Super nerd, Guinness World Record holder, and hip-hop extraordinaire Raheem “Mega Ran” Jarbo sat down with The Nerds of Color blog for another episode of Fightin’ Words and talked gaming, hip-hop, and adjusting to life during the pandemic. The former teacher turned elite nerdcore rapper has had his hands full, juggling live events, his Twitch channel, making music, and of course spending time with family.

The Philly native spent much of his time early on moonlighting as an emcee and producer, performing, freestyle rapping, and later engineering at a studio. After relocating to Phoenix, competing in the Scribble Jam emcee battle championships and taking an early exit, Ran almost quit before he was even started, when a creative lightning bolt struck, and a fire was lit.

Ran’s music and story have been shared on stages across the world, on television (ABC/NBC News, ESPN, Portlandia, Tosh.O, WWE Wrestling) and on Billboard, where four of his albums have placed on the Top 200 list. His musical resume boasts collaborations with legends like Del The Funky Homosapien, MURS, Kool Keith, and Young RJ of the group Slum Village. The NOC blog had the dope privilege of bringing Ran on as the next guest of our interview series Fightin’ Words and brought with him insightful conversation. You can find our talk in full below and be sure to follow Mega Ran on Twitter and YouTube!