When Richie Branson‘s email landed in my inbox, I had to read the subject line a couple times. And then, I had to tell my best friend, Andrew.

“I’ve got four words for you,” I told him in GChat. “Gundam Wing Hip Hop.”

In the entire time I’ve been blogging, I’ve never done an album review. And believe me, I’m no music expert. I’ve been listening to the same ten songs on repeat since 2010. But when I listened to Richie’s album, I knew I wanted to help promote The Wing Zero EP, which was released today.

Gundam Wing wasn’t the first anime I ever watched, but it was the first one I became madly obsessed with. At thirteen years old, I think I was a little young to fully appreciate the plot, but I loved the cute boys. You should have seen my cringe-worthy fanart of Duo Maxwell! And needless to say, the show’s music was my background music for a long time.

Branson takes the signature riffs from “Just Communication,” “White Reflection,” and the unmistakable “There’s about to be a Gundam battle!” song, and remixes them into an original beat. The album is primarily instrumental, but my favorites are the songs in which Branson raps on the audio track.

In “I think I’m Heero Yuy,” Branson calls out haters who would deride him for rapping about anime and suggests that, actually, the ladies love him for it:

Yo, I’m rappin’ bout that anime

Yeah, they see me rappin’ bout that anime

I think I’m Heero Yuy

Call me Wufei

The ladies used to diss me now I’m who they wanna date

But… is he any good?

To answer that question, I sent the album to Bill Boulden, AKA Spruke. I last wrote about Bill when I covered his Magic: The Gathering themed album, Tha Gatherin.

Before he even listened to the album, Bill told me: “Hey, I obviously have HUGE respect for anybody brave enough to rap about their fandom. As long as it doesn’t suck, I am sure to be impressed.”

According to Bill, it didn’t suck. He said the music was strong and Richie’s “flow” was excellent. Not sure what a flow is, but I’m guessing that’s a good compliment for one nerdcore rapper to get from another.

The Wing Zero EP is a free download, so go check it out for yourself. Show him some love—Branson took a huge risk in composing this album, and he’s bound to get crap for it from mainstream artists. Supporting fellow fans in their endeavors is a wonderful thing.