Raheem's master plan

HIS STAGE name, Random, was no random choice for triple-threat hip-hop artist Raheem Jarbo. The Philadelphia native's inspiration was the X-Factor comic-book character who shape-shifts to meet the challenges that come his way.

Jarbo certainly has a willingness and ability to adapt, whether he's teaching middle-school English or straddling the hip-hop and video-game music genres on stage, as a conscious underground MC and nerdcore superstar, and as a studio producer.

"I'm able to get some pretty good support on both sides . . . which is great," said Jarbo, embracing the conscious and nerd rapper labels. "It's like we're in the virtual cafeteria - there's the cool table and the nerd table and I kind of sit in the middle. I really appreciate that I bring those guys together and we can all listen to some good music and have fun."

Jarbo brings that approach into the classroom with equal success, according to Keturah Lee, assistant dean at Omega Academy, a charter school in Phoenix.

"It is so ironic that his passion is poetry in the form of rap, because he teaches an English class and teaches poetry among other requirements," Lee said. "The kids love it because they get to see his videos on YouTube or hear his music on CD while working on their own assignments."

Jarbo's relationship with hip-hop dates back to one of the genre's first hits and his youth in West Oak Lane.

"My earliest hip-hop memory would have to be late '70s, early '80s and hearing Grandmaster Flash's 'The Message,' " Jarbo, now 33, recalled in a recent interview. "My baby sitter would play it all the time. I had no idea what the song was about, I just remembered the chorus - 'Don't. Push. Me!' "

Despite his mother's disapproval of the crass lyrics associated with the genre, hip-hop became Jarbo's passion. By the time he was 16, he was ready to try his hand at rapping.

"It was 1993 - summertime," Jarbo said. "I was on my mom's step sitting with my friends and listening to some music. We all decided to try to write a rap verse. We all sat down and wrote something, then rapped it to each other. I was scared to say my rap, but everybody was like, 'Ooh, that was tight!' "

With that bit of encouragement, Jarbo's creative nature was unleashed. Armed with the most basic of home-studio equipment, he and his friends began shaping their verses into songs. He even started supplying the beats - in a very unorthodox yet ultimately fitting way.

"There's a game on Sony PlayStation called MTV Music Generator," he said. "We didn't have beats, so I started making beats on it. At first I thought, 'This is stupid,' but people actually started liking the beats that I was making. I went from a rapper to a producer."

While Jarbo's passion for rhyming never ceased, his newfound success with producing eventually landed him a job at a local music studio. There, he cut a demo that wound up in the hands of Kawann "Ohene" Shockley, co-founder of the RAHM Nation record label.

Jarbo still maintains ties with the label, although these days he's officially signed with a Japanese label, River City Entertainment. He also releases music on his RandomBeats Music.

Even as he was mapping out his musical career, Jarbo, a graduate of Martin Luther King High School, was attending Penn State and struggling with the indecisiveness of the average college student.

"I came in as a pre-dentistry major, then moved to journalism because I wanted to write," said Jarbo, who graduated from Penn State in 2000. "Like most sports fans, I dreamed of being a sportscaster. My adviser talked me out of that and said most of these broadcasting jobs are going to athletes, so that made me shift my focus again and I wound up going into education and history."

After college, Jarbo taught at Roberto Clemente Middle School in Philly. "It was something that was just natural to me," said Jarbo. "I felt that being able to relate to the kids and to incorporate my love for music into classroom routines was a lot of fun. I haven't looked back since then."

He may not have looked back, but Jarbo didn't abandon his musical interests. In 2006, he released his first album, "The Call," on RAHM. That would be an eventful year in more ways then one for Jarbo, as he decided to leave Philadelphia for Phoenix after a particularly harsh winter.

There he has found continued success in the classroom at Omega and in music, which he took in a new direction inspired by his love of video games.

"In 2007, something creative sparked inside me, which led me to create an album based on my favorite video game: Mega Man," Jarbo said. "I decided to sample all of my favorite tunes from this video game and just rap over them."

While Random wasn't the first hip-hop artist to appropriate pop culture for his music, it was a bit unexpected that the intellectual property owner of the songs actually enjoyed Random's music.

"The relationship began very simply - I heard a few tracks from Random's 'Mega Ran' album online, and thought it was great," said Seth Killian, Capcom Entertainment Inc. online and community director. "I wrote him a note like any other fan might have, explaining I was from Capcom.

"I remember him saying he was scared when he saw the e-mail, thinking Capcom had arrived to shut him down for using Mega Man samples. In reality, it was just the opposite - I invited him to perform at one of our exhibitions at San Diego Comic-Con, and eventually we were able to get him a legal license to use the character on his album.

"Since then, we've had a great relationship and kept up with his new projects," Killian said. Random's two Mega Ran albums have sold about 20,000 copies so far, and a third disc, "Mega Ran 10," will be out later this year.

"The Mega Man games have kept flowing, and Random has always been at the head of the class with great new pieces around each one," Killian said. "We were also able to use another of his tracks for a special vinyl soundtrack we created for the Xbox Live and PlayStation Network debut of Marvel Vs. Capcom 2."

Describing his Mega Ran sound in a March interview with Spinner.com, Jarbo said, "I call it new retro. I love to use 8-bit melodies, the old Nintendo Entertainment System sounds, to give it a retro vibe. And I add some new-age lyrics to them dealing with some real-life issues. So, there's a lot of fun, but there's also a lot of heartache, a lot of storytelling. It's kind of all over the place, hence the name Random."

Besides this nerdcore success, his more traditional take on hip-hop has seen him open for genre mainstays such as Common and Little Brother.

"Rand is a great guy and one of the most creative and passionate artists I know," said Haj of Dumhi, a Philly-based producer who has worked with Jarbo on several songs. "He has been able to find success in a dwindling music industry while staying true to his art and personality."

K-Murdock, producer for Washington, D.C.-based hip-hop group Panacea, linked with Jarbo when he submitted music to an XM Radio show K-Murdock hosted. The producer worked on Jarbo's June release, the album "Forever Famicom," an ode to the Nintendo Entertainment System.

"Ran is a very talented and diligent MC," K-Murdock said. "No surprise he's a teacher, because he's very organized."

Along with "Mega Ran 10," Jarbo also is working on his upcoming release, "Language Arts," and "TeacherRapperHero Vol. 2." That last is an especially poignant title because it embodies not only what Random is but also what Jarbo wants to be.

Asked to describe memorable moments in his teaching career, Jarbo recalled a particularly trying day at Clemente Middle School.

"I was having just about the worst day ever - the kids just wilding out, throwing stuff and really, really annoying me. At the end of the day, I walked out and I really had the intention of not coming back. There was an older woman who worked there and saw me leaving. She stopped me and said, 'Don't you quit.'

"I said, 'What?' Almost as if [to reply] you don't know what you're talking about. She said, 'I see that look in your eyes, and let me tell you something: These kids appreciate you. Whether they show it or not, whether you think you see it or not, they appreciate you. You know why? Because you are probably the only positive male role model they have in their lives. If you walk out on them, what is that going to say to them?'

"That just hit me like a ton of bricks," Jarbo said.

"I hugged her with tears in my eyes, and it was an epiphany moment where I said, I need to be teaching. I just needed to get in there and do it a different way, because the kids need, not me necessarily, but they need someone that cares.

"You just have to find a new way to show it to them sometimes."