So, recently I became compelled to check out the music of the underground rapper known as Murs. Nicholas Carter of Los Angeles came up in the underground scene in the mid to late '90s, and into the early 2000s with little to no recognition from the wider world, until he started working with label Definitive Jux, and producer 9th Wonder, two ventures that gained him much more recognition from a mainstream audience. In 2008 he released an album under the major label Warner Bros. Music, Murs For President, an album with songs that are still being bumped today, such as "Lookin' Fly". Even after dropping from the label, he has continued putting music out constantly, even working with Strange Music for a period in the mid 2010s. His catalogue is massive, but sadly I've heard barely any of it. However, I listened to his 2023 EP Take It Easy My Brother Murs a couple of days ago and enjoyed it a lot, and I've been bumping a select few of his songs lately, which to my immense glee are absolutely brilliant. So that's when I came up with an idea. I'm going to be sharing my initial reactions to every single Murs album in his solo catalogue, in a series I'm going to be calling a Murs-athon. Clever, right?
Having released a couple of EPs in 1996 that are currently selling for hundreds of pounds on Discogs, Murs (which stands for Making Underground Raw Shit) managed to find the time, in-between going to work and masturbating of course (yes, I've been listening to "God's Work"), to record a full on studio album, which was released in early 1997. The album was titled F'Real, and contains a pretty phenomenal album cover that certainly excites me about this album a lot (I mean, isn't that one of the dopest covers in hip-hop? You can tell the guy is a fan of comics). Since this was released in his underground days, I have never heard any of the chaps featured here - Asop (who might be Aesop Rock, I don't know), Basik, Bizarro, Big Texas, The Grouch, the list goes on. The producers are similarly obscure, and although I've heard quite a few Murs songs from the '00s and 2010s, I really have no idea what a basement '90s project from him will sound like. My expectations aren't massive, as I know this was made on a minuscule budget, but I'm interested to see what this goes like. I think it's time we get into it.
1. 2 Reasons (feat. Asop) (prod. Eclipse 427)
Giving the first verse on your debut album to someone who isn't you is probably not the best idea, but hell, Ghostface got away with it, so I suppose it can work. Guest star Asop doesn't come across as particularly intriguing on this cut, however, doing that early '90s type of flow where he tries to fit as many words into one bar as possible without a semblance of flow, but thankfully everything else about this was incredible. Murs comes with two fantastic verses dealing with his frustration at the whack ass rappers dominating the mainstream, and over an instrumental straight from the gutter, in a good way of course. This was 5 minutes, but it felt way quicker. Great opener.
2. 8th Samurai (prod. Gandalf)
Murs brings us a one verse wonder over some haunting and incredibly gritty Eligh production, and once again it's absolutely fantastic. Murs' lyrical content once again seems to focus on frustration at other whack rappers, but all that does is show how much the guy clearly loves hip-hop. The closing line of "underground rap shows: not enough pussy, and way too many bitches" shows the wit of a far more established rapper than what Murs was at the time. I'm starting to get a good feeling about this...
3. 4 the Record (prod. Eclipse 427)
It seems that Murs' status as one of the greatest storytellers in hip-hop wasn't in any way influenced by this album, as this track seems to be more bragging and telling the whack MCs to get the fuck out. Still, Murs (who gives another acronym to his name here - "Making U Recognise and Submit") does this pretty amicably, and once again we have excellent gritty production keeping things moving. This was a banger, but if he doesn't switch the content up in a sec things may start to get tiring.
4. BasikMurs (feat. Basik MC) (prod. Eclipse 427)
But I thought you hated Basic MCs, Murs? Murs claims in the intro to this track that this was entirely freestyled, which is painfully obvious from the start. Murs and Basik both spit some clearly freestyle rhymes that are fun at first, but by the time you get halfway through Basik's verse become pretty silly in their execution - no-one wants to hear four and a half minutes of rambling rappers, do they? If they did, then maybe Hopsin would have more fans. Still, Murs has an undeniably great delivery, and this production work is fantastic, so I'll give this one a slight pass. Only slight, though.
5. Interview With the Dominant (feat. Kirby Dominant) (no producer credited)
A constantly glitching interview with an annoying idiot who keeps repeating the horrific phrase "dominant pimping", that lasts for almost three minutes. The fuck??
6. Dominant Freestyle (prod. Eclipse 427)
Let's hope this "freestyle" has a little more thought put into it than the last. And, mercifully, it has. The funky instrumental on this one allows for some quick spitting from Kirby Dominant and Murs, both of whom spit nice if overly sexual verses on this production. This was honestly a lot better than I was expecting. But can we get back to the real songs now, gentlemen?
7. M-3 (Anger) (prod. Elusive)
Shit, Murs really doesn't like less than adequate hip-hop artists, does he? Forget gritty, this instrumental is straight up horrorcore, with slow pulsating drums and dark bass hits that make for an incredibly atmospheric listen. Murs sounds as pissed off as mid-'90s Xzibit (before he started pimpin' people's rides) on this one, but teams that with some great wordplay and flows to show he's got the substance as well as the style. This might just be the best song yet - this was fantastic.
8. Say Anything (feat. Arata, Bizarro, The Grouch & P$C) (prod. The Grouch)
The inevitable posse cut, one that has not been transcribed on Genius, and therefore I had no idea who was rapping at any given time except Murs. I kinda tuned out during this one, as it was a little overlong, but I will say that there were some nice bars in there, and the instrumental was really dope. I think this one'll be a grower - I just wish it wasn't so bloody long.
9. The Saint (prod. Tone)
Well, that was intense. On this one verse track, Murs kicks a confusing story that I think I can decifer to be this: an agent had been sent to take out the members of Murs' rival agency, which he had done, except for Murs himself. Murs had to exact revenge, and since he knew where the guy worked, he got down there to figure out what was up. He ushered the agent to an aisle disguised as a Staff Director, then went up to the balcony, only for a different agent (or the same one?) to pull a gun on him, lead him down to a room, and then fight him bare knuckles. Then, Murs noticed that the agent had the same birthmark as him - the two turned out to be brothers separated at birth. Then, they joined the same agency, and got injured on the battlefield, and nobody helped. Confusing, right? Still, Murs' storytelling abilities are pretty compelling, and the beat helps things along nicely. This was great, and I hope there's much more like this to come in the man's catalogue.
10. Morocco Mike (prod. Eclipse 427)
Okay, now I'm really confused. I'm listening to this on YouTube (I don't own the CD yet, but I'll get it soon - it's just so expensive), and that labels this track as "Morocco Mike". However, the lyrics for this song are marked under "The Jerry Maguire Song" on Genius, and the lyrics themselves would suggest that this song was actually "Nine-Five", which is up next. Still, I really enjoyed this: Murs' lyrics are compelling and down-to-earth, and the production is pretty powerful too. Just a shame that I don't actually know what the song is (of course, Murs revelled in this idea - the CD for Murs Rules the World left blank spaces on the back cover, and came with a pen for you to fill your own track titles in!).
11. Nine-Five (prod. Eclipse 427)
Whatever the hell this song's actual title is, whether it is "Nine-Five", or whether it's really one of these surrounding tracks, this shit was dope as hell. Eclipse 427 provides some jazzy production for Murs to spazz out over, making some pretty decent points about hip-hop that really seem even more relevant today - funny, as this beat is the best aged out of all those so far. I enjoyed the hell out of this.
12. The Maguire Song (prod. Eclipse 427)
Now, this one is quite clearly "Morocco Mike" based on the lyrics. I think that therefore the previous track was "The Jerry Maguire Song", and the one before that "Nine-Five". Hopefully that's all sorted out now. While I wasn't feelin' this one too much at first, largely thanks to the kind of underwhelming instrumental and amateur rhymes toward the start, it really grew on me as I went through the song, and the storytelling from Murs in the second verse was pretty phenomenal, with a message in there that was worth taking in. This guy is really, really dope.
13. Live My Life (prod. Bizarro)
Sadly, the nice-ass deep bass in the interludes doesn't carry itself over to the verses, as if it did then this could have been one of the best beats on the album. While I did feel that the instrumental during the verses on this one was pretty uninteresting for the most part, and the weird "liiiiive myyyyyy life" vocals on the hook sucked ass, Murs made up for that with some powerful and intriguing verses that detail his everyday life, and deal with some of his true feelings. I truly don't know how this shit is so underrated. This song was great.
14. Nites Like This (prod. ARARA C7S)
Over an instrumental that was honestly kinda whack (well, what did you expect with that producer name?), Murs spits without any real flow, with verses that sound like they were ghostwritten by a Can I Borrow a Dollar ? era Common. The random synth hits in the beat barely pass as music here, but I did at least enjoy the breakbeat outro, so that's something. Still, this does not stand up to the rest of this LP.
15. The Extras (feat. Big Texas & Evanessence) (prod. Eye-3)
While a collaboration between late '90s Murs and heavy rock band Evanescence would have been interesting, I very much doubt that's what we're going to get here. And I was right! This violin-led beat that breaks down for the Murs verse at the end is absolutely crazy, and all three MCs prove themselves to be great here - with Murs being the best of the three. Why do men flex about women touching their chest? I don't know (although it would seem to be obvious), but what a question! A more potent question would probably be: did Murs diss Canibus there, or was he simply referring to cannabis the drug as overrated? Probably the latter, given his anti-drug stance over the years, but you never know. Anyway, this shit was dope as dope.
16. Ease Back (prod. Eye-3)
A shorter track, but still a really great one. Eye-3 provides some airy production that heavily contrasts his work on the previous track, and yet still is just nice as hell, and Murs is back on his anti-whack rappers shit again. I really enjoyed this track - wow, I'm excited to get into his discography. But first, we've got one more track to go...
17. The Sermon (no producer credited)
Err... this spoken word outro appears to contradict everything Murs has been saying throughout this record, actually seeming to defend Puff Daddy, which inevitably aged horrifically. Also, hip-hop isn't just whatever they playin' in the ghetto, my man - that's a terrible viewpoint. Still, whatever, it's just an outro.
Despite the weird-ass outro that kinda rubbed me the wrong way, I found this album to be absolutely brilliant. Despite flashes of Murs still trying to find his flow (tracks such as "MursBasik" and "Nites Like This" seem to be a little more rushed), a lot of this record could have been made with a major label budget and by a rapper that had been honing his craft for years. I'ma be honest, I kinda wanna call this a classic - if there had been more people around to tell Murs what tracks to cut out, and if the mixing on here wasn't so amateurish, then this really could have been on the level of something like At the Speed Of Life or Reasonable Doubt, and yes I'm being serious. Of course, there's a chance that I come back to this review and wonder what in the hell I was talking about, as this being a lot, LOT better than I expected may be raising my opinions of it. Still, I thought this album was quite incredible - the beats are almost constantly phenomenal, with a nice mixture of grimy and dark, jazzy, and reflective and poignant in there, the guest verses are mostly fun, and Murs is truly a phenomenal rapper throughout this thing. This album has made me incredibly excited to continue this marathon - this shit was dope.
Expectations: Exceeded
Best Track: "The Saint"
Worst Track: "Nites Like This"
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