Back in 2015, Mega Ran teamed up with a young emcee from Glendale named Bag of Tricks Cat to release an EP called Emerald Knights. Now the two have finally found the time to meet back up and expand upon that effort, giving us a full-length album, Emerald Knights 2.

For this album, Ran and Cat enlist the help of producers G-1, Philharmonik, DJ DN3, K-Murdock, El-Jay Beats, and U’Nique Music. Given some of the names involved, most of all Mega Ran, you might be going into this album expecting some nerdcore. Of course that’s not all that Mega Ran does – while he is certainly nerdcore, he is not exclusively nerdcore, and back in the day he might have released this album under his former moniker, Random. This is all to say that on Emerald Knights 2, Mega Ran and Bag of Tricks Cat take a different approach than you might expect, delivering an album that has more of an R&B-pop-hip hop vibe to it, as the two emcees trade lines about romantic relationships, politics, the music industry, and hip hop itself. Once you get your expectations adjusted and can listen to this album for what it is, it’s pretty enjoyable. It’s just two emcees who respect each other and enjoy each other’s company sitting in the pocket of some good grooves and going back and forth about the things that matter to them, whether it be maintaining relationships while on tour, letting go of the ‘90s (it’s tough, but you need to do it), or just trying to make sense out of our current political climate and trying to make some human connections along the way. It’s a time-tested formula of good beats and good rhymes from a couple of talented emcees.

Emerald Knights 2 certainly expands upon their first effort together, and Bag of Tricks Cat is certainly able to get Mega Ran to switch things up for this project and show us a little bit of a different side than on most other recent releases. Most importantly, it’s just some really good hip hop and it’s fun to listen to.