Just weeks ago indie rapper Random was basically unknown. Now he’s making appearances at huge conventions, getting interviewed by major publications and gaining a cult following. How did he pull that off? By making a concept album completely dedicated to the video game character Mega Man. Seriously.

Those of you, like me, who actually owned a NES or SNES remember Mega Man as one of the more entertaining and overly milked franchises (Megaman is in the Guiness book of World Record for game character who stars in the most games) in gaming.

Random, who is a Univ. of Penn graduate and self proclaimed geek, seemingly was a big Mega Man fan and decided to make a album dedicated to the “blue bomber” called Mega Ran. Now, the first part of the story is not that uncommon. Fans often make projects dedicated to their favorite characters. Unfortunately fan projects are usually shut down by the big corporations that actually own the characters. Sometimes resulting in big lawsuits which leave fanboys with a bad taste in their mouth and a hole in their pocket. That isn’t what happened to Random though.

Random’s Mega Ran album lifts tons of music from the Mega Man games in the form of uncleared samples but to the surprise of many, Capcom (creators and owners of the Mega Man franchise) didn’t come with a lawsuit. Instead they embraced Random by promoting his music on their company blog, having him appear at the Comic-Con event on their behalf and granting him an official Mega Man license which will allow him to continue to make Mega Man inspired songs without the threat of a lawsuit.

So this goes to show you, you never know how you might make that leap into stardom. Just ask Random.

[Listening Post]