Randy Rapman

Has Randy Newman converted to rap music? Not quite. But the world’s least prolific songwriter’s new album, “Land of Dreams,” a sly, disturbing and surprisingly autobiographical project due out in mid-September, does offer an account of a pair of budding hip-hop heroes called “Masterman and Baby J.” The song portrays the goofy exuberance of rap (“When we get on the mike, we’ll be No. 1, even top D.M.C. and Run”) while also capturing the grim intensity of the young duo’s vision. Told by their detractors that “you got no money, you got no sense, you won’t never be nothing,” the rappers reply:

“When I look out my window you know what I see,

I don’t see no whores in the stinkin’ street,

I don’t see no drunks and junkies dying,

I don’t see no bums or garbage flyin’,

I see me and J in the L.A. Coliseum, 100,000 people on their feet,

And they’re laughin’ and bumpin’ and screamin’ and cryin’,

And jumpin’ on their seat ...

Then you can hear that announcer say,

‘Please welcome! (the crowd roars)

L.A.’s own, the number one, the biggest, the best,

The number one bad in the USA, The Masterman and Baby J! ‘ “