If you put videogames, the ’80s, hip-hop, soul music, jazz and standup comedy into a blender and hit “puree,” you’d have something close to The Mega Ran Experience.
The Penn State graduate and self-proclaimed “Teacher/Rapper/Hero” made waves by by combining 8-bit videogame sounds and hard-hitting hip-hop tracks, and has become a trailblazer in the budding genres of chiptune and nerdcore hip-hop, while maintaining a career as a middle school teacher.
Random began the transformation into Mega Ran, his alter-ego, an ode to the classic video game character Mega Man. After creating a tribute album and receiving an unprecedented level of support and blessing from Capcom to continue, Ran was reborn and became a trailblazer in the budding “nerdcore” and chiptune subgenres, while coining his own term to describe what he had done, “Chip-Hop.”
Prince George’s County, Maryland-born MC, producer, artist, educator, and author Substantial, debuted in 2000 collaborating with the late Japanese producer, Nujabes Legacy who later worked on the popular show Samurai Champloo. Legendary rapper and activist, Chuck D of Public Enemy referred to Substantial as “One of the great MCs of our time.”
Substantial has performed in nearly 20 countries and has collaborated with artists such as Kool Herc, L-Universe better known as Verbal (M-Flo), Oddisee, Jeff Bernat, and more. Substantial has licensed music to major brands such as Ford Motor Company, Amazon.com, and Uber, and also had his music featured in films and television shows such as Kevin Hart‘s Laugh at My Pain, Kill Me 3 Times starring Simon Pegg, Daytime Emmy nominated show Tough Love and it’s spin-off series Pillow Talk. Substantial has appeared in the documentaries, Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme and Give Back.
In 2019, Substantial wrote and produced music featured in the video game Renaine to be released on the Nintendo Switch and the South Korean online game Tree of Savior In 2020 and 2021, Substantial was featured on the songs, Loyal to the Beat, ManiFesto, and Renegade from the video game Arknights which was also nominated for a Hollywood Music in Media Award for Original Song – Video Game.
Substantial also was featured on original songs for PUBG MOBILE and their short film “The Growth” and later for their Tesla Collaboration theme song called Evolve in 2021 and wrote and performed rap vocals as Brody from the game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang for the song and video Together by the group S.T.U.N.
Shao Dow is an award winning rapper, manga author and occasional ninja.
After studying Shaolin Kung Fu with the monks whilst living in China, Shao Dow utilized the tenacity and determination he learnt from his martial arts training to independently forge his music career.
It’s little wonder Shao scooped the AIM Award for Hardest Working Artist – alongside his regular music releases, he has published a manga book series through his own company, DiY Gang Entertainment.
The London-born artist also appeared on ITV’s Ninja Warrior UK and was invited into Parliament to speak on behalf of grassroots music venues across the country. He was nominated for ‘Best Live Performer’ at The AIM Independent Music Awards 2022.
Known to rap in both English and Japanese, Shao is hard to define as just a regular artist. He constantly blurs the lines between anime, gaming, martial arts and his own music and has worked with icons such as Sean Schemmel (the voice of Goku – Dragon Ball Z) and featured on the first single from Tech N9ne’s ‘Asin9ne’ album.
Go to www.blerdcon.org to get your full weekend badge so you don’t miss the show and all the action of Sumer Madness!