Early last month around here, you may have remembered coming across a post on the collaboration between Mega Ran, a Phoenix, AZ-based hip-hop crew and Storyville, a Philadelphia, PA-based emcee who both developed reputations through the battle rap scene – in fact, both artists are former Scribble Jam Battle finalists. The artists teamed up on “Artillery,” the Small Professor produced first single off Mega Ran’s latest effort, Soul Veggies, an album that debuted at number 47 on Billboard’s Indie Charts.

The track features emcees dexterously spitting lyrics and punch lines over  a looped horn and piano sample paired with boom bap drums that channels the spirit and tone of both hip-hop’s golden era and of the underground hip-hop scene – but with a modern production style, sensibility and flows.  Recently, a remix (of sots) was released and it retains Small Professor’s production while featuring completely different emcees as Esoteric, Reks, and Reef The Lost Cause with even more dexterous flows than the original version as the each emcee’s rhyme schemes are wildly pun-filled and are based on rather inventive inner and outer rhyme schemes – you’ll hear “insane mood/brain mood/gamecube/dinner plate/straight, as well as references to The Incredible Hulk, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Wheelchair Jimmy from DeGrassi High, Redman, The Ben Folds Five and a headspinning array of other references. Plain and simple, it’s dope emcees spitting fire over dope beats. Nuff said.