Love & Rockets Vol. 1

VINYL FORMAT. Murs is the hardest-working rapper alive. If he's not running circles around America as part of Paid Dues, the annual hip-hop festival that he created and organized, he's doing backflips across a stage in Budapest, or shaking hands with fans in Japan before catching a bullet train to a packed in-store performance. When he's not on the road, he's in the studio, feverishly adding album after album to a cavernous discography which boasts projects released by major-label behemoths like Warner Bros. clear across the industry spectrum to indie powerhouses like Rhymesayers and Def Jux, a testament to the respect this man commands from the underground and commercial world alike. And all from a guy who only got a manager three years ago.

To hear him tell it, he has no choice but to work hard. From the rhymes in his notepad to the hair on his head, Murs is not your average rapper. Hell, he's not your average guy. Never has been. "I'm just a nerd, man," he laughs. "I've always walked different, dressed different." His stomping grounds is the Mid-City area of Los Angeles, the kind of neighborhood where cornrows and Chuck Taylors are decidedly more common than dreadlocks and Vans, so Murs was on his own from early on. "I would always get on the bus and hear 'ay cuz, ay blood, what's wrong with your hair?'" Those were the days when he first put pen to paper and began perfecting what he calls 'sitcom rap': songs about the everyday life of those of us who don't live in the hood, and don't live in Hollywood either – the life the majority of us are living. Listening to Murs is something like listening to a regular guy who just happens to know how to rap. His lyrics are straightforward, down-to-earth, and honest, delivered with a vocal tone and forcefulness that recalls a slightly more relaxed Ice Cube.