diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/sysds/runtime/instructions/ooc/DataGenOOCInstruction.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/sysds/runtime/instructions/ooc/DataGenOOCInstruction.java
index 81b3bb7b38d..1b74a3ae56f 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/sysds/runtime/instructions/ooc/DataGenOOCInstruction.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/sysds/runtime/instructions/ooc/DataGenOOCInstruction.java
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.NotImplementedException;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
+import org.apache.commons.math3.random.Well1024a;
 import org.apache.sysds.common.Opcodes;
 import org.apache.sysds.common.Types;
 import org.apache.sysds.hops.DataGenOp;
@@ -177,6 +178,7 @@ else if(method == Types.OpOpDG.SEQ) {
 	@Override
 	public void processInstruction(ExecutionContext ec) {
 		final OOCStream<IndexedMatrixValue> qOut = createWritableStream();
+		ec.getMatrixObject(output).setStreamHandle(qOut);
 
 		// process specific datagen operator
 		if (method == Types.OpOpDG.RAND) {
@@ -188,9 +190,6 @@ public void processInstruction(ExecutionContext ec) {
 			long lcols = ec.getScalarInput(cols).getLongValue();
 			checkValidDimensions(lrows, lcols);
 
-			if (!pdf.equalsIgnoreCase("uniform") || minValue != maxValue)
-				throw new NotImplementedException(); // TODO modified version of rng as in LibMatrixDatagen to handle blocks independently
-
 			OOCStream<MatrixIndexes> qIn = createWritableStream();
 			int nrb = (int)((lrows-1) / blen)+1;
 			int ncb = (int)((lcols-1) / blen)+1;
@@ -210,10 +209,37 @@ public void processInstruction(ExecutionContext ec) {
 				return;
 			}
 
+			if(sparsity == 1.0 && minValue == maxValue) {
+				mapOOC(qIn, qOut, idx -> {
+					long rlen = Math.min(blen, lrows - (idx.getRowIndex()-1) * blen);
+					long clen =  Math.min(blen, lcols - (idx.getColumnIndex()-1) * blen);
+					return new IndexedMatrixValue(idx, new MatrixBlock((int)rlen, (int)clen, minValue));
+				});
+				return;
+			}
+
+			Well1024a bigrand = LibMatrixDatagen.setupSeedsForRand(lSeed);
+			int nb = nrb * ncb;
+			long[] seeds = new long[nb];
+			for(int i = 0; i < nb; i++) seeds[i] = bigrand.nextLong();
+
 			mapOOC(qIn, qOut, idx -> {
 				long rlen = Math.min(blen, lrows - (idx.getRowIndex()-1) * blen);
 				long clen =  Math.min(blen, lcols - (idx.getColumnIndex()-1) * blen);
-				MatrixBlock mout = MatrixBlock.randOperations(getGenerator(rlen, clen), lSeed);
+
+				int r = (int) idx.getRowIndex()-1;
+				int c = (int) idx.getColumnIndex()-1;
+				long bSeed = seeds[r*ncb+c];
+
+				final long estnnz = ((minValue==0.0 && maxValue==0.0) ? 0 : (long)(sparsity * rlen * clen));
+				boolean lsparse = MatrixBlock.evalSparseFormatInMemory(rlen, clen, estnnz);
+
+				MatrixBlock mout = new MatrixBlock();
+				mout.reset((int) rlen, (int) clen, lsparse, estnnz);
+				mout.allocateBlock();
+
+				LibMatrixDatagen.genRandomNumbers(false, 0, 1, 0, 1, mout, getGenerator(rlen, clen), bSeed, null);
+				mout.recomputeNonZeros();
 				return new IndexedMatrixValue(idx, mout);
 			});
 		}
@@ -263,8 +289,6 @@ else if(method == Types.OpOpDG.SEQ) {
 		}
 		else
 			throw new NotImplementedException();
-
-		ec.getMatrixObject(output).setStreamHandle(qOut);
 	}
 
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/sysds/runtime/matrix/data/LibMatrixDatagen.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/sysds/runtime/matrix/data/LibMatrixDatagen.java
index 58fb8e4fa8d..1edd439e40a 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/sysds/runtime/matrix/data/LibMatrixDatagen.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/sysds/runtime/matrix/data/LibMatrixDatagen.java
@@ -460,7 +460,7 @@ private static long[] sliceSeedsForCP(long[] seeds, int rl, int ru, int cl, int
 		return lseeds;
 	}
 
-	private static void genRandomNumbers(boolean invokedFromCP, int rl, int ru, int cl, int cu, MatrixBlock out, RandomMatrixGenerator rgen, long bSeed, long[] seeds) {
+	public static void genRandomNumbers(boolean invokedFromCP, int rl, int ru, int cl, int cu, MatrixBlock out, RandomMatrixGenerator rgen, long bSeed, long[] seeds) {
 		int rows = rgen._rows;
 		int cols = rgen._cols;
 		int blen = rgen._blocksize;
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/apache/sysds/test/functions/ooc/RandTest.java b/src/test/java/org/apache/sysds/test/functions/ooc/RandTest.java
index 40430aa49f9..398e8d105bb 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/apache/sysds/test/functions/ooc/RandTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/apache/sysds/test/functions/ooc/RandTest.java
@@ -53,11 +53,10 @@ public void setUp() {
 		addTestConfiguration(TEST_NAME_2, config2);
 	}
 
-	// Actual rand operation not yet supported
-	/*@Test
+	@Test
 	public void testRand() {
 		runRandTest(TEST_NAME_1);
-	}*/
+	}
 
 	@Test
 	public void testConstInit() {
diff --git a/src/test/scripts/functions/ooc/Rand1.dml b/src/test/scripts/functions/ooc/Rand1.dml
index 2861f294620..6b08a84d0e3 100644
--- a/src/test/scripts/functions/ooc/Rand1.dml
+++ b/src/test/scripts/functions/ooc/Rand1.dml
@@ -19,6 +19,6 @@
 #
 #-------------------------------------------------------------
 
-res = rand(rows=1500, cols=1200, min=-1, max=1);
+res = rand(rows=1500, cols=1200, min=-1, max=1, seed=42);
 
 write(res, $2, format="binary");