An unstoppable force in videogame rap meets one of the most influential games of all time in the new album ‘Black Materia’.
I’ve written before about Mega Ran, one of my current favorite musicians. Teamed up with with K-Murdock, he made a hip-hop album called ‘Forever Famicom’ which I’ve listened to nearly every day for the last several months. He combines real life experience with game stories and adds lyrics and beats to game music.
The latest release from Mega Ran is ‘Black Materia’, an album that takes its story and music from the fan favorite ‘Final Fantasy VII’. I’ve had a few days to listen to it, and it absolutely lives up to the high expectations I had going in.
You can find a few different clips on Mega Ran’s YouTube channel, including “Mako Reactor,” an unapologetically badass track that tells the story of the game’s first mission and “Tifa,” which is a little sweeter and gets into the relationship between Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockheart, two of the game’s protagonists.
As with so many albums, I think some of the best songs are the ones that aren’t chosen as singles. “Avalanche” is incredibly cool, and I have a feeling “Cry of the Planet” will be a favorite of mine for a long time coming.
Check out the samples on YouTube. If you’re still not sure, download the free version of the album which will let you hear 8 out of the 16 total tracks. Then go buy the album – you won’t regret it. All of that is available at MegaRan.com.
HuskerGuy
Listened to some clips on Amazon MP3. It’s not for me, I’ll be sticking with the original soundtrack.
Josh Zyber
I hear you, I’m not much into hip-hop either. But try his song “Grow Up”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo6XUDj7QEA
This is the one that won me over.
Dick Ward
AuthorSuch a good track 🙂
Vince Swallow
That was a pretty cool track. I’ll be downloading it shortly 🙂
I’m not averse to hip hop, but the Black Materia album just didn’t do much for me.
I’m a fan of these guys as far as music inspired by video games go.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pvjgBn4m4k&feature=related
Dick Ward
Awesome! Bookmarked as a reminder to check out more of their stuff in the near future.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t add a link to my good friends Year 200X doing my very favorite song from the NES. The Moon Theme from ‘Ducktales’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQmH0NbPCxY
Aaron T. Starks
I have two Mega Ran albums thanks to this site. As a diehard gamer myself, I love the albums. My only critique is that it’s obvious that Mega Ran didn’t play much Sega growing up.
Making ANYTHING about videogames and not being influenced by at least SOME Sega is shocking to me.
Dick Ward
AuthorI can’t speak for anyone else, but as a kid I had to pick between the two systems. I went with NES, SNES and N64 before I finally had my own money to spend. After that I owned everything 🙂
I didn’t catch up with Sega until I got my first paycheck. On that day I went to Funcoland and blew the whole $200 or so on an old Sega Genesis and a bag or two full of games. Man that was a fun time 🙂
Aaron T. Starks
Lots of kids back in the 80’s and 90’s had the ‘either/or’ problem. Because mainly our parents bought our systems. But you still get that fanboy stuff now amongst adults who refuse to buy the ‘enemy’ system.
I was a diehard Sega fan before they ever released a system because of their arcade games. I felt sorry for my Nintendo-only friends who flat-out REFUSED to play the Master System or Genesis. I’m serious. I’d offer to loan them the system for a time and they’d REFUSE! Saying that it “sucked” and they never even played it.