Time ran out on me before I could squeeze this post in to help push Friday’s show at the Hidden House, which turned out great. (Big thanks to Al Page at the Hidden House, Random, Zilla Rocca, Curly Castro, MysticBlu, 6X and DJ Kim E. Fresh.)

I’m embarrassed that I’m late to the game (no pun intended) on Random, a Philly-born emcee/teacher who has called Phoenix home for about four years.

In 2007, Random released Mega Ran, an album inspired by the video game Mega Man, complete with 8-bit beat samples from the game. That earned him a letter (on MySpace, no less) from the game’s publisher, Capcom, that Random assumed would be a cease and desist. Quite the opposite, actually: Capcom offered him an official license. As Random told Wired in 2008, “I really thought they would be livid that I had bastardized their tunes, but they really were supportive, and I thank them for that.”

Continuing the tradition, Random (aka Mega Ran) teamed up with producer K-Murdock of Panacea and released Forever Famicom in July, a 14-track ode to the Nintendo games of our youth.

I spent countless hours on the Nintendo – mostly playing RBI Baseball and Tecmo Super Bowl (with some Double Dragon and Contra thrown in there) – so I appreciate the inherent nostalgic value here. But Mega Ran’s ability to weave clever storytelling makes it more than a trip down memory lane.

Stream and/or buy Forever Famicom at Bandcamp.

Here’s Random and K-Murdock discussing the album: