Move over “Apples and Bananas”: Slick, suave, and seductively sweet, Mega Ran’s “Gimme the Fruit” (featuring Whitney Peyton) is a fun ode to those delicious, nutritious foods that make up an essential part of a well-balanced diet.
Stream: “Gimme The Fruit” – Mega Ran
Peaches, plums, cherries, grapes, honey dew, watermelons, mangos, kiwi, too, in a bowl, even whole, not the juice, it’s the truth, gimme the fruit…
Yes, this really is a rap about fruit.
And yes, it’s certified fresh.
Move over “Apples and Bananas”: Slick, suave, and seductively sweet, Mega Ran’s “Gimme the Fruit” is a fun ode to those delicious, nutritious foods that make up an essential part of a well-balanced diet.
Fruit is delicious
Not only colorful
Fruit is nutritious
Fruit is so wonderful
And if I could have my way
I might eat fruit every meal of the day
I’m serious, oh you don’t know?
Supermarket or the home grown
They make me happy
and shout out to raffi
Pass the opples and bononos
Hey hey hey, gonna tell ya what I need
Imma pass on the candy ’cause I don’t want the sweets
It’s the only kind of salad that I always wanna eat
Gimme an F, gimme an R
Gimme a U, and an I and a T
Gimme the fruit….
Peaches, plums, cherries grapes,
Honey dew
Watermelons, mangos, kiwi too
In a bowl. Even whole, not the juice
It’s the truth
Gimme the fruit
Gimme the fruit
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “Gimme the Fruit,” the third single taken off Mega Ran’s forthcoming twelfth solo album, Buddy’s Magic Toy Box (out September 15, 2023 via RandomBeats LLC). Written for Mega Ran’s new son, Buddy’s Magic Toy Box is a heartfelt and smile-inducing collection of life lessons, tributes, and reflections that find the former teacher and basketball coach–turned–rapper, DJ, author, Guinness World Record holder, and (of course) new father entertaining and inspiring all at once.
One of the most prolific and truly underrated rappers of our time, Mega Ran has been actively making music on several fronts since the early 2000s, blurring styles and pushing hip-hop into new arenas. Earlier this year he released the charged wrestling-themed EP Wrestling Is Real, People Are Fake (which takes its title from a quote by WWE Hall of Famer Jake “The Snake” Roberts), which represented his first solo work since 2011’s eleventh album, Live ’95 – a record we praised for blending the world of hip-hop, basketball, 온라인 카지노 사이트 video gaming, and more together in an innovative, engaging medium. “Rooted in the past, with his feet in the present and his vision on the future, Ran’s music is timeless, classic, and all-around catchy,” we wrote at the time. This statement continues to hold true two years later.
Joined by friends like G. Love & Special Sauce, JER (Skatune Network), New York Brass (Kanye West, Jay Z, Eminem), Stacked Like Pancakes, Whitney Peyton, Kadesh Flow, Koo Koo Kanga Roo, and more, Mega Ran delivers a next-generation record for the next generation, giving the kids of today and tomorrow something a little more updated than, say, “Apples and Bananas” (as made popular in the ’80s and ’90s by the likes of Raffi and Barney) – though for his part, Mega Ran (real name Raheem Jarbo) does reference Raffi in his rap’s first verse, giving credit where credit is due: “Shout out to Raffi, pass the opples and bononos!“
“I call our kid Buddy. He really loves fruit and trying new fruits,” Mega Ran tells Atwood Magazine. “One time we were at a restaurant, and they brought a fruit tray. It had a bunch of fruit that he hadn’t tried before. I wasn’t sure if he was gonna like this, but he saw the blueberries and went crazy. Ever since then, I’ll just try any fruit with him and see what happens. He’s never turned down a fruit. My son jumps around so much. His favorite fruit was blueberries, then strawberries and right now he’s all about the peaches. He’s absolutely crazy about fruits. So with every meal, I make sure he’s got fruit. I was explaining this to someone else, and I was like, “if he could talk, he’d say ‘gimme the fruit!’ ” That’s when the idea for the song came about.”
“There’s an old Notorious B.I.G. song called “Gimme the Loot.” I thought that was a Buddy take to call the song “Gimme the Fruit.” He’s one of my favorites, very influential to me in style and storytelling. I remember leaving class early in high school when his first album came out, just to go get it from the record store. Back when albums came out on Tuesdays. My friend James and I ran home to listen to it on my stereo. I remember my mouth wide open the whole time. I was like, “Oh my gosh, did he just say that? Oh, my God, I swear these beats are crazy.” I was blown away by that entire album. I still think he’s one of the greatest to ever do it. So anytime I could pay a little homage back in a fun way. I was gonna do that.”
“I started writing the song on Twitch, making the beat live. People were really into it. I was just like, “Alright, this is where it’s gonna go. We’re gonna create a fruit song. It’s gonna be silly, but it’s gonna be a lot of fun.” I made the beat and wrote the first verse while on that stream. It was a fun experience. I’m really big on percussion and making interesting percussion layers. Not just a kick, snare, boom, boom, bap. There’s some clapping that happens throughout the song and I spent a lot of time layering those claps and panning them so that they’d sound like they were coming from different places in your speakers. I don’t even know if that comes through in the final mix, but I spent a lot of time on those very minute details of production. I always want something that’s going to sound interesting to me. Most listeners probably won’t even get it, but I definitely spent a ridiculous amount of time layering and panning these claps. 60% on the left on this side. 30% for the next one in the center. I wanted it to sound like this was an immersive experience. I do get some music-nerd fans who will tell me, “Oh man, I really like what you did with that.” But mainly, I’m just trying to impress myself when I put these together.”
Good for my soul,
I can use that
Put it in my water infuse that
Put it in yogurt improve that
You don’t like fruit gotta move back
How could you not?
So much variety, fresh out the box
So many foods; I put fruit at the top
Once I get some, I just can’t stop
Eh eh
Hey hey hey, gonna tell ya what I need
Imma pass on the candy cause I don’t want the sweets,
It’s the only kinda salad that I always wanna eat
Gimme an F
Gimme an R
Gimme a U
And an I and a T
Truly, this is a sweet and silly two-and-a-half minute song with a deep groove and phenomenal flow.
Philadelphia rapper Whitney Peyton even joins Mega Ran for a verse of her own, indulging in a little wordplay as she adds her own flavor to the succulent celebration. “Tomato, tamah-to, just give ’em to me. Potato, potahto… wait that’s a veggie, but I’d take them all if you let me,” she raps.
Is tomato a fruit? Yup it has seeds
Tomato, tamah-to, just give ’em to me
Potato, potato? … wait that’s a veggie
But i’d take them all if you let me
Cherries, berries, lemons too
Pears? who cares
Just gimme the fruit!
Cherries, berries, lemons too
Pears? who cares
Just gimme the fruit!
“Working with Whitney Peyton again was great,” Mega Ran shares. “We’d just come off touring together when I started writing this song. She’d told me that she’d done some children’s work before. She does a bunch of stuff with cheerleading squads. She used to be a cheerleader. We started having conversations about children’s music and she said that this is definitely within the wheelhouse. It was interesting to get her side of things and her connection to children’s music. That’s what led to me getting her involved in the song. I did a song on her album that we performed on the road a lot. This was the perfect song for me to get the favor repaid. I was like, “You do like fruit, right?” She’s like, “Yeah!” And I was like, “Okay, cuz you gotta be really serious about fruit to write a song about it.” She was a great sport, and she did a great job.”
“We shot the video in Queens while we were on tour,” he adds. “We got permission to shoot at a little bodega fruit market on the corner. We were having a lot of fun there, and maybe we were pushing the boundaries of what was allowed by the end. We asked them if we could get behind the counter and pretend like we were checking out each other’s orders. Like I’m the worker and you bring your food up to me. We were doing that, and we’re yelling and singing, people are coming in the store to buy stuff. People are getting confused and I’m like, “Oh, I don’t actually work here. Sorry, I can’t help you.” Then one of the workers said, “Hey, man. Our manager is watching on the cameras, and he doesn’t like this. So you guys are gonna have to go.” So we leave, walk a little further down, and find this juicing, smoothie place. We bought a bunch of fruit to take to this smoothie place. So now the storyline is that we’re taking our fruit in so that they can make it juice and then we’ll bring it back out.”
“‘Gimme the Loot’ from Biggie is about robbing people, taking things from people. And the ‘gimme’ in “Gimme the Fruit” is such a strong word. It’s like, “GIVE IT TO ME!” [laughs] You know you really want it. We wanted to create a secret covert ops mission, like we were going to get the fruit. Then, we’re going to take it to the juicer, and we’re going to walk out with smoothies. Our tour manager was in the black van just sitting waiting for us, not looking suspicious at all. [laughs] He’s just sitting on the corner. We told him to put on dark sunglasses and get on your cell phone like you’re telling people, “okay, go go go now go now!” He’s the man in the truck in those Mission Impossible movies. We finish up with Whitney standing at the door of the juice bar. I come out with the two juices and I hand them to her. Mission accomplished!
My favorite fruit varies, but mango is clutch, my guy! I’ve never had a bad mango. Sometimes I love watermelon, sometimes a good orange. Strawberries are great, but mango is number one for me. I just learned how to slice a mango this year. I love going to New York where you can just get a mango on the street and somebody will just cut it up for you. I had to look on YouTube to learn how to actually cut a mango. It’s just a weird shaped thing. Once I figured that out… Oooooh, I can make it look pretty. It’s almost too good to eat, but I will destroy a mango.”
Hey hey hey, gonna tell ya what I need
Imma pass on the candy cause I don’t want the sweets,
It’s the only kinda salad that I always wanna eat
Gimme an F gimme an R
Gimme a U and an I and a T
Gimme the fruit….
Gimme the fruit….
Peaches, plums, cherries grapes, Honey dew
Watermelons, mangos, kiwi too
In a bowl, in a juice even prunes!
Wait – that ain’t true
Anything but a prune
I really don’t like prunes.
“Gimme the Fruit” follows this year’s previous singles “The Story of Rap” – which feels particularly timely, given 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of hip-hop – and “Recess,” a ska tune full of fire and vibrant energy. Mega Ran calls it one of his favorite songs on the new record.
“I wanted something kind of upbeat and fun, a little silly,” he smiles. “This song encapsulates the whole album for me. Not being afraid to be a little silly about something that you love, and being passionate about it. It’s the stuff that I was running away from when I first started making the album. Then I realized, no, this has got to be fun! And if it’s going to be fun, then it has to be something you really believe in, something I truly love. So why not fruit? Eat more fruit? Yeah.”
Buddy’s Magic Toy Box is out September 15. For now, get down with the sweetness and stream Mega Ran’s “Gimme the Fruit” (featuring Whitney Peyton) exclusively on Atwood Magazine!
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