Nerdy Rotten Scoundrels
Rhymes. Beats. Games.
Random and K-Murdock’s Forever Famicom LP Kudos
Jun 17th
Mega Ran and K-Murdock Go Retro with Forever Famicom
WASHINGTON, DC (Rap Newswire) — The marriage between video games and hip hop is one that seems to be the exception to the 70% US failure rate, as the two have been going strong for some time.
Raheem Jarbo, known as Random or Mega Ran, and Kyle Murdock, known to hip-hop purists as K-Murdock, have joined forces to create “Forever Famicom,” a full length album utilizing samples from 8 and 16-bit games from the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super NES consoles.
“This was one of the most fun projects I had ever done,” says Jarbo. “Kyle and I have so much in common.” “We wanted to create a project that pays homage, and at the same time exhibits creativity and innovation, and I think we’ve done that,” adds Murdock.
From performing on stages at home to traveling to festivals such as Comic-Con, SXSW and more, the duo plans to pluck the nostalgia bone in all of us. The 14-track album features samples from such classics as Metroid, Secret Of Mana, Kirby’s Adventure and of course, Mega Man. After all, the Blue Bomber is what started it all.
Jarbo released Mega Ran in 2007, an album sampling the classic Mega Man video game series, and made significant waves, even signing a licensing deal with Capcom. Almost simultaneously, Murdock’s group Panacea released Ink is my Drink, an album that gained high marks from hip-hop reviewers for its jazzy, organic feel and raw approach. Murdock heard Mega Ran and reached out.
“It was a natural marriage, him on the rhymes and me on the beats,” says Murdock. Mega Ran was such an unexpected success, because it was original, it was conceptual, and best of all, it was dope.”
The duo plans to support this release with a tour of the states, and maybe even a sequel, featuring Nintendo’s biggest rival from the 80’s and 90’s.
Stay tuned, the game’s not over yet.
order or stream FOREVER FAMICOM at Bandcamp
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REF – Done with ’09 (prod. by Pete Rock)
Jun 14th
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Song Title: Done With ’09 (prod. by Pete Rock)
Vocalist(s): RAREBREED Extended Family (REF)
- 1st verse & hook: Youngs (aka Landon Wordswell)
- 2nd verse: James John of Divine Minds (aka Black J)
- 3rd verse: Charity Clay (aka C Dot the Catalyst)
- 4th verse: Savant (aka Stan Strophe)
From DJ 456‘s impending mixtape “Represent No Question”. Coming July 2010.
Gaijin Sounds 2010 Champion Sounds: TyT and Togo
Jun 13th
Extract from seekjapan.jp
TyT and Togo – “Onegai Sensei” (FREE MP3 HERE!)
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J.P.: There is something so gloriously slow-motion car crash about everything here, a hip-hop paean from a streetwise eikaiwa teacher (!?!?) tired of giving EFL vampires free English conversation in the name of friendship (“Honor my position, and listen to me / cos a plumber wouldn’t come and fix your toilet for free”), complete with an offensively sultry broken-English chorus featuring the massively horrifying “Onegai sensei, please you teach me English.” That said, many of us have been there, the guy can rhyme, and if there was ever a track that deserved to be on a compilation sponsored by “the Ask Kazuhide guys”, this is it.
Jonti: From the Furious Five and Treacherous Three on, good hip-hop has always had an element of humor, and even if some of the gags here are executed in a super-crass stylee, the overall vibe on this cut is entertaining from the ground up. Loop-spotters will pick up on the string sample being from Garageband’s stock library (I’ve used it myself, but not to such good effect), yet the production of the track as a whole is much better than you’ll hear on any typical home-made Garageband exercise, so what’s the problem, fool?
Rangi: This track is made out of all kinds of awesome. Modern-sounding rap about life as an eikaiwa teacher? Talk about keeping it real. The production sounds excellent, while the Engrish chorus will be extremely familiar to anyone who has ever been hit up for free English lessons at the local gaijin bar or has listened to about 90% of Japanese bands who try to sing in English.
The Five Elements – ECOMOG
Jun 12th
ECOMOG have released yet another EP, this time inspired by The Shaw Brothers’ 1982 Kung Fu movie “Chinese Super Ninjas”. The EP features five tracks, each based on one of five elemental forces. Click the album cover to download.
