Folks, I hope you have your seatbelt on. The ‘Fro has been getting a lot of attention lately and the labels are taking notice. We get a lot of music to review and are now ramping up our output to keep bringing you the realest reviews on the net. Now while we probably won’t do a track by track review, we will give you an overall feel for what we get…good and bad. So, with that said, lets fire up the SPOTLIGHT!!!
When I first picked this album up, I didn’t know what to expect. His name is Random a.k.a. Random Beats, Mega Ran. He is a teacher and is apparently around 28, and still rapping. So yeah, immediately, I was like, here we go. Let it be known, that dude brought some great music to the table. I was pleasantly surprised.
Conceptually, well hey, he’s a teacher so it’s a lot more complex than you would expect. “The number 8 is the number of new beginnings; therefore I wanted to release a special project on that day, talking about new beginnings. Also, turning an 8 sideways will make the symbol for infinity, so I feel this album will also make a statement that Hip-Hop will live forever, in some form or fashion.”
His storytelling and creativity is on display on songs like the title track, “The 8th Day”. This song describes a dream where a committee, The Committee for Lyrical Dishonesty, is created by the people to dissect and research the claims of artists as they cling to the thuggary, drug dealing, and street image, and test those images for validity. Almost like a Hip-Hop witch hunt of sorts, fakers would be arrested. Hip-Hop magazines, as usual, show was sells so you would NOW have Mos Def and Talib on the cover. BET loses its top 10 in one day, etc. The irony is that they committee that wanted to make sure things were real ended up going too far and almost ridding the game of anyone successful. You gotta peep the message about balance in that story. This is just ONE of the songs on the album.
Random takes more shots at the mainstream on “Skit 1” where he pokes fun at artist who are tired of being broke and selling out to the ability to make a quick hit. Get the vocoder, ProTools, an 808 beat with a hand clap snare, exhaustive spins, and a guest spot from Weezy. I AM NOT MAKING THAT UP. The comedic part is that the beat on this Skit would be a hit.
Like a true Hip-Hop artist, his focus isn’t singular. He steps out on songs like “Granny Smith” feat. Niz where he talks about a young kid who has a troubled, abusive home life and how he finds friendship and safety in his grade school teacher. One morning after a particularly rough spell, he is excited about coming to class and bringing the teacher a Granny Smith apple only to find that the teacher was fired because of poor results. The kid drops out and his parents divorce.
Hey, not all stories have a happy ending. That is part of what makes this CD so dope is because is the reality and sincerity in it. All this is done while addressing serious issues and not sacrificing creativity and quality. Even that whole Stop Snitchin’ movement is addressed. This CD is full of gems and for those that like their music with a healthy dose of substance, reality, creativity, and depth, this album is a MUST.
Get your copy or get familiar with Random at:
Random’s MySpace Page
Random – The 8th Day (Press Release)
RAHM Nation Recordings, LLC Reform and Healing Movement