In case you didn’t know, Mega Ran, who dropped his latest album of video game-inspired hip hop last month, has also been performing under the name Random for years before he developed this alter ego. The Philly artist recently teamed up with Phoenix emcee Mr. Miranda to form the duo of MIRANDOM. The pairing might be new, but they sound so comfortable trading verses on the mic, it sounds like they’ve been doing it for years. Maybe it has to do with the comfort provided by longtime producing partners DN3, K-Murdock, and EOM. Whatever it is, The Memorandum plays out like a classic jazz album from the fifties or sixties - everybody has great chops, they come into the studio, feel each other out a little, and then they all push each other creatively to throw down some classic joints.

The great thing about The Memorandum is that is sounds like everybody had such a great time making it. “Wednesday” has an infectious hook that will immediately make you want to dance and sing along, and will surely become a staple for deejays working in the middle of the week. In case you’re wondering how they got together, just listen to “The Untold Story,” which features some of the best storytelling in I’ve heard in hip hop in years, with different perspectives unfolding and coming together at the end of the song to paint the full picture. They share the fun on a few tracks, bringing in emcees Fashawn, Mistah FAB, Von Pea, Ilyas, MysticBlu, and Wisdom Soul to trade rhymes. I don’t know, because I wasn’t there, but there seems to be something about the culture surrounding the making of this album that every emcee stepping on the mic brings some of their best rhymes, like they knew that they were onto something special. Normally, with that many guests, there’s usually at least one verse that drops a level or two in quality, but that doesn’t happen on this record. On “Big Beat Jawn,” which uses the same Billy Squire drum sample that Dizzee Rascal famously rocked on “Fix Up Look Sharp,” it’s such a high energy freestyle session, that any sort of care for those unwritten rules of production go out the window, since you just end up sitting back and enjoying listening two emcees spit so well.

Occasionally you come across new albums that feel like old friends, and I feel like I’ve known The Memorandum for years. This is what happens when you have seasoned veterans committed to challenging each other to bring out the best in each other. This is an album that I’ll be returning to for some time to come.