Rating:
  Review Date: October 22, 2007
  Website: Random Website
  Label: RAHM Nation Recordings

Random “Mega Ran” Album Review
If there’s one album I regret never getting around to reviewing, it is Random’s “Mega Ran.” When the album dropped on July 19, I was caught up with a site redesign and a stack of CDs I could barely see over. So we did an interview with Random instead. Nonetheless, “Mega Ran” has become one of my favorite albums of 2007 – it is a ridiculously creative concept album based on the Mega Man video game. In addition, Random gave it away for FREE!

Luckily, Random, like me, is a former reader of The Source. And like me, he used to love the magazine’s album breakdown section. For those of you unfamiliar with the once-brilliant Source, it once included a section in which an artist would break down the concept or story behind his or her album for the readers. Random was kind enough to do this for us, and his album breakdown follows …

The Making of “Mega Ran” by Random

The Characters:
Random: lead artist, producer
Dan Smith: lead engineer
DN3: producer, mixdown/mastering engineer
Samik: producer, engineer (Final Battle)
Domingo: producer (Rock and Roll)
Guest Artists: The Megas, Problem Child (Storyville), JonBap, YTCracker, RoseBlack, Kid Overdrive, Loose; Protoman*, Pizon*, Zealous1*, Jake Lefco*

Introduction produced by DN3
DN3 was so supportive of this project, and a huge reason why it got done. When I first told him about it, I don’t know if he knew I was serious, but he got right on it. I sent him an email of all the NES Mega Man files and he was cranking out 1 to 2 beats a day.

The Mega Ran project had a few different directions, like originally I didn’t want to have an introduction. I had a vision for a slim, streamlined, short, succinct album, that was straight to the point. But, once I heard this, I knew it was the one. I wanted the introduction to start off fast, and end quickly, Just to let you guys know the story before we got into it. The concept was that I had a crazy dream that I woke up as Mega Man…. which isn’t too far from reality.

Lyrics

Shadowman produced by Random, scratches by DN3
I thought the Shadowman track had some of the deepest bass and rhythm, so I knew I was going to use it. I experimented with about 5 or 6 drum patterns on that song and couldn’t decide. Finally, upon listening to Timbaland’s ‘Give it To Me’ track with Justin and Nelly, I decided to snatch Timbo’s kick and snare from the beginning of the song, just as a placeholder until I found a better one…. but it stuck (Thanks Tim!) Sidenote, this almost became ‘Mega Club.’ The BPM (Beats per Minute) are exactly the same.

At the time when I wrote this and “Flashman,” I was listening to a lot of Common’s classic album “Resurrection.” Throughout the album, Com just spits out witty line after witty line. I just wanted a B-Boy type track, with some scratching and boasting…but with an upbeat, almost commercial sound….so, out came ‘Shadowman.’ So much of the Mega Ran project was created this way, with me attempting to combine underground lyricism with quirky, electronic beats that could spark some nostalgia.

I creep through the dirt with verses like serpents
Worthless jerks get earthed beneath surface
Shatter dreams and defeat ya purpose
Y’all don’t need a proof of purchase – you got it~!

Lyrics

Bubbleman Produced by DN3
This is a lot of folks’s favorite, mainly because of the emotions this tune brings back. Mega Man 2 was BY FAR the most popular of the series, and almost everyone who had an NES played it a million times. We all remember Bubbleman.

An emcee named YTCracker rhymed on ‘Bubbleman’ for his Nerdrap Entertainment System album in ’05, so although it had been done, I loved the tune so much that I even contacted YT about remixing his track on it and adding a verse to it, well before I started this album (he couldn’t find the files). I asked DN3 to work some magic and hook this one up. I knew that the Bubbleman tune was so popular, I almost decided not to put it on the free download version of the album…. but then I determined that it could only be a good thing if people heard it.

A funny thing about the structure is that it’s unlike any song format I’ve ever used. There’s a 16 bar chorus that starts the song off, then a long verse, then back to the chorus. This makes this song extremely hard to perform live, but very fun in a place where they know the lyrics (like at Nerdapalooza SE–thanks guys!). I love it because it’s so fun, and heartfelt at the same time.

Heard you sold a couple grand? Dawg I’m still strugglin
Guess I got a couple fans, got a lot of love for them
So I gotta make it dope for them, brothers just don’t understand
That’s the life of brother Ran, microphone in one hand
My conscience on the other hand, tellin me to love em, man
But the fans wanna jam, hooked up some Mega Man

That just describes Random’s plight in a nutshell. I make “The Call,” because I want to bring people closer together…but the fans want something fun and danceable…

*For the record, the version I recorded with Dan in Mesa, which isn’t on the album, sounds much better to me than this one. In the midst of soundwaves traveling through emailed files, for some reason in the final mix, my vocals were a little off, putting me about 1/4 step behind the beat. Now most people haven’t noticed or mentioned it (except Flash), but I did. Anyway, its still one of my favorites, it gets repeated just about every time I listen to the album.

Lyrics

Aqua Soul (Robot Love) produced by Random
I looooove this song so much. The sample came from Mega Man 8 on Super Nintendo, and 1 thing that was so impressive about the Super NES (besides Mode 7 technology) was the sound that came out of that box. Videogame music had officially changed from this point on. With games like ActRaiser and the Final Fantasy series, Videogame music became as powerful as movie music.

But enough of that, back to the song. I knew I loved the beat, but I wasn’t sure where to go with the concept. This song almost didn’t come about as is. At first it was a deep, introspective piece about the struggle of an indie artist. Then I thought, this is Mega Ran! Nobody wants to be dragged down with my life story. So I was about to trash the song, beat and all. But then I determined that I had to flip the script. If you’re a listener to any of my albums, you’d know that I like to tell stories that continue through multiple songs. So, I know that I wanted a 2-part story to come into play.

I figured since Mega Man was a robot, and wasn’t supposed to love, it’d be pretty crazy for him to fall in love with someone…kinda like a Johnny 5 story (If you remember classic Mega Man, you should remember “Short Circuit”). Turned out that this song not only became one of my favorites, but the one song that people constantly mention when they talk to me about the album.

Lyrics

MegaLude feat. Kid Overdrive produced by Random
When I first started working on Mega Ran, I had to do a lot of research…I had to research the games, the music, the characters…and also to see if anyone had attempted anything like what I was doing. So I found a BUNCH of Mega Man themed artists: mostly rock bands, who just do Mega Man cover tunes. I thought that was the coolest thing ever.

One guy I came across was a gentleman from Indiana named John, called Kid Overdrive. First of all, he had a huge spiked Mohawk, so he was hard to forget. Secondly, he made some killer Mega Man tunes, and was dope on the guitar, horns, drums…dude was a one man band. So, I told him about the project that I was doing, and the track I wanted him to get on, and he was all for it.

I sampled Mega Man 6’s “Prologue” as the bottom layer of the track, which was to serve as a short instrumental interlude between the 2 parts of the love story. Well, John sent me back a killer horn section that I thought was so awesome, I just used to listen to it on repeat constantly. If you think his work on the Mega Ran album is tight, you should hear his album…or the full 3 minute version of “MegaLude” that I have.. It’s EPIC (maybe I’ll send it to you if you ask nicely). But, DN3 and I determined that an interlude shouldn’t be that long… and most of the listeners probably wouldn’t have appreciated it like me. I had a specific plan for the length that I wanted the album to be (don’t ask why, I just did), so this was one of the songs that got cut a little short.

There are no lyrics on it—but if you want to hear a version with lyrics, a great fan of the project sent me a version with a verse from Protoman’s perspective. Its in the Mega Ran Yahoo Group under Links.

The Continuation produced by Random
This is probably my absolute favorite beat on the project. I actually had plans to leave the Aqua Soul track without a conclusion, so this song was the very last one that I had put together. I didn’t feel right about leaving the people hanging. So, Mega Ran fell in love, but of course, the girl was the downfall of everything… turned out that Kalinka was really studying Mega Ran and dropping tapes to her father, Dr. Cossack, who was planning on turning on Dr. Light…and using Mega Ran’s weakness against him… yeah, a lot of twists and turns. If I had made another part, I’d probably have Kalinka come back and tell Mega Ran that she really—wait, let me keep those ideas inside just in case I decide on a Mega Ran 2.

Lyrics

FlashMan produced by Random
When I first recorded this song, I hated it…maybe because I just wasn’t in a good place at the time, who knows. It was the first song I recorded after “Grow Up.” But, it grew on me in a major way, and I think that some of the lyrics on this song are among the best on the album, I mean, I started to impress myself.

I be the raw cat, told ‘em to fall back
Still you wanna test like Rorshach-
Ink blots; I’m all that – you think not?
It’s indisputable that my musical output is quite suitable
Tryin to uplift the culture
So Ran freak beats like a suppressed sadistic grocer

Get it? “Freak beats?” Freak beets?” “Grocer?” (crowd goes OH!)

The big fish in the kiddie pool, spittin jewels
Gettin rid of fools when the situation get critical
Rappers get ridiculed, step up your syllables
You a little dude, one step below miniscule

It felt good to be able to cut loose and just spit again. On “The Call” and “The Call ReMixtape,” everything was kinda spiritual, uplifting, and autobiographical. It was time to get back to good ol’ boasting. I didn’t include it on the download version because I definitely thought it was worth paying for!

Lyrics

Mega Club featuring Problem Child (Storyville) produced by Random
I’m a big fan of Matt Weiss, aka Problem Child, aka Storyville…aka…well, I don’t know what he’s calling himself these days. After the bang-up job he did producing on “The Call” (he did ‘Push’ and ‘Don’t Let Me Die’), I knew that I wanted him on this album, almost as a repayment for such heat.

People have told me that “Push” was so powerful that it has touched them in ways they never thought music could. One thing I love about Matt is that he’s a perfectionist, and a hard worker. I mean, the kid is fresh out of college, and has a work ethic I haven’t seen in this game from people ten years older than he. I just knew that he’d kill the verse on “Mega Club,” and he didn’t disappoint.

A few people got on me about crediting the sample in this song to the “SnakeMan” stage in Mega Man 4, when there IS no SnakeMan in MM4….but the real truth is, this song did NOT sample SnakeMan’s stage at all. The true samples in the beat are a little ‘ding’ sound from the Mega Man 6 Prologue (The MegaLude also used it) and the ‘boop boop boop bu-doop’ sound from KnightMan’s stage, also from Mega Man 6. So, that was an extreme typo in the worst way. I mislabeled a bunch of files…hey, stuff happens.

As far as the structure goes, I included “Club” in the title because the beat is clubby, but to make sure this was not one of those bubble-gum-so-catchy my 90-year-old-gramma-with-false teeth-can- rap-along-to-it-tracks, I made the chorus virtually inaudible… This is what I’m saying:

Now it’s time for the hook, its gotta be catchy
Gotta be pop, gotta be edgy,
Make em wanna dance, make em get sweaty,
Now whatcha think of this?
Blah blah, get on the floor..blah blah blah blah, gimme some more
Blah blah, don’t stop, can’t stop, rock the party, shot somebody blah..

Kind of a combination of the most commonly used ‘party starters,’ by your favorite rappers…with a little ‘gangsta’ thrown in, so you don’t forget that they’re tough (‘shot somebody’). See, even when I’m not making a statement, I’m making a statement.

Lyrics

Ringman featuring RoseBlack Produced by Random
I met Rose through a dope producer out in AZ, Darius Henry (prod of “Make Me Proud,” from the ReMixTape), and from the moment I met her, I knew she had talent. She is a classically trained opera vocalist, and can do some runs that will literally make your spine tingle. Plus, she’s a fan of many different genres of music, and I really think that if she is able to put the time, energy and effort into her gift that it deserves, she can be a MEGA star. I tell her this all the time, and she totally thinks I’m making it up.

Anyway, I was a big fan of the Ringman stage music, and I really like the song’s lyrics. This was another track that was edited for time, for whatever reason. Maybe one day the old sessions of these songs will pop up on the ‘net, if anyone cares enough to listen to them… The verse starts off, “You ask who produced that ‘Move Back,’ tried to label me boom-bap but I removed that.”

“Move Back” was a track that I produced for RAHM Nation label mate JonBap (its on his myspace), and a lot of folks liked the grimy, gritty, New York sewer feel of the beat. A lot of people asked me for similar beats and I’ve refused to even try. I want to constantly reinvent myself musically and I can’t do that if I’m making the same beat over and over again. Would I really be Random if I was predictable?

I kind of stole a page from the introduction of Little Brother’s “The Minstrel Show,” and messed up on the 2nd verse on purpose, so that I could restart it on another beat. The second track has a reggaeton vibe to it. Now I can’t front, I used to HATE reggaeton completely, until I spent some time in Florida for a gig, without any CDs in the rental car, and I had to listen to the radio. They played so much reggaeton that I forced myself to listen, and became respectful of the music as a legitimate genre. So, a year later, I decided to pay homage to it by giving it half of my song, with some party lyrics.

Underground rappers are deftly afraid of making ‘club songs,’ and it makes no sense to me. You want DJ’s to play your music, right? DJ’s play where? In the clubs. In the beginning, Hip Hop was about making people move. So all of you MC’s who want to take it back, you should do something for the people to move to.

In the chorus, RoseBlack is saying, “Dance, dance like no one is watching you….Dance, Dance because the night is alive.”

Boss Battle (MetalMan) featuring the Megas produced by The Megas
If you’re not familiar with The Megas, then dig up some info on them! They’re a rock band out of Southern California that loves Mega Man so much, that they replay the songs and add lyrics to them describing the game, or Mega Man’s feelings… almost like what I did with “Mega Ran.”

I heard a few of their tracks and was so excited, so I contacted Greg, one of the band members, about us doing a collaboration track. My favorite track of theirs was “Metal Man,” and in this song they play the part of the boss Metal Man. So I got an idea that I should jump on it and play the part of Mega Ran, and we could talk a little smack back and forth before we fight. This song wound up going from a very experimental song to one of my favorites, almost overnight. I wanted it to be cheesy, and fun, and that came across well. I had an opportunity to perform this live with The Megas at the House of Blues in San Diego, and that was a blast.

Sidenote: both Dan and DN3 had a very hard time mixing this one, and I have to thank both of them for sticking in there. DN3 had never mixed rock vocals before, and prior to “Mega Ran,” Dan hadn’t mixed hip-hop vocals. So the album was an experiment and learning experience for everyone involved.

Robot City featuring YTCracker and JonBap produced by DN3
I was so honored to be able to get YTCracker on the album. For those of you who don’t know. YTCracker was the first guy I heard use Nintendo samples on a hip hop album (it’s called NES, and it’s at ytcracker.com for free). I gotta credit YTCracker and the NES album for planting the seed back in 2005. So, 2 years later, when I read that this was the 20 th anniversary of a character which pretty much defined and shaped my childhood, I wanted to make one track, and when I couldn’t find just one to use, MEGA RAN was born. So, because of that, I knew I wanted YTCrack on this joint.

The topic is that we’re all clones, living in Robot City. We all copy someone else, and we’re totally happy with that… that goes for music, fashion, everything. So it’s more of a celebration of our laziness. Also featured on the song is JonBap, and he and I go back like La-Z-Boys. When I wrote my first rhyme on my step in ’93, he was right there. What up?!

Rock and Roll Produced by Domingo When I told Domingo about the Mega Ran idea, he laughed. Hard. Not like a laugh-at-me, or a laugh with me thing, but he just laughed. I didn’t expect him to be able to vibe with it, but figured I’d run it by him. Turns out he laughed because he had already done a video game/Hip Hop compilation album, ‘Game Over,’ with Eminem, Masta Ace, Cocoa Brovaz and more rapping over VG samples. So he was totally comfortable with sampling video games for beats.

So I sent him a few cuts, and he worked fast. Ming sent me like 5 beats, but one in particular jumped out at me, sampled from a track on the Rockman soundtrack. A lot of talented cats have rhymed on Domingo’s beats, from KRS ONE to Immortal Technique to the late great Big Pun, so I feel pretty fortunate that he was down to work on the project. I had to mention him in the song:

How you gone hate son?
Mega Ran’s the great one
That yall aint safe from, w
W ith the same dude that laced Pun

Lyrically I just had fun with it, and just pretty much killed it. Very close to “Flashman” to me in terms of which one had the better lyrics. And Google ‘Leeroy Jenkins’ if you didn’t get that one. My favorite line: “My spectacular venacular makes me rap with a chip on my scapula when I’m attackin’ ya it’s a massacre.”

Final Battle produced by Samik
Every time I work with Samik (producer of Raze the Bar, original and Remix), something special comes out of it. This was our first time working together on a long-distance project. Samik was excited about this project when I first told him about it, and was looking forward to contributing something to it. When he sent be the first mix of ‘Final Battle,’ I was kinda indifferent about it. I wanted to use it, but really didn’t have a clue about how it would fit on the album.

Being called “Final Battle” and sampling the final battle stage of Mega Man 6 meant it probably had to fall at the end of the album, but I had a vision for “Grow Up” being the final track. So, Samik did what real producers do, he brainstormed. So he got with one of his artists, Loose, and upon listening to the early versions of other Mega Ran tracks, they helped me to come up with an idea that would make for a perfect ending to the Mega Ran story.

So when Samik sent me the beat again, it had an additional verse on their by Loose that was crazy. So I got into the studio and put down the verse about this being the final battle. Loose plays the part of a kid playing the Mega Ran game, and cheering on Mega Ran as he prepares to do battle. He has control, but at the same time he doesn’t. Mega Ran apparently has a mind of his own, as we’ve seen in the “Aqua Soul” love story. So he doesn’t want to fight, but he’s prepared to if he has to… just like me.

A guy named Mark G. Cheong made a tight video up for the song, here it is:
http://www.megavideo.com/?v=28R36HI2

Unfortunately at the end of the video, it looks like Mega Man dies… not cool!

Grow Up produced by Random
So just to get this straight for everyone, when I produce, I’m Random Beats. When I rap, I’m Random. When I rap and produce…I’m Mega Ran. Got that? This is probably my favorite track. If you’re over 24, you probably remember a lot of the things I mentioned, like being unable to beat Pitfall, getting 100 men on Super Mario Bros (world 4-2, right?), and just being a general video game fanatic in the ‘80’s.

This song is dedicated to the innocence of youth. I owe a lot to video games, comic books and anime, just like Hip-Hop: they all helped to keep me out of trouble. After I came home from school, that was all I did (“Latchkey kid, home alone like Macaulay”). There would be times that my buddies would get into some serious trouble, and because I was inside playing videogames, writing rhymes, or reading comics, I was out of that situation… so this is my repayment for all the nights that they’ve saved me in one way or another.

As I said a few times before, I recorded “Grow Up” before any of the songs. I was afraid of this song after it was done. Because a) it was kinda poppy. And b) I liked it. So, my biggest fear was that all the work I had done getting “The Call” out there and building a fanbase would be washed away by this. But, I was just hoping that deep down; someone out there would be able to relate to me, a nerd from the ghetto. And thank God, someone did.

The End? Produced by DN3
As I said in the beginning, the whole thing was a dream. So when I finally reach Dr. Wily’s lair. I’m totally outmatched, outgunned, and outdone. As we all remember from playing Mega Man, it usually takes a few tries before you beat the boss, just to test out what weapon does any damage. Dr. Light tells me to try some weapons and when I attack, I miss with my last bit of ammo. So just when I’m about to be evaporated, I wake up from this terrible dream to find out that I’ve been asleep at the studio…. for only 2 minutes. Dan plays the part of the engineer that wakes me up.

In the “Only the hardcore Random fan would get it” section: The lines “I learned a valuable lesson from all this…but I just don’t remember what it was” is from the ending of “Fundamentals.” At the end I did some shout outs, because there were a lot of great people that helped to make this album possible. Surprisingly, no one who I approached with this idea told me that I was an idiot, or that it’d never work. I want to personally thank everyone who downloaded it that first week, and everyone who bought a copy from me personally or online, and everyone who shared it with a friend. You guys helped to realize that it’s okay to be myself, and that I’m not as much of a weirdo as I thought.

Now that this is over, I think I’m gonna go listen to it right now. Peace.

Album Track Listing:

1. Introduction
2. Shadowman
3. Bubbleman
4. Aqua Soul
5. Megalude
6. The Continuation
7. Flashman
8. Mega Club feat. ProblemChild
9. Ringman feat. RoseBlack
10. Metalman (the Megas remix)
11. Robot City feat. YTCracker and JonBap
12. Rock and Roll
13. Final Battle feat. Loose
14. Grow Up15 The End?
15. Robot City Remix feat YTCracker, ProblemChild, JonBap