Mega Ran has been killing it for a long time now, and he always keeps himself busy, whether it be playing shows, working on podcasts and other projects, and putting out music. So while he already released a compilation last December and a collaborative album in June, it should come as no surprise that he already has another project ready for you. This time it’s a mixtape, Beyond The Stars, based on the music of BTS.

BTS have become a global sensation in the last couple of years, and rightfully so. They are a very tight and professional pop outfit, they have charisma, and their live performances are always on point. For all their accomplishments, though, I don’t know how many people appreciated the full hip hop potential of their production. All that really matters, though, is that Mega Ran got it, and now he’s flipped their beats with the help of producer Rifti, and Ran has written his own songs to them.

Perhaps more than anything, a project like this really makes the case for what a high level Mega Ran is working at. For most artists, taking on a project like this would mean doing something fun and silly – take a few well-known pop beats, make a few clever punchlines, and call it a day. You’d probably listen to it once or twice, nod along, and then never think about it again. For Mega Ran, he’s not going to take the time to work on a project if he’s not going to do it one hundred percent, and it becomes apparent just a few seconds into this mixtape. The tape opens with “Home,” which not only features Mega Ran writing the sequel to “Airplane Mode” in terms of subject matter, going deep about the push-and-pull of life on the road, but the track also features some brilliant trumpet playing from Danny Torgensen that takes everything to the next level. Who does that on a BTS mixtape? Ran, that’s who. From there, Mega Ran takes everyone to class, quite literally, as he drops lesson after lesson about making your way as an independent artist on “Tips and Tricks.” You can take the teacher out of the classroom, but Ran will always be an educator. From there, we get a love song with Lex the Lexicon Artist, we get a cypher track with Rav and Kill Bill, a remix of “Infinite Lives,” and more. On each track, Ran goes hard with his rhymes, bringing passion and knowledge, has fun with it, and gets his friends involved as well. It also doesn’t hurt that Rifti does a great job of keeping the familiar beats of BTS enough in tact to make you think of the original songs, while also reworking them in such a way that Ran and company have the proper space to rhyme, all while making this thing bump like crazy.

When someone tells you that they dropped a BTS-inspired mixtape over the summer, you wouldn’t be expecting the type of quality hip hop that you get on Beyond the Stars. That is, unless that someone is Mega Ran, in which case you appreciate the joy, the passion, the knowledge, and the energy that comes from not accepting anything less than your best.