Photo: Bandcamp
Kids music is an inevitable part of having children. No matter how hard you try to avoid it you will at some point in the process have to deal with Baby Shark or (the admittedly funny) Nee Naw The Little Fire Engine multiple times a day. For parents with strong music preferences, the temptation is to try and guide your offspring towards the music you enjoy, a path fraught with potential disappointment when a song you cherish is summarily dismissed or even worse, played to death.
One of the, admittedly few, advantages of being a parent in the internet age is that the sheer volume of music out there means that there will likely be some sort of middle ground you can reach. Music that is kid-appropriate and fun enough to engage their interest but also well crafted and complex enough that you, the parent can enjoy listening to it too. Buddy’s Magic Toybox by Phoenix Arizona-based rapper Mega Ran is just such an album.
Mega Ran, whose real name is Raheem Jarbo, is a former middle school teacher and author as well as being a rather prolific rapper and producer. For most of his career, he has been focused primarily on the nerdcore subgenre, in which videogame and comic book culture is celebrated through hip-hop
Buddy’s Magic Toybox however moves away from nerdcore. It’s a more mainstream hip-hop album, albeit with kid-friendly messages. The production on the track Gimme The Fruit for example sounds like any number of hits from the last few years….except that the lyrics give a shout-out to kids music stalwart Raffi.
The line “10. now before we begin I like to thank you all for being such good friends . 9. While I’m making these words rhyme, I just hope I didn’t take too much of your time” features on Count Me In the opening track of the album and it goes to show that Jarbo expects as much from himself as he does from his intended audience.
Elsewhere he demonstrates the importance of empathy and kindness, even to those who might not seem deserving.
The technical proficiency of the production and the lyrical approach that Jarbo takes are both intrinsic parts of what makes this album work but what really makes Buddy’s Magic Toybox such a pleasure to listen to is that this is an album filled with joy. It bursts out of every track in a way that is infectious and inviting. You can hear the smile on Jarbo’s face in his delivery and he seems to mean every word he says. Whether it’s reminding kids that no matter what they are loveable and capable human beings or the resigned pleading of an exhausted father for his child to just stay asleep all night there is a sincerity here and it makes all the difference.
