The first of two hip hop reviews this week has me talking about Mega Ran and K-Murdock’s Forever Famicom. Seeing as many of you may not know much about this fantastic artists, we’ll start with a little bit about them.
Mega Ran aka Random aka Raheem Jarbo is a Philadelphia native now making his residence in Phoenix. Before the inception of the Mega Ran album in 2007, Jarbo had already made his name as an underground emcee in Philly under the monikers Random and Random Beats. While juggling his music career and a career as a special education teacher, Jarbo moved to Arizona and shortly thereafter released the album that launched him into Nerdcore scene through coverage by the video game world and a licensing deal with Capcom.
Fast forward to 2010 and the release of his collaboration with K-Murdock, producer and half of DC hip hop duo Panacea (with Raw Poetic, another MC born and raised in Philadelphia). Considered a very progressive producer by critics, K-Murdock had been working on this project with Jarbo for nearly 3 years. The finished product is inspired and thoroughly enjoyable for fans of hip hop and Nintendo gaming systems of the 80s and 90s alike.
Whether the song is inspired by Little Nemo or Chrono Trigger, a sound reminiscent of something you may here playing Zelda, or a rhyme about laying a game you’d never heard of… this album is chock full of 8 and 16 bit goodness. This doesn’t mean that this is strictly a novelty album. On the contrary, Mega Ran’s rhymes are tight and K-Murdock’s NES inspired beats are hot. A true head still will dig on this, even if he or she couldn’t afford a NES and spent days in the ball court because good hip hop is good hip hop.
Appearances by Nerdcore favorites int80 and Schaffer the Darklord are solid, but the vocal star here is always Ran. Ran’s lyrics are always clever and interesting. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that he is one of the best lyrical storytellers in any genre of hip hop today. He puts the listener in the shoes of the Lee brothers in “Double Dragons” humanizing the characters and their plight. He tells the story of his youth in “Dream Master”, educates on the rules of the comic book convention scene in “CONtact”, and pays homage to video game culture in “For the Gamers”. Through each of these tracks, it becomes apparent that this guy is like KRS-One of the Nerdcore world – spitting knowledge, telling stories, and teaching his listener… though his lessons are most often in the interests of nerddom rather than science and world events.
Ran is a star in the making, ready to hit the national scene with fervor and zeal. This album is proof. I think a team up with TPM favorite Dr. Octoroc should be next up on Ran’s list… then it’s time to go after Danger Mouse, because everything he touches seems to turn to platinum. And while K-Murdock is essential in this particular finished product (I don’t want to downplay him here, because I love what he did with the samples and beats in every track), I suspect that Ran could team up with nearly anyone and create something amazing. So, Mr. Jarbo, if you are reading this… I used to write beats on Acid and Fruity Loops in college, wanna make a record?
Standout tracks: “Episode III (A New Day)” , “For the Gamers” , and “Drop the Load”
No need for an intro, I’ve kept ya’ll waiting long enough.
1. the85bears w/ Alex Exile – Belly Down opens the mixtape with a great tune to dance to. thepaintedman would like to take (at least a little) credit for this awesome collaboration, as a TPM RemixThis! contest brought these forces together. The entire album, featuring more collabs with Alex Exile, a few new tracks, and a sweet remix from RemixThis! can be downloaded for FREE. And it’s currently #2 on noisetrade, so I suspect you’ll like it!
2. Enlou – Amphibian is a track from the Lujo Records act’s new EP. They’ll be hitting the road this Fall, so keep your eyes peeled.
3. Milk Plus – Digging Out proves that Nerdcore is alive and kicking in the UK. Check out this killer track.
4. Bodies in the Lake – Ohh… I’m Sorry for the Confusion will rock your face off… quite literally. It will actually hurt. But it will hurt so good… and once you are done hurting, you can listen to a bonus second track by BITL entitled “Visions of Chaos“. Both of these track were record at Atrium Audio in Lancaster by Carson Slovak, great production if I do say so myself.
WARNING: THE NEXT TRACK FEATURES AN ARTIST NAME WITH A NAUGHTY WORD IN IT!
7. The Glass Gentlemen – Love Story is a crappy cover of a crappy song. The Brads need to stop listening to bad pop! Seriously, though, it’s a fun an enjoyable cover of a song that all of us pretend to hate but secretly dig. Raise your hand if you have a Taylor Swift crush.
8. Jeremy Ritch and the Cowards – Crystal Beth is a track by that dude who wrote some reviews for TPM and pastors an indie church in Harrisburg, PA. Yeah! THAT dude. Did I ever mention to you that this guy is relatively obsessed with old country and is totally in love with Johnny Cash? Guess I did now.
At the forefront of the Nerdcore scene are Frontalot, mc chris, MC Lars, and YTCracker. Front is the godfather of the scene, coining the term and embracing all that is nerdy, dorky, dweeby, or geeky; you all know him and love him… and if you don’t, you should. mc chris doesn’t like to call himself Nerdcore, but due is a nerd rapper extraordinaire; you know him as MC Pee Pants and Hesh, or perhaps the dude who did that funny track about Boba Fett driving a Corvette. MC Lars is fun and enjoyable; he’s likely you’re friend on Facebook already, having nearly as many friends as Tom has on MySpace. YTC is a cracker and hacker turned emcee; Nerdrap Entertainment System still stands as a unique and groundbreaking work.
Beyond the big four, this illustrious site has covered the likes of Beefy, Shael Riley, Dual Core, and The ThoughtCriminals/Mikal kHill, as well as nerdy acts that don’t identify specifically with the subgenre like Pigeon John. However, today presents a great time to give the readers a brief primer of some other things the world of Nerdcore has to offer. Here are 10 more nerds that you need to know:
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Why beat around the bush? Let’s start right away with the winner of RemixThis! Kwal <3's Winnie. Followers of TPM should not be surprised to see that the winner is Egil Ursin aka Second Reality. Egil won a RemixThis! contest with the 85bears and is probably the most talented remixer I have ever heard. Dude has skills. So, after listening to the track above, go ahead and download the track below as it’s the first track on this month’s mixtape.
2. Kyle Cox – Life is Good is a great track from Kyle’s EP To My Old Friends. You can download the whole EP for free here.
3. Think Quick – Cool It Now is a cover of New Edition by so-called emotronic musician Think Quick. It’s from his 30 song demo entitled The John Hughes Demo. Check it out.
5. MC Dub – Cosmic Desert is a solid track from Mark “MC Dub” Walker. Worth a listen or five, for sure.
6. Constance Lansberg – Even So is a track from this jazzy singer-songwriter. She was kind enough to seek me out and ask me to check her stuff out and I am pleased to say that it was worth my time. Check out this Aussie songstress after you take in this free track.
9. Kwalified vs. more in sorrow – Winnie Cooper is more of a mash up than a remix, but I was more than glad to get this submission as the rock heads rarely enter these contests. A runner up in final voting, this is my personal favorite entry. Thanks to rocking a remix for the RemixThis! Kwal contest, more in sorrow gets to be on this month’s tape twice. Double the awesomeness for us listeners!
10. Kwalified Emcee – Winnie Cooper (Najila RISE Remix) is the last track on this month’s installment, but certainly not the least. The other runner up in the contest, this is a PHAT track that should have everyone eating it up. Introduced me to a new remixer that hadn’t entered our contests before, as well. Congrats!
3. The ThoughtCriminals – And She Goes is TOTALLY UNRELEASED up until now. Be one of the first to check out this fly track from one of my new favorites hip hop acts.
4. Elias – All I Want is more hip hop, but since when is that a bad thing. Elias rocked one of my favorite tracks on Illect’s Christmas album, here he continues to impress me.
5. Trumpeter Swan – Loose Lips is Drew Patrizi. Not enough? Ok, well… this dude is talented as all get-out. Austin TX bred and once featured in Gilmore Girls, what’s not to dig?
6. Doug Burr – Red Red is another great track in a long string of great tracks from the talented VBM staple. Enjoy!
7. Flannelmouth – Sharp Paper is a track from the the second Finnish band to embrace the ways of TPM lately. They sent me some stuff and I must say, I continue to be impressed with what Finland is cranking out!
9. Kwalified – I Like She Like is my favorite track from this dope Cali MC that has a contest with TPM coming up TOMORROW! Tune back in, folks.
10. Me You Us Them – Any Time is a track by a band who hangs out with The Prids, the band that has 250 hits and counting in a days time on TPM. That boasts well for them, don’t ya think?
I just listened to the first 8 tracks of MC Frontalot’s Zero Day while doing the 30 Day Shred workout video. It’s an intense 20 minute workout (that my fat ass struggled with a lot, possibly due to 2 days of not doing it, possibly due to eating 3 slices of Sicilian pizza for dinner, or possibly due to drinking half a pint of Troeg’s Java Stout just prior to working out). Sick of Jillian Michaels’s annoying voice and the bad dance music on the DVD, lately I have been muting it and playing music from one of the 3 iTunes libraries on our home network… tonight it was working out with the Front.
As a brief synopsis, I must say I dig the album a lot. I listened to it once through yesterday and this is my second time through (well half of it this time). Here are some observations…
First, it was fun and upbeat, which made it a good alum to workout to. The songs were all highly danceable and very much Frontalot. I couldn’t help but think of him dancing and working out along side me as I powered through my tough workout.
Second, the album includes a few awesome guest, but for me the tops of this list is Mr. Beef Thompson. Beefy is one of my favorite nerdcore fixtures and I was very happy to hear him spitting on a track with Front and the rappist known as STD. Not to mention that the song they do together is entertaining, clever, and thoroughly enjoyable in every way.
Finally, there is very little about this album I can complain about. Perhaps I’ll have a gripe or two with more listens, but I doubt it. As per usual, MC Frontalot is awesome and surrounds himself with awesomeness. I’d guess that at least 2 to 3 tracks from this become heavy rotation on the iPod in no time.
The ThoughtCriminals is not a punk band that formed in 1977. In fact, they are not Australian or British, are not punk or electro, and did not form in 1977. Rather, The ThoughtCriminals are a hip hop crew that sent me their CD a few weeks back after I saw them advertised as an opening act for MC Frontalot on a Facebook invite. When I messaged Mikal kHill, he immediately responded and asked my shirt size. When I responded, he apologized that they were out of stock on my t-shirt size, but he sent me the music to check out and continues to keep in touch with me promising that a shirt is on the way.
Well, first off, the shirt is unnecessary, as the album speaks for itself (though I am still welcoming the free swag, I’ll even post a pic of my fat ass rocking it once I get it). The 16 track self-title CD is chock full of intelligent lyrics, catchy hooks, good flow, and an overall fantastically constructed hip hop aesthetic. Sub-genre defying, the ThoughtCriminals are not a typical nerdcore act, despite having some ties to that scene; their sound is often very reminiscent of classic hip hop like A Tribe Called Quest and Boogie Down Productions, with some subtle and not-so-sublte influences from other hip hop artists ranging from Wu-Tang Clan to Frontalot himself.
Lyrically, some tracks are fun and uplifting, others are politically and social minded, and others yet are educational. Here are my notes on a few of my favorite tracks, taken directly from the notes I made on a back page of my planner while driving to and from work over the past few weeks. In no particular order:
Track 2 “Falling Apart”
Not what I expected… guess I was expecting something more obviously nerdy due to being an opener for Front. Great beat, talented band. Very Roots-esque, but fronted by a rapper more like Q-Tip or KRS rather than Thought.
Track 13 “Loud Enough”
Part Cornell West, part KRS, part Saul Williams… educational and entertaining, thoroughly enjoyable. Nice acoustic guitar work in the background. Homage to Leon Scott’s influence over 100 years ago. Works well enough on it’s own, but is perfect as the introductory track to “Corporate Sellout”
Track 5 “Pocket Full of Trouble”
Love the “Gin & Juice” references. In fact, the song sounds like it has a bit of that Chronic-era Dre feel besides just the lyrical references.
Track 3 “Things Change”
Synth reminds me of Double Ice Backfire, though that’s likely just because I’ve been obsessed with Songs from the Pit lately. Flow and synth together also bring to mind some of Beefy’s stuff on Rolling Doubles. The guy singing the line “just stay the same” in the chorus sounds very “radio rap”, can’t put my finger on who he is reminding me of, though.
Track 12 “Mile After Mile”
This track makes me feel happy from the door. Fun and happy music. Uplifting lyrics, references to everyday life, paying bills, and reading comics. All in all, the track most likely to be repeated over and over on my iPod. One last note… something about this track makes me think of Abdominal, not sure why though.
Track 4 “Pledge”
Beat is very Frontalot. I half expected Front to start rapping as the verse broke.
Track 8 “Economic Downturn”
Sounds like a video game as the song opens… so much so that it brought to mind Nerdrap Entertainment System. Lyrically, strong social conscience. Is it us or them? Our choices in life or the system? Interesting stuff.
A great album front to back, beginning to end, The ThoughtCriminals is a fantastic debut that this hip hop band can be proud of. Their page on cdbaby describes the CD as “Part live band, part hip hop crew, this group deftly hops across genres, mixing hip hop with a variety of styles and lyrical density unparalleled by anything you’ll hear in the mainstream.” This accurate description still does not do them justice, but it’s a start. If you like old school hip hop, bands like The Roots, underground hip hop like Sage Francis, The Coup, and Abdominal, or are a big fan of the nerdcore standouts like Front, YTC, and Beefy, then this is a must for your collection.
