Opinion
Vaughn Johnson
April 22, 2024 10:10 am ET
Back on April 7, nerdcore rapper Mega Ran was fortunate enough to live out the dream of wrestling fans around the world: Participating in WrestleMania.
Ran accomplished this feat by being a last-minute addition to the orchestra that played Roman Reigns’ cinematic theme song during his epic entrance before the main event.
So when you get the call from an old friend who happens to be the baddest conductor in Philly saying “if you can be here in 30 minutes wearing all black, you can help us be a part of Roman Reigns entrance at #WrestleMania40,” you answer the call. Holy crap. Thx Frank! pic.twitter.com/ihAYAfbB4i
— Mega Ran (@MegaRan) April 13, 2024
To top it off, Ran was able to live out this dream-turned-reality in his hometown of Philadelphia. In reality, where Ran stood was merely 15 miles from where he grew up. But the moment of him standing on stage during the main event of WrestleMania could not have been further from his humble beginnings.
How did this happen? How did the kid born Raheem Jarbo from the West Oak Lane neighborhood of Philadelphia go from a substitute teacher to a nerdcore icon who now has a WrestleMania main event under his belt?
“I didn’t quit,” Ran told USA Today’s Wrestling Junkie while doing the very Philly activity of hanging out in a cheesesteak shop — in this case Ishkabibbles on South Street.
The sound of spatulas clanging against a flat-top grill was the perfect soundtrack for Ran to tell his story, an underdog story, a Philadelphia story.
“It has been a journey, but Philly’s definitely made me.”
In October of 2021, Mega Ran released his 11th solo album titled “Live ’95,” in homage to the revered EA Sports basketball game “NBA Live ‘95.” One of the singles from the album is appropriately named “1995 (Generation of Miracles),” which transports listeners to Ran’s life at that point.
In 1995, Ran was another one of many Philly-area high school students looking toward their collegiate future. In this case, the graduate of Martin Luther King High School was headed for Penn State University, where he eventually earned a degree in African American Studies.
While it was undoubtedly a major accomplishment, it was one that left him with few paths toward a career. According to Ran’s academic advisor, he essentially had two options: Teach African American history or run a museum … of African American history.
Ran chose the former and joined Teach for America, an organization that recruits and trains young teachers before placing them in low-staffed schools across the country.
Some of those schools reside in low-income, high-crime neighborhoods. For Ran, that meant being initially placed at Roberto Clemente Middle School in North Philadelphia, traditionally one of the city’s more violent areas despite a slight decrease in 2023.
Ran walked into a class full of eighth-grade students who all knew what it meant when a substitute teacher walked into the classroom: It’s a free day. Ran attempted to salvage the situation by checking for the lesson plans the regular teacher is supposed to leave behind. However, there were no lesson plans to be found.
“So what were y’all doing last week?” Ran asked the students.
“Nothing,” they answered.
“These kids are not being prepared for life, I gotta do what I can,” he remembered. “Man, it was rough.”
Ran admits that he was unable to get the class to do a complete 180-degree turn like the one you would see in a movie that ends with a freeze frame, but noted that he is still proud of the progress he was able to make, as he felt the students gained a “zest for learning.”
“It really showed me that teaching is maybe the most rewarding career, except for the one I got now,” Ran said. “Being a dad and being a musician that gets to make music based on my fandoms, that’s probably the most rewarding.”
“I want to do stuff that’s rewarding,” he later said. “Time on this planet is limited so I want to do things that make me feel good and that can make others feel good. If it ain’t teaching, then for me it’s creating.”
Today, Ran has fully moved on from teaching in a traditional classroom setting. However, his desire to help others remains.
“It doesn’t dim your light to help somebody shine,” he said.
Photo credit: Adam Barnard
Teaching is what paid the bills, but Ran always had a love for music. He grew up listening to KRS-One, Rakim, Wu-Tang Clan, Redman, MF Doom, and of course, Philly legends such as Beanie Siegel and Freeway.
Ran followed in their footsteps by making his own music, except it wasn’t about living life in the fast lane like his idols. He wanted to rap about something he was truly passionate about: video games.
In 2007, he released a self-titled album that, like his name, was inspired by the classic platform action game, “Mega Man.”
The album garnered the attention of hip-hop heads and gamers alike, eventually landing on the radar of the company that created the wildly-successful video game series and many others, Capcom.
Capcom offered Ran a licensing deal, which he accepted, which opened the door for him to perform at San Diego Comic-Con in 2007.
However, the newfound fame wasn’t enough to make Ran leave teaching, as that was still paying the bills. At least it was until he was laid off.
Ran attempted to take on as many music gigs as possible, but eventually, money ran low, and he had to make his way back to teaching.
But in 2011, Ran had another online hit on his hands. This time it was his album that was in homage to “Final Fantasy VII” called “Black Materia: Final Fantasy VII.”
The album was especially beloved on Reddit, which helped boost Ran’s album sales at literally an alarming rate. The sound of Ran’s PayPal going off on his phone after every album sale eventually became a distraction for his classroom. But those constant disruptions also meant he had earned enough money to pay his rent within 24 hours.
A second successful album garnered even more attention, this time from nerdcore hip-hop legend MC Chris, who offered Ran a chance to join him on his tour. That meant more experience on stage and more money in Ran’s pocket from music on a consistent basis.
With the encouragement of his mother, Ran put in his two weeks notice as a teacher and has been a full-time musician ever since. While there have been obstacles along the way, he’s simply kept going.
“I held tight, did this tour, became a better performer with each show, it just kept working out, and here I am,” he said. “I ain’t never been back.”
“The fact that I’ve been able to do this for 12, 13 years, it’s pretty insane,” he added.
In the decade-plus since, Ran has appeared on everything from video games albums to episodes of Smackdown.
Why? How? According to Ran, it is his connection with his fans. Throughout his career, he has made it a point to bond with them.
“It’s the intangibles,” he said. “You can be really dope at what you do, but I tell silly jokes online. I share the struggles. I share the wins. I share the successes. I share the Ls.”
“I’m very open with my audience,” he added. “I treat them like friends. I don’t even call them fans. I call them family, because they’re the people who have been there when I depended on them when my family wasn’t.”
Creating bonds with people has carried Ran to heights he never thought possible in his career. During WrestleMania week, he got to share the stage with Siegel and Freeway while they performed at WaleMania.
One of those bonds also helped him live out his wrestling dream.
In 2006, Ran was putting the final touches on a song called “Push” and thought the beat could use a little bit of saxophone.
He went to Craigslist hoping to find a saxophonist and hear back from someone named Frank Machos. Ran and Machos enjoyed working together so much that they have remained friends in the years since, supporting each other’s endeavors along the way.
“I am a genuine fan of his work,” Machos told USA Today via text. “Not only the content he creates, which I tend to appreciate, but the way he’s carved a career for himself in the industry and how he continues to evolve and shift, but always to new areas he is equally passionate about.”
Fast forward to 2024, and Ran receives a call from Machos offering him an opportunity. Machos is now the executive director of the School District of Philadelphia’s Office of the Arts and Creative Learning and was working with WWE on assembling a children’s orchestra for Reigns’ entrance.
“In the midst of the craziness of pulling together our performance for WrestleMania, I caught Mega Ran’s social media posts about his events through the week in Philly,” Machos recounted via text.
“I wasn’t able to get out to any of the events and couldn’t say much about our involvement pre-show, but Sunday morning on my way down to the Linc (Lincoln Financial Field), I dropped him a text to say if he found himself in and around backstage, we would be on site with the students for a small performance and to swing over to say ‘What’s up?'”
Ran told Machos that he didn’t have much planned, but Machos was about to change all of that.
“I said he could meet us in 30 minutes and wear all black, I can use a few fill-ins for the orchestra to cover for last minute drop outs,” Machos remembered.
According to Machos, Ran arrived 32 minutes later.
Thanks to Machos, Ran was able to combine his passion for music, teaching, and wrestling on the industry’s biggest stage.
“It’s a dream. It’s an absolute dream,” Ran said.
