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WASTOIDS With...Mega Ran
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Rapper, teacher, and podcaster Mega Ran, AKA Raheem Jarbo drops by WASTOIDS to discuss the glories of vintage NBA, player and activist Craig Hodges, and his 11th album, Live 95, a nostalgic throwback to the golden age of ’90s basketball and pop culture. Want to see more Mega Ran? Check out our live performance show Out of Site to see him in action.
If you liked this chat, please subscribe to the WASTOIDS audio feed wherever you get podcasts—you can leave a rating and a review while you’re at it. The feed is how you can hear WASTOIDS With, Click Vortex with Sam Means and Jason Woodbury, and The Spindle with Marc Masters and John Howard—that’s our show devoted exclusively to 7” records. And of course episodes are available for you at WASTOIDS dot com, where you can press play on a 24/7 WASTOIDS Sound System and watch our weekly video show, Out of Site.
Wanna share your thoughts on Mega Ran's new album? Wrestling factoids? Anything else? All you have to do is call 1-877-WASTOIDS to get in touch, and we’ll play your message on a future episode.
You're listening to Waste Oits.
SPEAKER_00This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Without a healthy mind, being truly happy and at peace is hard. The good news is therapy works. But what is therapy exactly? Well, it's whatever you need it to be. Maybe you're not feeling motivated right now and would like some tools to help. Maybe you're feeling insecure in relationships or at work or not dealing well with stress. Whatever you need, it's time to stop being ashamed of normal human struggles and start feeling better, because you deserve to be happy. And now you don't have to worry about finding an in-person therapist near you to help. BetterHelp is customized online therapy that offers video, phone, and even live chat sessions with your therapist so you don't have to see anyone on camera if you don't want to. It's much more affordable than in-person therapy, and you can start communicating with your therapist in under 48 hours. Join the millions of people who are seeing what online therapy is really about. It's always a good time to invest in yourself because you are your greatest asset. As a special offer to Waste Toys listeners, you can get 10% off your first month of professional therapy at betterhelp.com slash wastoids. That's better.com slash waste. Thanks again to BetterHelp for sponsoring this episode. Hey, welcome back to another episode of Waste Oids with. Yeah, I know. Right when we when we first started Waste Oids, you were one of the first people we reached out to. I'm so I'm so psyched that you're here, here to hang out, talk about your record, your new record. Thank you. Live 95, uh parentheses, basketball diaries. Were you a fan of the basketball diaries movie? Uh was that a reference point?
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh. Such a good movie. Very like heart-wrenching. Um the intro is called The Basketball Diaries, but it's nowhere near as like emotionally like gripping as that movie was to me as as a kid. Yeah. That's like a true story, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's that guy, Jim Carroll. He he's he asked he made a couple really good punk records too. Uh that I yeah, that I'm a huge, huge fan of. I think he's got a record called Catholic Boy. That's really good. Anyway, I'll s I'll send you I'll send you a link after that.
SPEAKER_01I gotta look him up. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00This is a really personal record, though. Uh I I feel like your stuff you always reveal a lot about yourself in your in your work, but this one feels like it really has kind of like a specific rooting in like your nostalgia for growing up in the 90s. Uh what what what where did this sort of idea for the record come from? Where did it where did it start?
SPEAKER_01It had always been in the back of my mind, you know, and I think it was during the break during the pandemic when I wasn't performing. We started doing online performances myself, Shape of the Dark Lord, MC Lars, Front of Lap, as a way to directly reach our fans that we couldn't, you know, go out and play concerts for. So once a month we started doing live shows on YouTube, and um we got to March, and we're like, what's our theme for March? And uh the theme was St. Patrick's Day. And uh we're like, okay, we're not gonna do what you think, where everyone's just rapping about St. Patrick's, but what about famous Patrick's in history? Sure. And uh so we start brainstorming a bit, and Fernelot's Patrick Stewart, and um I think Lars was Patrick Henry, and Schaefer is Neil Patrick Harris, and uh and so that only left for me Patrick Ewing. Yeah, the famous center for the New York Knicks. So I decided to build an entire show around the idea that if Patrick Ewing was tired of losing to Michael Jordan and decided to retire from basketball prematurely to chase a uh rap career. Yeah. So we built this entire skit around that, and in the process, I had to research 90s basketball, you know, so I could get like a lot of references correctly and my banter and things. And so I watched a lot of old tapes that I grew up watching. There was a video that we passed around the neighborhood called Come Fly With Me, Michael Jordan. Um, there was one called the NBA jam session, and I watched those again and I was like, oh my gosh, basketball in the 90s was the best. Right. You had the Charlotte Hornets, you had the Orlando Magic, you know, like really cool uniforms and just outrageous characters and dunks. Um, and so it really made me think back to the 90s basketball. And so it was that point where I decided I would give this a lot more of my time and effort. Yeah. And that was where the seed for Lap 95 was planted.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's fantastic. I feel like obviously I'm I'm notoriously not a big sports dude, so I'm always like out of my element. But I mean, even I remember in the 90s the way basketball went from being like obviously a well-known sport, not it wasn't like obscure pre-90s, but in the 90s, you really hit that like superstar era, I feel like, and it was really truly like a cultural moment where everything changed. I mean, did you I mean, so you watched a lot of games as a kid? You had like it was it was a part of your household your growing up?
SPEAKER_01Oh, for sure. Um, and it was a tough time because I was a 76ers fan growing up, and the 76ers have a great rich storied history, but they were terrible in the 90s. Sure. Like they were just not a good team to the point where Charles Barkley demanded a trade because this team sucked so much. He's like, I want to get out of there. So in 1992, he goes, Where? To Phoenix. Right. So uh Barkley's already my favorite player of all time, and I think just his path going from Philadelphia to Phoenix, kind of like me, is um something that I I draw a lot of inspiration from. And uh and his story and his rise, you know, like just for for then to Phoenix and then the entire league to see how great he already was. You know, he went to the team uh that year and was like the best player there with Michael Jordan, with Larry Burr, with Magic Johnson, you know, and then to lead the Suns to the finals. So it was like this great Cinderella story, yeah, you know, and a redemption for him. And I was just so happy. So like from then on in the 90s, the Suns became like my secondary team, you know. It's like, all right, I'm gonna root for these guys because they got my guy here, you know. And uh, so yeah, it was definitely through through a lot of the the journey of Charles Barkley, I think is is how I wound up coming to this conclusion of this creating this album and this this whole journey.
SPEAKER_00I think before right before we started recording, we talked a little bit, and I mentioned to you that I recently got my own copy of uh Charles Barclay versus Godzilla, the comic book. Uh uh that I remember that commercial being like the all-time coolest commercial I had ever seen. Coolest thing ever. I think later the Taco Bell Dog also ran into Godzilla, but it was the new Godzilla, so it wasn't it wasn't as cool. Not as cool. Not as cool as what Charles was up to. Another player who you reference on the record is Craig Hodges, who's who's a player. I didn't I didn't know his story. I didn't I didn't know that there's uh you know pretty outspoken, interesting character. Um can you tell me about him and and how you how you found out about him and and kind of got enmeshed in his lore?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's kind of a you know, maybe an unsung hero of those early Bulls teams with Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen. Um he won a three-point contest. Craig Hodges, great shooter, um, but also was very outspoken about social justice issues and um maybe was like the first Colin Kaepernick, you know, site situation where he didn't necessarily sit out or or protest, but he made sure to make make his voice heard and you know, in a in what he thought was the most constructive way. And so when the Bulls won the championship, they went to the White House and Craig Hodges arrived at the White House wearing a dashiki, African garb, and also with a handwritten list of grievances from maybe the African-American community and from uh other disenfranchised folks that from people he had met in his travels, like things that they would ask the president. Yeah, you know, and I was like, that this is a true hero, you know, a guy who would take an opportunity like this and not just kind of sit there, you know, smiling at the camera, but use it to actually like maybe just poke a little bit at the system and maybe try to get some answers. And um, and then in the true stuff of legend, the White House has a basketball court, and there's a story that Craig Hodges, after he spoke to the president, stepped out onto the basketball court and starts draining three-point jumpers in his dashiki, you know, yeah, that's fantastic, hitting three-point shots nonstop. And I'm like, what a legend. Yeah, you know, and this is a guy that unfortunately we don't hear about because not long after that he was kind of blackballed from the league, you know, because of his outspoken nature. So naming a song after him was very important for the for the record. And in it, I use a skit um of him talking, and um he he recounts a conversation with Michael Jordan, yeah, saying, like, hey man, like you're the greatest, biggest star in the world. So before you go and sign that contract with Nike, think about what your power could hold. Like, yeah, what if we took you and went into the neighborhoods of Chicago, hired a lot of unemployed, you know, black and brown folk, and created a workforce in this city, you know, rather than sending your shoes overseas to get money for you know cents on the dollar. And uh and Michael Jordan said, Thanks, but no thanks. And uh he went off to Nike and the rest was history. But uh, but just to think about the possibilities of that and the fact that he was so forward-thinking at that time, uh, you know, really makes him uh an unsung hero that I think more people need to look up and like and learn about for sure.
SPEAKER_00From cult horror and sci-fi to B-movie Splatterfest, to underground music documentaries, concert films, public access shows, indie label showcases, and original programs, Nightflight Plus is the coolest place online for weird and riveting viewing. Right now, Waste Oids listeners can get ten dollars off an annual membership. That means access to Nightflight's library for only $29.99 a year. Head to www.nightflightplus.com backslash promo code and enter Waste Oids in all caps. That's W-A-S-T-O-I-D-S. Enter promo code Wastetoids at nightflightplus.com backslash promo code and get back in the days. Yeah, do you feel like uh you know, in in terms of like your own your own work and your own willingness, because it's like it's a song that that in it you kind of articulate the the tension that exists for a lot of entertainers where they wanna they wanna uh they want to make people happy, they wanna they wanna have fans, they wanna interact, they wanna they want to bring the celebratory element of live music to people and to music to people, but they also want to maybe expand consciousness to some degree or try to uh affect change in some way. But it's always like a it's it's always a like a tightrope walk, right? Because if you veer too far in one way, you you risk losing your platform. Are there any, you know, either artists or other players or anybody who, when you think about people who have like walked that line that like come to mind to you as like standouts?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for sure. I think LeBron James does a great job of using his platform. You know, he's built a school in Akron where he grew up. Like he's always outspoken about you know social issues. Um I think the NBA in general has created a space for these players to be a lot more outspoken and to get their you know grievances heard. Like I remember them taking a game off when you know a uh someone was killed by the police, right? You know, things like that. So um they're definitely listening to the players and the and the voices, and uh, and I appreciate that, you know. People say, you know, I don't want that with my sports, I don't need my politics with my sports, man. Sure, sure. But unfortunately, it's real life, and these are real human beings and they're affected by real things. Um there's a old saying, it's not that old saying, but um a comedian said, You go woke, you go broke.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01And uh sure. And I'm sure a lot of people worry about that, you know, thinking, uh, this is why I think artists like myself, you know, we're independent, so therefore I don't have to answer to any label. Um, my boss is the fan.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, and and as long as I'm feeding and and and you know, appropriately, you know, engaging them in a way that they enjoy, it can't be taken away from me, you know, which is uh a really, really fortunate spot to be in. For sure. You know, but I understand I had to work very hard for that, you know, it had to be 10 plus years of independent scraping and grinding. So a lot of people are scared of throwing that away. Right. You know, so I do understand it, but I feel like at the end of the day, you know, you're gonna be remembered by not just the the joy you brought to the world, but also, you know, what you stood for. Sure. So I think it's important to let that be known.
SPEAKER_00On that topic of t taking risks and and venturing into like different territory for you, I really I really like Tractor Beam on the record, which is where you're in a in a different mode than we're than we're used to hearing you because you don't really rap on it. You're mostly a sing you're singing on that one.
SPEAKER_01Oh man, Tractor Beam is a song I wrote like three years ago. And uh I never thought I would release it because I was so afraid. You know, it's such a different song. It's me singing, it's a very dancy, upbeat tune. Yeah. Um, but I let my friends hear it and they were like, this is great, man. Like, you gotta put this out, you know. And I think just after them convincing me for literally years, yeah, I decided to release it for this album. And uh I'm really proud of it, you know, but it was very different, you know. Like I remember being afraid, my wife telling me, like, I don't know, this is very different for you, like I'm not sure. I'm like, well, that's the point. Right. You know, I think when you enter into a new album, a new mind state, you know, you should be ready to go into some new territory. You know, I think the worst thing, and maybe don't quote me on worst, but one of the worst things is when you finish an album from someone, you're like, okay, that was exactly what I expected. Right, right. You know, for sure. All right, and I'm gonna go about my day. It was it was exactly what I got two years ago on the previous album. Yeah, yeah. I'm okay with that. Now, you know, that's not gonna elicit any new response, it's not gonna give you any new emotions, show a new side of yourself, you know, or any growth. Right, you know, so I think it's important to grow, and I think change and growth are supposed to be scary. And so when I got scared of that song, I kind of knew like maybe there's something to that. You know, like yeah, uh you gotta be uncomfortable. I think to especially in this world of music coming out every two seconds, you know. Sure. Like, you gotta be okay with making yourself uncomfortable and trying something new. And that was what Tractor Beam was for me. I have a remix of it I'm working on that I'm like super stoked about.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, what direction is the remix going in?
SPEAKER_01Remix is live drumming, live instrumentation, and uh my boy Kay Murdoch did an excellent job with that, and it's it feels like like funk soul cool, and uh yeah, I'm really excited about it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's fantastic. On the uh on the topic of 90s nostalgia, which we've touched on a little bit, uh so many of the things you're known for, obviously hip hop, huge, huge moment in the 90s, where in the 80s it was, I guess technically the late 70s is about when it starts, right? The 80s it is ascendant and it's becoming this huge phenomenon. By the time we get to the 90s, hip-hop is just mainstream music. It is it is the chart topping, you know? Yes. Uh you're also a huge wrestling fan. Yeah. You know, the 90s were huge for wrestling.
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, the Monday Night Wars.
SPEAKER_00I was definitely an NWA guy. Okay. Or the sorry, the Wolfpack, the NWA Wolf. NWA Wolf Pack, yes. Yeah, but I uh again, I fell all the way off.
SPEAKER_01I would flip the channel back and forth like religiously. USA, TNT, USA, TNT. They're on commercial, okay. Flip back, flip back. Yeah. And all night long just to try to see what was happening. And um, I was in college at that time, and yeah, the Monday Night Wars were were real for me. Like that was yeah, that was going to war. It was like choosing your allegiance. You know, it was just like, you know, we had the same thing in uh it's weird. Everything became kind of territorial and uh in that way. It was Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis. It's like which what's what set you clean? What stuff do you want? Yeah, East Coast, West Coast, East Coast rap, West Coast rap. Yeah, it was conscious rap, gangster rap. Right. It was like you just couldn't love both for some reason. Yeah. It was WWF or WCW, like which one, you know? Right. And for some reason, like everything became so territorial uh because there were always two great choices. Yeah. And uh, so yeah, like that's that was definitely for me. Like I would I would certainly be into both. But I think I started off as a WCW guy growing up, you know, 80s was when you know wrestling started for me, really.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, NWA, uh early WWF. And so seeing a lot of those older guys go to WCW definitely made me NW well, oh, there's Sting, there's Savage, there's Lex Luger, like I know these guys. So it really made me gravitate toward that. But WWF was building the next stars of of the future.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, Stephen Cold and The Rock and Mankind and Undertaker either whatever happened to The Rock, you don't hear anything about that guy anymore. No, man. Uh I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Totally dropped off. Yeah, I don't know. I never see him on social media, no movies. I don't know what he's doing.
SPEAKER_00Uh that with that said, so like 90s is a huge thing right now. 90s nostalgia's back. Uh, are there any things from the 90s that you hope don't come back into fashion?
SPEAKER_01Um, yeah, I would say the not so subtle like racism of so many of my favorite like movies. Oh, that's a that's a that's a real the terrible humor in in like in race and ableist jokes and yeah, like so many things that you see in all of my favorite 80s and 90s movies, TV shows. You know, it's like all right, they gotta have the fat guy to make fun of, all right, they gotta have the Asian guy to make fun of, they gotta have the Indian guy to make fun of. Like it it was just really rampant at that time, you know. So I I definitely don't need those things to come back. Sure. Uh sorry to begin it all heavy.
SPEAKER_00No, it's like I thought you might say something like Jinkos or something.
SPEAKER_01No, no, no, but no, I actually like Jinkos, though. I got a few pairs. So I keep them for when I go to the uh the gathering of the juggalos. So uh yeah. Um, but yeah, I think retro fashion, I mean, except maybe the big hair. Like I don't I wasn't necessarily a big fan of big hair, but um I I do like I love the colors, I love so much of that stuff, the pastels the have have come back into society. Like I think that's great. Yeah, you know, for sure. I think the music was really cool. Like we just hit a creative boom at that time, you know. And look you sometimes you can look back and be like, all right, well, maybe that wasn't that great. It was just I was just caught in that moment. Of course, you know, of course. It's two things that people say about nostalgia. Nostalgia is undefeated, and nostalgia just proves that how bad your taste was at that time.
SPEAKER_00Sure, sure, sure.
SPEAKER_01So, yeah, when you're stuck on something, it's like, oh, you just had really, really bad taste, you know. But yeah, yeah, but yeah, um, but I love the 90s for sure, and it brings back good feelings, and that's really what where I kind of found my footing in music was just creating good feelings, like finding those good, happy moments, you know. And uh so it was first through video games, comic books, anime, cartoons, you know, and then through sports, you know. And um, I was really worried about alienating a lot of my fan base being like, I'm gonna make us an album about basketball. And a lot of my fans were like, I'm not into basketball. I'm like, Well, do you remember NBA Jam? Yeah, like, oh heck yeah, I do, you know. Do you remember those cool Charlotte Hornets colors and you know, things like that? So there were so many great cultural moments that came out of the the 90s NBA boom that people certainly remember and have fond memories for.
SPEAKER_00Well, that's awesome. Well, thanks so much for hanging out, for chopping it up with us. Uh no problem. I think we're gonna get some uh we're gonna do a uh a performance now. So you are.
SPEAKER_01I have some good news though I want to share. No, please. So the Live 95 album came out in October, super proud of that. Um, it placed on Billboard, does some cool things. So I have been working on a B side to the Live 95 experience, which will be called Overtime, which is coming this summer to a music distributor near you. So it's gonna be a lot of new songs, a lot of remixes of the old songs. We have a Craig Hodges remix, we have a Tractor Beam remix, and a few others, as well as some brand new tracks. So I'm super excited about bringing this to you.
SPEAKER_00Well, excellent. Well, we'll we'll look forward to hearing that. And uh thanks for hanging out on Waste Oids and uh let's uh let's get this performance going. Thanks so much, Megaran. Yeah, thank you, man.
SPEAKER_01So let's do it. This one's called Ages. It's the intro for uh EP I put out. Every once in a while, we go through different stages, phases, and ages. And we're in an information age round, they say, but yeah, we're constantly outsmarting. But in a space age, we can soar to an unbelievable perch. But first, we would need an age of reflection first. Yeah. When I finished my first album, I thought that I was quitting.
unknownBut I meant it at the end of the day.
SPEAKER_00That was Mega Ran. Again, you're gonna want to head over to Wastoids.com to check out his full out-of-sight set. See three songs performed in front of vintage video game scenes. If you like this chat, please consider subscribing to the Waste Oids Audio feed wherever you get podcasts. You can also leave a rating and a review while you are at it. The feed is how you hear new episodes of Waste Toids with my show with Sam Means, Click Vortex. We just recently had a great episode about pop punk and the time that Josh Freeze of the Vandals played with the format, as well as the spindle with Mark Masters and John Howard. There's a great new episode devoted to Superchunk's Slack motherfucker in the feed right now. Of course, episodes are also available over for you at wastoids.com where you can watch a full video of my conversation with Mega Ran and press play on the 24-7 Wastoid Sound System. And of course, if you want to get in touch to talk about your favorite video games or your favorite rap records from the 90s or your favorite basketball players, you can call us at 1-877-WaistOids, and we will drop your messages here in the podcast feed. Wastetoids with features on this episode, original music by Mega Ran, and is produced by myself, Jason P. Woodbury. Recording was done by George Santa Cruz, aka Jungle Pop, and Gems. Head over to Wastetoids.com right now for more and give us a call, 1 877 Waste Oids. Thanks for hanging out.