A little over ten years ago, DC producer K-Murdock teamed up with Mega Ran to create a landmark nerdcore album, Forever Famicom. What made the album a special achievement was that not only was the whole project built off of Nintendo samples, and the lyrics inspired by some classic games for the console, they managed to also make it a hip hop album that just bumped eternally. Shortly after the release of the album, there were hints that they might try to run things back and make a Sega album. However, as the years passed by and the two artists kept getting tied up in different projects, it started to feel like this was doomed to become one of those legendary hypothetical albums that was talked about in certain circles. What we didn’t know, however, was that eight years ago K-Murdock met Dallas artist Creative Mind Frame, and that the two kept playing live shows together and talking about possible projects that they might work on together. Well, that hypothetical project is finally here, and it turns out that if Mega Ran wasn’t going to make that Sega album, Creative Mind Frame had to step up and make it happen with Segacity.

The first thought that occurred to me as I began to listen to Segacity was that K-Murdock has to be the GOAT when it comes to flipping these 8-bit samples. Others have done it, and done it well, but few can craft a full-length album the way that Dock can, transforming the source material into hip hop beats that bump so hard and are so well-developed into their own thing that it only takes a coupe of seconds to let go of any sense of novelty and just appreciate this for the great music that it is. Multiple times over the course of listening to this album, I had to take a step back and say to myself, “Did the music to this game sound this good? Damn!” On the mic, it might take just a little bit longer to get warmed up with Creative Mind Frame. That isn’t a dig at his abilities, but for the first few tracks, it just felt like all we were going to get were some fun old school rhymes that engaged with the games on more of a surface level. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still fun to listen to, but it just wasn’t reaching that rarified air that Mega Ran took us to on Forever Famicom. Now, this isn’t entirely fair, because Mega Ran is one of the best of his generation, but this project was always going to warrant comparisons no matter how fair – it’s just the nature of the beast. The good news, however, is that if you stick with the album, you’ll discover the really special tracks come in the back half, with Creative Mind Frame pushing to make the connection between games like Shining Force and Clockwork and the current events of today and delivering some of his most heartfelt rhymes of his career as he tackles subject such as race, police violence, and the determination to keep reaching for your dreams. On top of all that, you get a great posse cut on “Streets of Rage,” with Gr3ys0n, Kadesh Flow, and Prowess the Testament all crushing it and amping up the energy of the album.

Segacity is the Creative Mind Frame album that I was hoping to get out of him. Working with someone as talented and accomplished as K-Murdock definitely upped the ante, and CMF definitely rose to the occasion to make this spiritual sequel to Forever Famicom not only happen, but to make it stand on its own two feet.