Photo courtesy of Billy Hardiman
Emcee, producer, author, and educator Mega Ran earned another illustrious title that means far more than his previous ones, father. Ran and his wife fostered a little boy that they would eventually adopt. Fatherhood influenced the nerdcore rapper, who is known for rhymes about pro wrestling and video games, to write music for children. In 2023 Mega Ran released his first children’s album, “Buddy’s Magic Toy Box.” 2025 saw the Philly raised artist drop his second album geared toward kids, “Buddy’s Magic Tree House.”
Buddy’s Magic Tree House is a 14-track album Produced by Mega Ran, DJ DN3, Lost Perception, Mista Cookie Jar, Bag of Tricks Cat, K-Murdock, Justin Roberts, and Last BeNeVoLeNcE. The album features appearances by Last BeNeVoLeNcE, Uncle Jumbo, Kimya Dawson, Alphabet Rockets, Kati Gazela, Daru Jones, Justin Roberts, 123 Andrés, Aura V, Fyütch, and Aaron Nigel Smith.
The Real Hip-Hop spoke to Mega Ran about the challenges of making children’s music, how fatherhood has changed his life, and his new album, Buddy’s Magic Tree House.
TRHH: Are you surprised at the reception you’ve received for your children’s albums?
Mega Ran: Yes. I kind of enter every album with like no expectations, so I never really know what’s gonna happen. I try my best of course to make the best thing I can make. So, yeah when people are telling me they enjoy it, they play it with their kids, things like that and you see them charting on iTunes and Billboard it’s a really great feeling. But, yeah, I go into every project with no expectations. I don’t know what’s gonna happen [laughs]. I just do my best.
TRHH: How has writing children’s music helped you as a writer?
Mega Ran: Well, much like teaching I think it’s learning how to reach different audiences, using different tools in the toolbox. Like when I made the decision to rap without profanity, it’s like now you gotta use some more tools. Like now if I want to start using my own production or things like that. So, it’s just finding new tools and new ways to say things. I think it’s made me a more well-rounded artist to the point where I play kids songs in bars and they still work. I think that’s the sign of them being just good songs.
TRHH: Was it easier to come up with concepts for Buddy’s Magic Tree House after creating Buddy’s Magic Toy Box?
Mega Ran: No. Actually, it was a lot harder. I feel like I said everything. I remember K-Murdock sending me tracks and being like, “Alright, well maybe this is about this, or maybe this is about that.” I remember actually asking everybody that worked on the album like, “What are some topics that you guys feel that we should discuss on this album?” because I feel like I kind of said it all, but also for a toddler.
Two years later being able to reach him at his age but also thinking forward in the future was a definitely a challenge. But we just had to do some living — we had to live some life. Him going to school, him making friends, him maybe having some difficulties making some inroads, and making some progress. Those things helped me to come up with new concepts.
TRHH: You produced a lot of Buddy’s Magic Tree House while incorporating a lot of musicians on some of the songs. Talk a little about the creative process when collaborating on production.
Mega Ran: For the most part when I’m doing my own production I never fully trust myself, so I’m always like, “Well, let me bring in someone else, let me get someone else to play bass, let me get someone else to play horns,” just to kind of beef it up. Because I like to create what I call skeletons and those are the skeletons that I sing on, and that I rap on, and come up with some different ideas for flows and things. And then I’ll put the clothes on the skeleton after that with the musicians that I wind up bringing in.
It’s a fun process, but we were just talking about “Have a Great Time!” being my own production and a song that’s like doing pretty well and maybe a new “Tractor Beam.” Something about when I produce it myself it gives me a little more freedom to get loose, if you will. I feel like I’m not necessarily chained into any sort of structure, because I can just take out that bassline or that loop if I don’t like it. It’s definitely a freeing experience for me.
TRHH: You mentioned “Have A Great Time!” and that’s a song that just feels good. The lyrics match the beat perfectly. Did you write to that beat or did you have the lyrics and the idea already?
Mega Ran: Thank you. I wrote to another song completely, I don’t even want to say what song, but I heard a song on my wife’s playlist and I was like, “That’s a vibe! It’s a bop!” I was like, “Man, this is dope!” and then I was like,” You know what? If I can find something like this!” I would listen to everybody’s beats that they sent me and I didn’t really hear anything like that, so I was like, “Well, I guess I gotta make it.” So, that made me sit down and look down to the BPM, the key, and everything and be like, “This is kind of where I want to be with this song.” And just kind of build it from the ground up after that.
TRHH: Sisqó?
Mega Ran: That’s my dude!
TRHH: How did you get Sisqó on the album?
Mega Ran: Man, we are friends in the most weird way, but mostly through video games. He’s a nerd just like us, man. Sisqó’s a nerd like us, man. He loves video games. I’ll just hit him up about Zelda — he loves Zelda. So, most of the time we talk it’s about, “How far did you get on this? How far did you get on that? Did you beat Zelda? Did you beat this?” I just told him about this game “Expedition 33.”
So, yeah, he’s a nerd like us, man. I met him through being a Kind of Funny Best Friend. He listens to Greg Miller’s show and Greg Miller shows me a lot of love and plays my songs. It’s a weird friendship that just sparked from that. Shout out to The Dragon. When he texts, he uses the little dragon emojis in the text [laughs].
TRHH: “Love that Guy” is one of my favorite song on the album; it resonated with me. At what point did you get rid of the representative and fall in love with yourself?
Mega Ran: Man, I can’t even say at the beginning of the Mega Ran Experience, because that was like 2007. I’d say even later than that, probably 2015. I think just completely understanding who I am. I made an album called RNDM and Murdock produced a track on there called “The Meeting.” It’s about a meeting between Mega Ran and Random – my old self and my current-self having a discussion. I think that’s the moment where I realized I can be exactly who I am.
Because I used to have this situation where I would play cons and be like, “Oh, I’m at a convention, I gotta play the nerdy stuff.” And then I go play the rap show late at night and I’m like, “Oh, I can’t play the nerdy stuff, I gotta play the rappity raps!” And then you have people at the rappity rap shows like, “Yo, I like Mega Man, how come you didn’t play the Mega Man joint?” Or you come to a con and they’re like, “I like the fruit song, why didn’t you play that?” So, realizing you could be your whole self is something I didn’t find until a few years ago until the RNDM album, so that was 2015.
TRHH: “Here’s Some Advice” and “You’re Enough” are like letters to your son, but the lessons could apply to any child. Art geared toward children can be about learning or just for fun, why is it important to you to boost kids’ self-esteem in some songs?
Mega Ran: Well, I just feel like as kids get older peer groups and self-esteem and stuff becomes so important. I know I can only do but so much. I know that as this kid becomes a pre-teen he’s going to be so worried about what his friends think, and there’s almost nothing I could do about that. But the one piece of advice for myself I wish that I could have took when I was younger is, don’t worry about these kids. They look like they got it all together, but nobody has it all together. They’re all confused, they all don’t like things about themselves, they all want to be different, want to be better, and we’re all trying to figure this out.
That’s what I want to stress is that it’s okay to make mistakes, it’s okay to still figure things out. Nobody has it all figured out, from kids to parents even. I’m learning every day as a parent. I do things and I make mistakes. So, I think it’s super important for kids to realize that we never stop learning. That’s really what it was. I’d love to make ten songs about wiggling, and dancing, and moving around, and “kick off your shoes and do a flip” or whatever, I just thought it was important to bring some value in there that might stick later.
TRHH: How has fatherhood changed your life?
Mega Ran: I thought I was a pretty patient person, but now patience gets tested at new levels, for sure. I’d say it’s changed my life because it’s made it easier for me to compartmentalize and decide what’s important to me. Because now I have family to think about, whereas before it was just me and my wife. Now it’s like a whole little one that I gotta think about.
So, I think that has helped a lot just being like, “I can make the responsible decision for the family.” Honestly, it makes it a little easier to say no. To be like, “Nah I can’t be out for this long” or “I can’t do this thing” because my kid is going to miss me and I’m going to miss my kid. That’s the most important thing to me now.
TRHH: What does your son think of Buddy’s Magic Tree House?
Mega Ran: Man, he likes it a lot. He’s heard it for so long because we’ve been working on it for a year. So, now that it came out he knows it already. So, it’s kind of old to him. He heard a version of “Inventors” where the part 2 track switches, there’s a version where the beat switches and it’s a full song. The “get your wiggle on” or whatever. The final doesn’t have that, so he wants that song to go longer. So, that’s one song where he’s like, “Rewind, play it again!” The Dino song he loves, brushing teeth, he still doesn’t like brushing teeth, but that song helps a lot. I fight every morning and I’m like, “Alright, do I have to play this song?” he’s like, “Yeah, play the song.”
I think he likes it — he loved the first one, too. Sometimes I’ll hear him singing the song. He’ll just say something, “Be nice!” and I’m like, “Oh, he’s listening.” It really surprises me when we play it that he’ll catch on so quickly. So, I’m hoping he’ll get the messages as well, but he’s digging it. And honestly if he didn’t like it, I wouldn’t put it out. He’s my toughest critic. If Buddy ain’t rockin’ with it, it ain’t getting made.
Purchase: Mega Ran – Buddy’s Magic Tree House