m4rkim
listening stats
as of february 28th, 2025, m4rkim is my #1 most listened artist of all-time with 5,147 plays, as tracked on last.fm.
about
m4rkim is a young brazilian artist (born in 2002), that creates brazilian nerdcore music (music inspired by/that reflects themes from nerd culture: anime, manga, games and such).
his style blends mostly rock/metal, trap and rap, but varies a lot based on the character/story being interpreted.
if you're new to nerdcore, see: brazilian nerdcore for why this is so interesting to me.
favorites playlist
a playlist with a few of my favorites: [br nerdcore] m4rkim favorites (15 songs)
rank | character | anime/manga/game | title | score | genre/style breakdown | key | bpm | tags | release date | obs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
#1 | hantengu | demon slayer | lua superior quatro | 9.8 | trap/electronic + metal | high note chorus | true metal singer chorus | |||
#2 | crocodile | one piece | rei do deserto | 9.6 | epic aggressive (piano/violin/brass/choir-based) | false chord chorus | insane false chord chorus | |||
#3 | gilgamesh | fate | portões da babilônia | 9.6 | epic/debonair trap (synth-based) | cool false chord flows at 3:02, 3:17 | ||||
#4 | erwin smith | attack on titan | sasageyo | 9.4 | epic aggressive | false chord | not one of the most technically complex/well-produced tracks, but the performance still touches me very deeply. the speech starting at 2:38 is crazy. | |||
#5 | ulquiorra | bleach | murciélago | 9.4 | epic trap (synth-based) | high note chorus | slightly too loud violins and slightly too many high frequencies in the chorus | |||
#6 | musashi miyamoto | vagabond | caminho da espada | 9.3 | asian-inspired, trap | part 1 | ||||
#7 | hashiras x kokushibo | demon slayer | castelo infinito | 9.3 | asian-inspired, trap/electronic + metal | cypher | ||||
#8 | escanor | nanatsu no taizai | pecado do orgulho | 9.3 | epic aggressive | low voice placement, storytelling | ||||
#9 | rob lucci | one piece | selvagem | 9.3 | trap (guitar-based) | flows | most mainstream trap sounding, but in a cool way | |||
#10 | musashi miyamoto | vagabond | caminho da alma | 9.2 | asian-inspired, trap | part 3 - cool falsetto at 3:58 | ||||
#11 | chihiro | kagurabachi | espadas, magias & vingança | 9.2 | aggressive trap | feels a bit off-tone at 1:44 but once you overlook it, the song is pretty badass. the chopped up flows and the "aarrrghhh"s in the background of the chorus are great | ||||
#12 | musashi miyamoto | vagabond | caminho da morte | 9.1 | asian-inspired, trap | part 2 | ||||
#13 | isagi yoichi | blue lock | egoísta | 9.1 | epic trap (synth-based) | high voice placement | the tone can feel a bit too moan(y) and a bit cringe/hard to hear at first, but hey, that's isagi as well. both the song and the character get better the more you listen and get into the story! once you let go of that, you can feel he's singing with heart. i wish m4rkim used a bit more drive throughout the song like he did in the bridge to the first chorus. | |||
#14 | fushiguro toji | jujutsu kaisen | só basta pagar | 9.1 | aggressive trap | |||||
#15 | kratos | god of war | ruína dos deuses | 9.1 | rap + metal | crazy gang vocals in the chorus, great false chord verses at 3:21 and high notes following up, great placement at 3:49 | ||||
#16 | suguru geto | jujutsu kaisen | espiral | 9 | epic trap | |||||
#17 | kenjaku | jujutsu kaisen | corpo morto | 9 | trap/electronic + metal | |||||
#18 | kaneki | tokyo ghoul | faminto | 9 | rock + electronic | |||||
#19 | ichigo | bleach | zangetsu | 8.9 | rock + electronic | flows | great false chord flow at 1:21 | |||
#20 | yoriichi | demon slayer | sol da noite | 8.8 | rock + electronic | |||||
#21 | beelzebub | shuumatsu no valkyrie | moscas | 8.8 | debonair trap | |||||
#22 | shaka | saint seiya | sentidos | 8.8 | experimental trap (guitar-based) | |||||
#23 | johnny joestar | jojo's bizarre adventure | tusk | 8.8 | experimental trap (pluck) | lgbt energy | ||||
#24 | saber | fate | excalibur | 8.8 | orchestral rock | breakdown | ||||
#25 | dio brando | jojo's bizarre adventure | za warudo | 8.7 | experimental trap (guitar-based) | chorus | ||||
#26 | apollo | shuumatsu no valkyrie | sol | 8.6 | debonair trap | |||||
#27 | guts | berserk | perdi tudo | 8.6 | rap + metal | |||||
#28 | naruto vs pain | naruto | conto de um ninja destemido | 8.4 | fast-paced trap | flows, voice acting | since it's a battle song, it's high-tempo, but it's a bit too much to convey the emotional messages they carry. m4rkim's performance and flows full of swag as pain are the clear highlights for me. | |||
#29 | makima | chainsaw man | demônio controle | 8.4 | debonair trap | lyrics, lgbt energy | ||||
#30 | doflamingo | one piece | por um fio | 8 | epic trap (guitar-based) |
a list with all of my most listened songs (1-50): https://www.last.fm/user/cassiuscarvalho/library/music/M4rkim/+tracks
a personal review - why m4rkim is my #1 most listened artist:
text written in july 26th, 2024:
m4rkim is by far my most listened to artist in the brazilian nerdcore scene. (3x more than the second/third anirap/oshaman, [[secondtime]], etc) i love the guy. my analysis/reflection below is not being overly critical, but just pointing out things i really enjoy and things i think he could be even better at.
update (sept 24th, 2024): it's like m4rkim read exactly what i wrote below and decided to up his game for murciélago - ulquiorra. 😝 it's a great song. if it weren't for a few aspects of the mix (slightly too loud violins and a slightly too high chorus, i missed a bit more heaviness in it), it'd be my favorite song. still, it's super good and it honors how good of a character ulquiorra is.
i really like m4rkim's primarily trap/rock style, mixing a lot of flow and aggressive deliveries. it can be seen early on on songs like gon (8), saber (8.8) and erwin smith (9.4), and more refined later on on songs like [ichigo] (8.9), kenjaku (9), rob lucci (9.3). and as he kept evolving, i think he really found his unique sound in this style and capitalized on it. his cypher hashiras x kokushibou, castelo infinito (9.3) captured this spirit early on and was for a long time my favorite while he still hadn't released some the songs that were soon to become my favorites.
one thing i noticed though, as i was looking through my most listened songs, i started noticing/comparing the characters they were about vs the characters in the songs i really like from other [[brazilian nerdcore]] artists.
for example, my two favorite m4rkim songs - hantengu (9.8) and crocodile (9.6) - have nothing to do with the characters, but because of how it actually sounds/how it was delivered. on both of these, the construction/build up is great and the choruses are explosive - very powerful and surprising. they kept me at the edge the whole time. gilgamesh (9.6), also one of my favorites, has a bit more of the character flair shining through - the orchestral instrumentation, the debonair demeanor, the lyrics themselves. props to him and the producers/editors!
a few of my favorite characters for a song would be like: sung jin woo (8) and eren (8) for some of the most epic yet meaningful/troubled stories. others like aki hayakawa (i really like rodrigo zin's and sasuke (8) can have way more reflexive songs, which is not his style. sukuna and madara with the all-in glorious epic music. yet, m4rkim's renditions of them (with the exception of aki, which he doesn't have one) are hardly in my top 50 of my most listened songs from him.
in my opinion, it's a missed opportunity by him. daarui was able to capitalize on that on his songs on sukuna and satoru gojo, for example. henrique mendonça (of course), with guts and geto, as well. okabe with denji and kokushibo. anirap with eren and akaza...
sure, it's also freaking awesome to take a weak character like hantengu and elevate him with a song like [[m4rkim]] did. but also taking a badass character and making a song that lives up to their expression, is freaking awesome.
if he wants to rise to an even higher level in terms of emotional connection/storytelling, i believe these reflections provide some clues.
i also really like some of his soft-spoken, more melodic lines, like the ones in [musashi miyamoto, caminho da alma] (9.2). i love the trilogy of [musashi] (9.3, 9.1, 9.2) songs, but really think some of it could be way slower-paced and more experimental compared to other characters/narratives. but also, i understand the appeal of keeping it primarily high-tempo, especially for a younger audience. even in the [eren] (8) song i mentioned, my favorite part are the melodic/reflexive lines talking about mikasa (4:07), which also sets up for a big chorus.
i believe the same missed opportunity happened with beelzebub, which i also really like how it sounds, but i believe he could have explored a lot more the choir/ambience and make it less electronic, so it could hit more in the feels.
he does some surprising stuff at times as well, like [shaka de virgem] (8.8), rob lucci (9.3) itself (with some crazy cool flows and a very different texture in the chorus), chihiro (9.2) (invoking a much more [[anirap]] style of singing), johnny joestar (8.8)/makima (8.4) (invoking a more lgbtq style), which i believe bring a great deal of novelty/freshness to it.
there's of course lots of other good/hit songs like buda (8), doflamingo (8), barba branca (8), kaidou (8), the mask (7), lampião (8)...
just like he was able to develop more techniques (especially for the metal stuff) in the past 2 years, i think if he's able to explore more of these aspects (melodic, ambient), he'll go even beyond. henrique mendonça and daarui are good references for this, embracing this kind of more wholistic "producer mindset" and exploring less conventional approaches.
yet again, they haven't been freakin' posting a song EVERY WEEK since basically the beginning of their channel. m4rkim is a beast in this sense. so i guess these thoughts apply for the time when/if he feels that he wants to change a bit directions and maybe dive deeper into these aspects i brought. he may well be happy continuing on this path for many years until him or his audience gets saturated, if they ever do.