Farewell to Mark ‘Marko’ Rahman of 90s Chicago hip-hop group East of the Rock

Mark “Marko” Rahman, aka Chicago rapper the Mad Thinker, died February 18 at age 54. Rahman came to prominence in the early 90s as part of East of the Rock; his childhood friend and EOTR bandmate the Flux says Rahman came up with the name—the group’s members lived east of Stony Island. Kool Keith was Rahman’s biggest inspiration. “He did not want to do that style without putting his own mark on it,” the Flux says. “He had the delivery, he had the voice, he had the cadence, he had the rhymes, and he had a way of incorporating small experiences in his rhymes. He knew that so-and-so person would be listening to a song at some point, so he would throw something in there just for that person.” The Flux says East of the Rock nearly broke out a couple times before splitting up in 1995, and helped the local scene go mainstream. “We were the first rap act ever to play Metro; we were the first rap act ever to play Double Door,” he says. EOTR’s recordings were hard to find till the Black Pegasus label released the Galaxy Rays EP in 2010.

Taylor Ford plays bass for mathy indie band Origami Button and guitar for fifth-wave emo songwriter Eric Reyes (aka Snow Ellet), but he also has a solo chillwave project called Toloro. On the new Channel Zero: Forgotten Media, Ford combines glistening dream pop and montages of late-night TV ads—it feels like nodding off in front of the tube just before dawn.

^{Channel Zero is the latest of 11 Toloro releases available on Bandcamp.}

Producer Na’el Shehade and singer-songwriter Via Rosa, aka local electro-R&B duo Drama, established themselves as pillars of the city’s pop firmament with their 2016 debut EP, Gallows; on their 2020 LP, Dance Without Me, they crystallized their stately, classically proportioned sound. Last month the duo released the EP Don’t Wait Up, whose tracks “3AM” and “Hit My Line” offer listeners sanctuary in their most lovelorn and introspective moments. On Saturday, March 12, Drama celebrate with a show at Metro.

^{Drama begin their Don’t Wait Up Tour on March 1 and end it with a show at Metro on March 12.}

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