"This blue bomba' brings head trauma"

Let me preface this review by saying one thing: I am not normally a fan of adding lyrics to videogame remixes. That was before Random came along.

Half teacher, half musician, Random already had a much more serious rap album under his belt before deciding to share his love of Mega Man using his music. This is one of the things that I feel helps set him apart from the other artists labeled as “nerdcore”.

The first Mega Ran album is what introduced me to Random. I was skeptical when I first heard about it, but I gave it a listen and ended up really enjoying it. Later, Mega Ran 9 was released. Though “Robot City” on the first album was not surpassed as my favorite Random song, I ended up liking the album as a whole better than its predecessor.

Much like the first album, most of the tracks on Mega Ran 9 tell an over-arching story. I guess you could say it’s a “rap opera”. Much like the title suggests, Mega Ran 9 follows the basic plot of Mega Man 9.

The story starts out with a brief recap of the events of the first album followed by Mega Ran discovering that Dr. Light has been framed by Wily. From there, Mega Ran sets out to stop the Robot Masters, attempts to bail out Dr. Light, and gets smitten with Splash Woman.

All the tracks on the album use music from the Mega Man 9 soundtrack. Most of them are sampled with added layers and tempo/pitch changes, but some are made from the ground up. However, both styles have their share of sweet, hip hop beats. The album’s sound is kept fresh from track to track and even features other artists joining in on certain songs.

One of the interesting things about this album is that it uses some of the lesser listened to songs from the soundtrack in clever ways rather than just sticking exclusively to popular stage themes. “My Love” is a great example of this, using the game’s shop theme to make a love song.

I get a serious PaRappa the Rapper vibe from “The Bailout”. The entire song consists of a rap-infused conversation between Mega Ran and a newscaster named Brad Bradford. “Megalude 9″ is a sweet little instrumental track featuring some industrial drum sounds, slowed down chip tunes, and sexy wah guitar licks. This is just a taste of what you can expect.

You can find the album for sale on CDBaby in two versions. The physical cd, which is only available in limited quantities, runs just under $12 and the mp3 price is $9.99. If you’re a Mega Man fan like me or just want to hear some cool videogame inspired rap, be sure to check it out!

Tags: hip hop, Mega Man, Mega Man 9, mega ran 9, megaran, music review, nerdcore, Random Beats, rap, rap opera

This entry was posted on Monday, July 20th, 2009 at 5:00 am and is filed under Music, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.