberg -- including costarring alongside Ice Cube in Three Kings and the title role in Rock Star, a film based on the Judas Priest story -- that remains a going concern. (PETER RELIC)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide