For more than a decade, Raheem Jarbo, aka Mega Ran, has occupied a prominent space at the intersection of hip-hop, gaming, and pop culture and we broke down his career and recent Grammy nomination in CBR’s latest interview. Rising to popularity initially through his clever, heartfelt takes on video games, comics, and fandom itself, the Philadelphia-born artist has long been a staple of the so-called “nerdcore” movement, turning childhood passions into a full-time creative career. Whether rapping about Mega Man, Final Fantasy, or wrestling, Mega Ran built a loyal audience by embracing the things that once made him feel like an outsider.
That journey has now reached an unexpected and deeply meaningful milestone. This year, Mega Ran earned his first Grammy nomination in the Best Children’s Album category for Buddy’s Magic Treehouse, a family-focused hip-hop record that blends playful storytelling, positive messages, and infectious beats. The nomination places him alongside some of the most respected names in music, marking a rare crossover moment where gaming culture, independent hip-hop, and children’s entertainment collide on one of the industry’s biggest stages.
Mega Ran’s First Grammy Nomination
What makes the moment especially striking is how organic the pivot was. Rather than chasing trends, Mega Ran’s move into family music was born from real life. Parenthood reshaped the way he thought about the music playing in his home, inspiring him to create songs his own child could enjoy without sacrificing creativity, authenticity, or the hip-hop foundation that defined his career. In doing so, he discovered a new audience — longtime fans who now share his music with their own kids.
That evolution hasn’t come at the expense of his roots. Mega Ran remains deeply connected to gaming culture, continuing to perform at events like MAGFest, work on game-related music, and celebrate the soundtracks and franchises that first inspired him to make beats on a PlayStation. His Grammy-nominated album may target a younger audience, but it carries the same love for games, music, and community that has always defined his work.
In this interview with CBR, Mega Ran reflects on the unlikely path from recording homemade tracks on a PS1 to earning a Grammy nomination, the creative fulfillment of making family music, and why video games remain inseparable from his identity as an artist. He also discusses what comes next — from new game-inspired projects to returning to the 16-bit era that shaped his love of sound in the first place.
Below is a lightly edited transcript of our interview.
The CBR Mega Ran Interview: Career Retrospective and Inspirations
Why don’t you go ahead and tell me a little bit about yourself, the name of your album, what it’s about, and what inspired you to get into music?
First of all, thanks for having me. This is awesome. I’ve been making music for a long time now. It’s been a decade-and-a-half journey of making music full-time, and it all kind of started with video games.
Back in the day, I was a producer and writer looking for ways to make new sounds happen. The PlayStation actually started this whole journey for me. On PS1, there was a game called MTV Music Generator, and that’s what got me started making beats. From there, I found a CD burner and a way to burn my tracks. I would give them to other artists to write to and produce. Eventually, I got a computer and moved into other stuff. Gaming was always such an integral part of the journey for me.
I grew up loving hip-hop in Philadelphia. My hip-hop started as more traditional underground rap and then shifted into what people call nerdcore rap, which is video game-centric and comic book-centric hip-hop. I wrote a lot of music about video games and worked in cool spaces like wrestling. More recently, I’ve moved into making video game music itself. But the biggest pivot I made about three years ago was into children’s music, or family music. That’s been the coolest thing that’s happened for me.
The results have been incredible. Not just the Grammy nomination for Buddy’s Magic Treehouse, but hearing from fans who’ve been with me for 14 or 15 years and now have kids of their own. They can share this music with them. Creating a whole new generation of listeners is unreal. Going to the Grammys in a week and a half is pretty insane for someone who started making beats on a PlayStation.
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What inspired the pivot into children’s or family music?
Parenthood, for sure. Right after the pandemic, my wife and I became foster parents and later adopted our son. He’s four now and has been with us since he was a few months old. Listening to music around him made me more aware of what I was playing and what I wanted him to absorb. I started thinking, if I can’t find the music I want for him, I can make it myself.
I wanted an alphabet song that really slapped, something he could bob his head to. I couldn’t find it, so I made it. I wanted a song about eating fruit that felt fun. Couldn’t find it, so I made it.
Even if it was just something my kid liked, my wife liked, and I liked, that would’ve been enough. But releasing full family albums and hearing parents say they love playing it for their kids — that really told me I was onto something. Spotify pushing it, hitting number one on iTunes, playing children’s gigs — it all happened without me changing much of who I am creatively. My music was already clean. The biggest difference is that I smile more when I make these songs.
This is your second children’s album, correct?
Correct. The first was Buddy’s Magic Toy Box in 2023. And so that began the journey into this world. And I just had a lot of people saying, “This is a really spectacular album. Like it’s very special. Like we think that if you, you know, if you do it again, like who knows, you know.” I’d been talking to a bunch of friends and mentors who told me to just give it a go. Like if you really believe in it, submit it and see what happens.
We did for Toy Box in 2023 and didn’t get nominated, and I didn’t think anything of it, really. We just went on about our lives. And then two years later, when I dropped the follow-up, a lot of people were like, all right, you’ve got to submit again. Like, we’ll see what happens. And then I submit. And what do you know, November 7th, a day I’ll never forget because it was my 10th wedding anniversary, we watched a live stream, and they say Buddy’s Magic Treehouse for Best Children’s album.
Not something I ever, ever could have seen coming.
So you find out on the livestream where everyone else finds out, or did you know ahead of time?
No, no, actually, I probably found out later because I was watching the wrong live stream. So they had several because there are so many categories and so many winners when it comes to the Grammys that you could be watching the wrong live stream. And that’s exactly what happened. I was watching, and then they were like, “All right, and that’s the end of our live stream.” And I’m like, wait, no, no, no, they didn’t say my category. What happened? And then someone’s like, there’s 10 different streams. As I’m scrolling through my phone to try to find it, I’m getting text messages. People are hitting me, bing bing, and I’m like, no, go away. Like I’m swiping up, like stop bothering me. I’m trying to find out who won this, who’s getting nominated. And then I finally go to the stream, and it’s like, thank you for watching. You know, like it hadn’t restarted the stream yet. So it’s just sitting there on this thanks for watching screen.
And then a friend of mine, actually, opens up Variety, which had the results ready. And I read through the results, and that’s how I found out. So it wasn’t even from the live stream. I found out from a list. And then I’m like, what if this isn’t accurate? We need to watch the actual live stream. Like, I just didn’t believe it. So we wait till it restarts. It’s maybe five minutes later. I’m still getting texts like crazy. Because everyone else has seen it. And I’m just like, I need to see this in person. So by the time I watched, it was probably 15 minutes after.
It made it more special and memorable that it happened that way. And it’s just perfect. I’m such a klutz when it comes to things like this. I’m the last person to know anything cool. And that’s kind of what happened. It was very fitting.
Well, congratulations either way; it was real!
Thank you. It’s pretty insane. It really is. And then for the people that have come back to me saying congratulations, my literal heroes, people who have created some of the greatest music pieces in video games and things like that, who have been nominated in the past…Just to be able to be mentioned with these legendary folks in video games and in music for this award is just unbelievable.
As a parent myself, finding music that I don’t mind listening to that my kids like is quite difficult sometimes. I can totally relate to that desire and your ability and creativity as an artist to make it yourself.
Thank you. That was my goal. Like my kid was two when I made my first record, and he’s four now…And I’m like, if they can get with this, if they can sing along, you know, quite frankly, my kid doesn’t like brushing his teeth every morning. It’s a bit of a struggle. And so I say, do you want to play the song? And he’s like, yeah, I want to sing the song. And so I have a song, Brush Them Teeth. And so when that comes on, he can go along with the beat and brush them teeth, brush them teeth, you know, and he could sing along, and it becomes much more of a, I wouldn’t say easy experience, but slightly less frustrating. And that’s really what I’m trying to do for parents, because I’m trying to do it for myself, just to make things a little less frustrating.
And it’s the thing I’ve learned in kids’ music, and family music, a lot of artists are really making an effort to try to make the music that doesn’t make parents go crazy. You know what I mean? We make music that kids love, and parents don’t hate. And that’s a tough place to come at music from, but I think ultimately you just have to believe in the art that you’re creating and that it’s gonna reach the right people because there’s a lot of quality music out there and I’ve been able to discover it, but initially the stuff that gets the most plays and gets pushed in front of you first, it can be some stuff that’s a little harder for adults to hear 70 times.
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In terms of your gaming work, are you still making music for games and about games, or are you mostly pivoting to family music?
Nerdcore will always be a part of me. I just played this huge festival, earlier this month, MAGFest in DC, where it’s all music and games, every day. It’s four days of just music and gaming every day. And just being able to reconnect with that audience and that world was so therapeutic for me because it’s where I came up, just loving video game music and just trying to give my unique spin on it. So whether it’s me writing a rap about Dr. Wiley, or singing a song about Mario, or about equality in gaming and things like that. Just being able to speak to gamers is a really, really fun thing.
I’m actually working on some new stuff for later on this year. A record with my buddy, K-Murdock, shout out to K-Murdock. He’s the Zero to my Mega Man X in most situations. And so we are going to be partnering up for a tribute to 16-bit gaming. It’s been about 16 years since we created our first record, Forever Famicom, together. That was 2010. So yeah, it’s been 16 years. And so we want to do a tribute to the 16-bit era of gaming, which was huge for me. The SNES versus Genesis, you know.
I was a Genesis kid growing up. I’ve got a huge retro game collection of nearly one thousand games. I love that era so much. Now, I’ve got a little gray in my beard, so people can look at me and know that I was a kid in those days for real.
You were Team Sega. Like in my days, man, it was like it was one or the other. You know what I mean? We couldn’t afford both systems. So it was almost like gang wars. It’s like Bloods and Crips. Like if you were Team Super Nintendo and Team Sega Genesis, you kind of hated the other system. But each system did certain things well. And I still go back now, and I’m like, the shooters on Genesis just so great. You know, the fighting games on Genesis are so great. The sports games are so great. And then the RPGs on Super Nintendo were legendary. So both systems have such a unique legacy, and Sega, I think, for audiophiles like myself, just having the headphone jack in the front of the Genesis was so big. I could play the game late at night when my mom didn’t want me to and still hear my music in my headphones. Yeah, the sound chips really did some really cool stuff. And it’s just a beautiful era.
And so when I go back and listen to a lot of those soundtracks, I’m so inspired. So I do think later on this year, Mega Ran will return to the 16-bit era.
Phantasy Star, it kept me fed and was a huge part of my life for sure. Obviously Sonic, too.
Phantasy Star, for sure, the Shining Forces were good too. So yeah, they had a couple, they did, they did. But I feel like the JRPG era is kind of defined by Super Nintendo, you know what I mean? Square was just banger after banger.
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Obviously, from your name, I think people can assume that you’re a Mega Man fan. But what are some of your other favorite franchises from when you were growing up?
Well, definitely Chrono Trigger, but Final Fantasy also for sure. Probably right there with Mega Man, to be honest, the Final Fantasy stuff. Mario, of course, Sonic, Zelda, and Metroid. I always say if there’s a game that I see, I have to jump on the controller and play it. It’s probably Super Mario Bros. 3. That’s the one game where if I see it, I just want to pick it up and play it. Super Mario World as well.
Street Fighter II, you know, is probably one of those games too. If I see a system and I see a controller, I gotta pick it up and play. So, of course, the Street Fighter series, Tekken as well, but Final Fantasy, pretty much all the Square RPGs, and then action RPGs like Zelda. There’s another that’s little-known, well it’s not too little-known since they’ve done a couple of sequels, it’s called Lufia on the SNES that I really loved too.
The Dragon Quest games, too. Classic. So, yeah, there are so many different series. But for me, Mega Man was like the perfect combination of fast gameplay and amazing music. And what they did, and I don’t know if they were the first game to do it, but when you hit the pause screen to go check your weapons itinerary, you could still hear the music.
And so the music was still going. So I would be at the screen, and I’d go off, make a sandwich. I’d go, you know, clean my room, whatever. And that music was still running. And it was like, man, this is really good. And so I started just humming, humming words as I would come back, like, you know, the next thing you know, I’m putting words to the melody. And so, yeah, Mega Man was just very special in that regard. I think it’s relationship to music.
And it was clear. They brought in really top-notch musicians. The fact that Mega Man’s name is Rock, his sister’s name is Roll, you know what I mean? And so many musical references throughout the series that let me know, Bass and Treble, like they were very, very much music heads. And so I really appreciated that. And I think it really shone through in the games’ music.
buddys magic tree house album cover by mega ranImage via Mega Ran
I think that opening from Mega Man 2, the slow pan up the building and then him at the top, and then when the beat drops, that’s in the top three greatest game openings of all time.
It’s right there with that and Ninja Gaiden, probably overlooking the castle, or the duel where they jump in the air. There’s like, there’s a few, there’s like five. And I think Mega Man is right at the top of all-time greatest memory moments in a game where you’re like, it just gives you that feeling like, my gosh, this is epic.
Back in the late 80s, early 90s, it was a different vibe. It wasn’t like nowadays, where every kid at school has a top five favorite video games. Gaming and anime were things that not everyone was into yet.
Very taboo, man. I can remember reading comic books, manga, or video game mags and having to put another magazine on the front of them just to read them, like in class during silent reading time or at the library, because I just didn’t want other kids to see me doing that nerdy stuff, because I knew I was going to get teased. I was going to have a hard time. It just got weird. It was different in the 80s and 90s, man.
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I remember whenever I discovered that if you put a PS1 game in a CD player, you could listen to the soundtrack. And that blew my mind.
That was so cool. I love that. That was another cool thing about MTV Music Generator. They allowed you to sample. And so you could eject the disc, put in a music disc of anything else, and then you could play the music from that disc, and then record little pieces of it and sample it.
You were able to sample, maybe 30, 45 seconds. And that was more than enough time to just take a little piece of Zelda, a little piece of, I don’t know, Resident Evil. I remember doing Resident Evil specifically because I worked at GameStop and they used to sell some soundtrack CDs, and it was Resident Evil and a bunch of Capcom stuff. And I would be able to sample a little bit of the save room theme or whatever, and then turn that into a beat, and put the disc back in, and then work on the track. It was really cool. Really ahead of its time, I think.
Finally, what are your most anticipated games for 2026? I guess, besides the aforementioned new Mega Man or new Resident Evil?
Well, is GTA 6 still coming?
Theoretically. I mean, that’s what they’re saying!
I don’t know. Man, everything I was about to say has been either pushed back or we have no idea. I was going to say 007: First Light. It’s still 2026 as of now. When games are getting pushed, I get really worried. I’m like, here we go. And of course, Marvel’s Wolverine from Insomniac for sure, the Marvel game, which I think got pushed back as well.
Until a game is out, in my hands, and fully patched, I won’t believe it’s real.
Yeah, you have to add fully-patched in there. When it’s in your hand, that doesn’t mean it’s done. And so I could get this game, and then they’d say to wait for this patch because it’s not ready yet. I don’t know, man. Those are the ones that I’m probably the most excited for. We just don’t know. There are so many things that can happen with these games. I like to be surprised.
