Murs for President

by Murs

So Murs is finally on a major label. Sadly, I'm not sure that's such a good thing, as it has caused a large amount of this album to sound vaguely generic, and lacking in the energy and humor that has attracted me to his work.

There are some nice songs on here though. 'The Science' fills us in on some hip-hop history, and places it in the context of African-American history in general. This song could be on a Nas album. 'Can It Be (Half A Million Dollars and 18 Months Later)' is another nice piece of work, focusing on the need for positive hip-hop. Murs spits lines like: "Trying to save youth from the way of the gun/And if I only save one, then my job is done", which is admirable, even if it doesn't match up with the content of most of the other songs on the album. 'Can It Be' features production by Scoop DeVille, as does 'Everything', one of the other highlights on the disk.

There are about three songs with production by 9th Wonder, and while they are fine, Murs and 9th have not re-captured the chemistry they created with the 3:16 album. In fact, the song 'Break Up (The OJ Song)' most reminds me of 3:16, but doesn't feature production by 9th. Nottz also provides beats for a couple of songs, but they aren't that memorable.

In all, this is a good start for Mur's major label career, but I prefer his work with the Living Legends, and would love to see him work with Slug on another Felt album.