Followers of the career of underground MC Murs would know that his popularity hit its peak around 2008 with the release of his major label debut album Murs For President, a project that I actually really enjoyed, and had a nice varied sound only slightly upset by the placement of four break up tracks that play simultaneously towards the end. Murs had finally hit the big time, and realised his dream of getting his music out to the masses, so what next? Well, Murs, true to his underground roots, departed the Warner Bros. label very shortly after the release of this album, and decided the best thing to do now that he had reached a peak was simply to make the music he wanted to for the underground fans that came up with him in the first place. He started this endeavour with the release of a third Felt album alongside Slug in 2009, an album that I'm not listening to right now because this Murs-athon only consists of solo stuff and collaborations with producers, and not stuff with other MCs. Speaking of collaborations with producers, after the Felt album Murs knew that he would have to continue his streak of releasing a 10 track album with 9th Wonder every two years until further notice, and so on April 13th of 2010, their fourth album together Fornever was released. Man, that spellchecker is going to kill me during this write-up.
Now, as with every Murs-athon, this review is going to be more of a reaction - I've never heard the project before, and as I write these introductory paragraphs, there's not a single song on this album that has passed through my ears. There is one difference now, however - I'm slightly sceptical about this one. Yes, Murs For President was pretty damn great, but the last of these 10 song 9th Wonder collaboration albums Sweet Lord really wasn't that good at all in my opinion, and as such I don't know whether or not this project is going to impress. One thing that they've switched up a bit from previous projects is the inclusion now of more features - this album has guest appearances from Kurupt (twice!), VerBS, Suga Free, Sick Jacken and Uncle Chucc, and it even appears to have a verse from 9th Wonder himself, albeit under the pseudonym 9thmatic. These names do instill a bit of hope in me that maybe this won't be the miserable drag that the Sweet Lord first listen was, and there is one song here that I'm particularly looking forward to, that being track 7 "I Used To Luv Her [Again]", which appears to be marketed as a sequel to the classic Common song. Speaking of which, why have Murs and Common never worked together? They're both all about peace and love, so where did that collaboration end up? C'mon, I need answers!!
As I've been bumping Murs For President a lot, I am kind of in a mood for Murs at the moment, and so I'm hoping that Fornever (awkward title and all) will be a pleasant listen, albeit one I don't expect too much out of. Let's get it going!
All songs are produced by 9th Wonder (but you already knew that).
1. Fornever (feat. Kurupt)
"Murs Rules the World", "Varsity Blues", "Murray's Revenge"... Murs has been on a good streak of title tracks so far, so let's hope that doesn't end here. Going into this I was slightly worried that Kurupt was just going to be some kind of announcer on his appearances, but rest assured the man actually does get a verse in the middle here, so that's dope. Murs also outraps the fuck out of him, as Kurupt spends most of his time talking about fantasies of filming himself having sex for some reason, and he also finds time to namedrop Snoop Dogg and Kim Kardashian in a reference I'm sure people got back in 2010, but I honestly couldn't care less about now. So yeah, Kurupt's content was a little disturbing, but thankfully the hosts really saved this one. 9th bought through one of his classic chipmunk soul instrumentals that goes down a treat, and Murs sounds just as hungry on here as he was on Murs For President, and perhaps even more aggressive. "Smokin' on the front porch at my mama's house"! This was dope.
2. The Lick (feat. VerBS)
Well, that's certainly not a promising title. Thankfully, I enjoyed this one even more than the opening track. For this cut, 9th provides a smooth and laid back instrumental that of course utilises some vocal samples, and this beat matches the vibe of the lyrics perfectly, as Murs and the guest rapper VerBS (who I'd never heard of but showed promise here) recount just an average day on the streets chillin' out and not doing anything crazy. The song isn't intense or brutal, and it's not going to make any "top 10 Murs songs" lists simply because it's so low-key, but rest assured that this is actually another really dope song, one with great production and great rapping from the pair of MCs. Did we really need the little rant from Reverie at the end, though??
3. Asian Girl (feat. 9thmatic)
As I mentioned in the introductory paragraphs, 9thmatic is actually just 9th Wonder's alias used when he is rapping, and I believe that this is also his first ever appearance spitting on a track - at least that's what his lyrics lead me to believe. I quite enjoyed this one, and it's definitely better than the majority of Sweet Lord (which, according to 9th, is being bumped by "dudes out in Asia" - I'll believe that when I see it), but there were some glaring flaws. Firstly, this song does come across as ever-so-slightly racist, but more importantly, it suffers from the 9th Wonder (or should I say 9thmatic) verse, in which he completely disregards the topic save from the occasional mention of "Asia". Honestly, this song was kind of stupid as hell even if Murs did actually stay on topic, but hey - I enjoyed it. The instrumental was bouncy, and the lyrical content was fairly amusing in a "this really shouldn't be amusing" kind of way. Pretty solid track.
4. Let Me Talk (feat. Suga Free)
Kurupt and now Suga Free? The West Coast oldheads must have been going crazy when this thing dropped. Anyway, this track is another relationship song from Murs, this time with him sort of arguing with a spouse that we can't actually hear, albeit in a more humorous way than a song like "Domestic Violence", or more recently "We Cry Together". Murs approaches the subject in a fun manner and with creativity that was sorely missing for most of the Sweet Lord album, and the song is only made better by the Suga Free verse, where the man sounds slightly manic, almost like DMX if he was old, goofy and from the West. This track was really enjoyable, and one of the best relationship songs I've heard from Murs yet.
5. Cigarettes and Liquor
Surprisingly, it's taken us until halfway through the album to get a track with just Murs rapping, and no featured MCs. And yet despite this, this one manages to be in my opinion the best track so far, no easy accomplishment considering everything has been at least somewhat dope (I say "somewhat" as "Asian Girl" had its issues). On this track, Murs discusses how it's so ridiculous that, despite the fact that they're out to kill you and are inevitably going to worsen and shorten your life, people still are consuming huge amounts of cigarettes and liquor (or really, alcohol in general). The instrumental here heavily reminds me of that on Xzibit's track "Shroomz", and I'm inclined to believe that they use the same sample, although I can't tell for sure. What I can say is that this instrumental is groovy as hell, and Murs rides it as easily as his extreme dirt-bike. This track is great, and the fact that it has a strong message only makes it better. Nice stuff!
6. Vikki Veil
So far, this album has been rather humorous and uplifting, but for this one the tone changes drastically, as Murs spits a tale about a women who was completely unlike him who he accidentally allowed himself to fall in love with, only for her to break his heart by the end. The vocal sample in the instrumental that repeated the title of the song felt kind of intrusive at first, but after about a minute I actually started to really like it, and by the end of the song I was considering this to possibly be the best instrumental on here - this beat is intense and quite dark, and really switches up the mood. Murs' lyrical content on here isn't as dark as this beat, but nonetheless the rapping is still quite depressing and hits hard. This track was great, and easily one of my favourites yet.
7. I Used To Luv HER [Again]
Well, that's annoying. On the back cover, the word "love" is deliberately misspelt as "Luv", but inside the booklet it's spelt correctly. That type of shit really pisses me (the extreme nerd) off. Still, I'm going with what it says on the back. The song itself is actually more of a sort of cover than a remake - I was worried that Murs was literally just going to lay down all of the original lyrics after the first verse, which is identical to that on the original Common song (here's a review for Resurrection, by the way), but thankfully he started to actually switch things up during the second and third verses to offer his own perspective on the changing dynamic of the genre, and towards the very end he started actually dissing the use of autotune, which was gaining a lot of popularity around the time this album came out. This part could have come across as corny, but I think Murs kinda made it work, even though he does sound a bit like he's offering his opinion, rather than making good music and shutting the fuck up (props to those who caught the reference). This obviously doesn't hold a candle to the original Com song, but for what is essentially a tribute I enjoyed it a lot. They could have cut out the last minute or so, though - I mean, six minutes? Really??
8. The Problem Is... (feat. Sick Jacken & Uncle Chucc)
I believe I'm right in saying that this was released as the lead single to this album, and had a music video uploaded for it a couple of weeks before the album came out. I'm not ashamed to admit that I've never heard anything from the two guests here, but I'll be interested to see what they bring to the table nonetheless. It's quite obvious why this one was released as the lead single, as it's easily got the most mainstream sound out of every song so far, whether you're looking at the fairly dramatic 9th production, or the sung hook from Uncle Chucc that's fairly catchy, if not anything you might be humming to yourself on the tube at 3AM after a night at the club. This song is rather serious, with Murs delivering a motivational verse that tells the listener to not focus on the bad but instead the good, and guest MC Sick Jacken delivering some content about how black people are appallingly still being oppressed by society, and this has to change. The song's flavour is a little too mainstream for Murs, but nonetheless it's pulled off tastefully enough, and ends up working well. I enjoyed this one a lot.
9. West Coast Cinderella
Any song that has "cinderella" in the title is going to worry me - let's hope Murs dispels this. I hadn't heard a Roger Troutman style vocoder on a Murs song since "Live My Life" off of his debut album, so that was a nice little surprise - something the track was not. Sure, 9th provides a pleasant instrumental on this one, the storytelling from Murs is engaging and well thought-out, and as I said I do enjoy the vocoder. Sounds all good, but truthfully I cannot take this "cinderella of the hood" style story seriously - if you're looking for a gangsta tale from the hood, you're probably better off heading to the local library and joining the storytime circle than putting on this song. Look, Murs, we know you're trying to be all about positivity, but, in the immortal words of Rap Critic: dude, there's a fucking limit!!
10. Live From Roscoe's (feat. Kurupt)
Kurupt returns, and this time to contribute to a laid-back celebratory West Coast style tune that goes down as well as honeycomb ice cream: that's very fucking well, by the way. 9th's piano-led instrumental on here is easily one of my favourites on this whole album, and Kurupt decides to thankfully not get vulgar as hell for his verse, and instead just reflect on life in L.A. in the '80s and '90s, back when he was a young drug dealer. His storytelling on here is great, and I also really enjoyed his flow. Then, after a creative hook which utilises the vocal sample in the beat to great effect, Murs comes in with his verse and it's even better, with him just speaking on his current experiences, and how he lives a life that he can celebrate and enjoy to the fullest. This track was brilliant, and honestly the perfect way to finish off this LP. What a song.
Wow... I don't know if it was the inclusion of features that helped, but this album was actually way better than I thought it was going to be, and an enormous improvement over their previous collaboration Sweet Lord. Yes, the album isn't flawless, but I wouldn't say there was a single outright bad song on there, and the highlights were genuinely excellent, whether it be "The Lick", "Cigarettes and Liquor" or "Live From Roscoe's". So, why exactly did this album work so well? Firstly, we have the production work from 9th Wonder, which is just astonishing in my opinion. There's a lot of variation on here in terms of the beats, with some being intense and quite sad, some being poignant, and some just being groovy and chilled out. Whatever track you head to here, you're going to end up with some dope production, and some of the best beats give the work on Murs 3:16: The 9th Edition and Murray's Revenge a run for their money - that's seriously high praise considering I've come to see both of those records as 2000s classics. Moving on, we can talk about the features. I honestly think the worst feature was bloody 9th Wonder himself, as his verse on "Asian Girl" just kind of ignored the topic altogether, but even then his performance didn't hurt the track too much. Also, Kurupt wasn't that good on the opening track. All the other features did great, though - Kurupt made up for his efforts on the title track on the final song, Suga Free and VerBS both provided humorous performances, and Sick Jacken's verse was one of my favourites on the whole damn album. I definitely think that the inclusion of more features helped this album feel a bit more varied than Sweet Lord, and as such it's more entertaining. But the main thing that really puts this album way above its predecessor is the performance from Murs. Aside from the weird-ass concept on "West Coast Cinderella", I enjoyed literally every single performance from Murs here. The man sounded properly engaged throughout, and came with both personal and socially conscious content, as well as quite a bit of humour, and these three different styles come together to help this thing be even more diverse than it otherwise would have been. Murs really does kill this one, and I'm honestly so happy right now that I liked this album. This one's definitely worth checking out, and washes out all the bad memories of Sweet Lord without being too diversifying from the pair's original sound. Man, these guys are so underrated.
Expectations: Exceeded as a muh'fucker
Best Track: "Cigarettes and Liquor"
Worst Track: "West Coast Cinderella"
Catch up on all the other Murs write-ups here!
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