As a white Jewish boy from Boston, I’m an unlikely candidate to review West Coast rapper Murs’s latest release, Murs for President. However, Murs has such fantastic and intricate beats that even thProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0
most rap-ignorant listeners can appreciate them. Featuring a variety of samples taken from a disparate array of sources (including one borrowed from Kill Bill), Murs’s songs are consistently fresh and interesting.
Unfortunately, Murs leaves something to be desired lyrically. His songs are admirably topical, discussing problems facing America rather than the typical over-sexualized hyper-violent music to which we've grown accustomed. Yet many verses are poorly written and come off as sounding flat and disingenuous.
“Lookin’ Fly,” for example, has a painfully repetitive chorus despite its engaging beat. In his love song “Me and This Jawn,” lines such as “Once we talked, I knew you were different/Had my work cut out for me from the beginning” can’t even be counted as slant rhymes. This and several other similarly unimpressive lyrics distract the listener, making it hard to get into some of the tracks.
Still, the variety of samples and styles make this album worth listening to. Generously mixing R&B, rap and hip hop beats, it offers a lot to the discerning listener. And as this is only his first album for a major label, it is refreshing to note that Murs has plenty of room for improvement.
