S. Samuel
Hip-hop artist Richie Branson is not afraid to declare his love for cartoons and has even begun penning a new anime-related music series in hopes of bringing back "Toonami" to Cartoon Network.
Branson’s latest track, “#BringToonamiBack” has begun circulating online this week.
Ever since Cartoon Network sprung a surprise airing of their Toonami anime block on April 1st, fans have been rallying around the hashtag “BringToonamiBack.” Check out this track from nerdcore rapper Richie Branson. Is all this going to grab the attention of Cartoon Network execs? Or was that April Fool’s joke just a test to see how much fans want it back, it’s been speculated that they already had plans to bring Toonami back to the airwaves. (Geeks Are Sexy)
On the track, he uses clever and witty rhymes to persuade Cartoon Network higher-ups to consider bringing back the anime series.
“To who this may concern, this is my retrospective letter from a true anime fan’s perspective.” he raps. “Television’s not the same without ‘Toonami’s’ presence/So that will be the subject of my subsequent suggestions/Vividly remember afternoons after school, chilling in my living room watching ‘Toonami’ cartoons.” (“#BringToonamiBack”)
Following the song’s release, Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim cable network posted a link to it via Twitter.
“This is amazing. #Toonami rap by Richie Branson …” the network tweeted May 8th. (Adult Swim’s Twitter)
Based on his website’s bio, Branson’s run in the music industry dates back three years ago.
Richie is an extremely versatile artist/producer who has already made some noise in the music industry. In 2009 he formed a music production company with his cousin, music producer Jeremy “J.Forbes” Brown. Within months, Red Prodigy’s signature sound was already being co-signed by top executives in the music industry. Def Jam’s President, L.A. Reid, personally offered a record deal to one of Red Prodigy’s artists, Demarcus “Bone” Hamilton, after hearing two of Bone’s songs, both of which were produced by Richie and J. Forbes. Red Prodigy produced Bone’s smash debut single “Homegurl” which stayed on the Billboard Hot 100 Hip-Hop/R&B charts for 19 weeks and reached a radio audience of over 9 million people. Eventually, Red Prodigy would go on to do production work with industry artists from around the nation including Chalie Boy, Slim Thug, The Dream, Bun B, and Rick Ross. (Richie Branson)
Check out the new track below:
