For me, music has always been about more than music. Hip-Hop feels like its evolving into purely vibes and emotions, but there are still the select few who can truly tell a story. It's not often you get to sit down with a living legend, and this day we literally sat down with a Living Legend. From his days in Living Legends to his signing of with Strange Music, the one consistent attribute to Murs is his ability to paint vivid imagery while the beats amplify his stories. We had the pleasure to sit down with new father at Soundset and catch up on everything else new in his life.

UHH: So off the bat can you introduce yourself to the readers out there?

Murs: I'm Murs. I have been eating sour patch kids with the same hand I have been shaking people's hands with and that's troubling me right now, but I'm ok. I'm alright. [Oh and] I'm a rapper.

UHH: I wanted to begin by diving into the new. You have a new album, you're a new father and have a new producer. So can you tell me a little about everything new in your life?

Murs: Well for a rapper everything that's new is old, except the baby, that's new. He isn't doing much of anything at this point in his life. He is a chill dude, he enjoys a lot of shit. He enjoys his mom's titties. He enjoys farting, peeing on people. He enjoys smiling, [and] I think he enjoys it when I make out with him.

New babies can put a lot of perspective on the world. Watching the growth of an artist when new life comes into their world can be a blessing. From local artist Why Khaliq who's daughter grounded him and took his art to a new level all the way to Murs who lit up just talking about the new addition to his life. This wasn't the only new addition to Murs life, on the career side he had linked up with a new, but veteran, producer and Strange Music staple, Michael “Seven” Summers. And while Trap artists are essentially reliant on their producers, they keep the spotlight on themselves, and Murs could tell a story to silence and draw you in, but he has a different approach to acknowledging the producers.

UHH: The other big new thing comes in your career life with the work you recently did with Michael “Seven” Summers. One of the things I have enjoyed throughout your career is your willingness to put your producer at the forefront, whether it was 9th or now with Seven being on the cover of Strange Journey. Why do you feel it's important to share the spotlight?

Murs: Um... when you are doing a project with another person, they are doing half the work and deserve half the money and do half of the work. A lot of producers get away with not doing a lot of the work. Also, a lot of the artists, I mean they call them artists...

(We got off on a little bit of a tangent, but I feel that it is a very necessary one to have in this article)

Murs: I have come to the conclusion that what we do in America is not art. Capitalism kind of takes art out of it. We have found a way to commodify something that is pure. Da Vinci didn't paint and say “I hope this goes platinum.”, “I wonder how many people are going to come to see it.” “How many tickets to the museum will it sell?”, or “How long will it hang in your house?” So [they] are not artists [but] performers. Entertainers tend to want the spotlight to themselves. I'm not that kind of person, I am a true artist. [Society] has this thing, 'Content Creator', I am a creator. I guess now that we have a space for it we have finally caught up. I am a content creator and hip-hop is one of the mediums I like to express myself.

(Now back to our regularly scheduled question.)

Murs: It's not just me and a canvas. There are two people painting this picture and I'm not a musical talent. So, of course, I am going to put someone's name on it, I would put their face on it too. Some producers aren't comfortable with their face on it because I am saying things they wouldn't want said.

UHH: That's fair, I think you can work together while maintaining differing opinions.

Murs: Exactly, and you see 9th Wonder and Rapsody and he is very present in her career. I think that when Rapsody raps it more of what's going on in 9th Wonder's train of thought, his vision, his lifestyle and his entertainment image. My artist persona or whatever is not the same as 9th. We make good music together, but I don't think he'd want to be on an album cover, I don't think he was. I put his name up there because he deserves the credit, but with Michael, Seven, I think people needed to see him because he has done so much for Strange [Music].

I had to touch back on our tangent because as I stated above, I think this point was important in a lot of ways. Being an avid fan of lots of underground lyrically dense artists, but also a fan of vibe out easy listening entertainers, I think looking at what makes it art is important.

UHH: I think talking about them as entertainers is important because a lot of these new wave rappers are rappers. They are rockstars. I don't really own any of their music, but I will always catch a live show. Lil Uzi Vert is an artist that I have been dying to see ever since I saw him jump off the top of that 30' tall stage.

Murs: And I think Lil Uzi Vert is more of an artist type because Uzi hasn't sold a lot of units. You don't hear his songs on the radio. He got famous for being a punk rock kid. It's not necessarily hip-hop, but his attitude is more punk and artistic. The way he looks and the way he dresses is not being welcomed by the mainstream. Kids love him, but a lot of grown men hate him, which is weird.

UHH: Yeah and I know he has been influenced by guys like Marilyn Manson.

Murs: Right which in a sense makes him a different kind of entertainer, but I think that everyone, [to an extent] even in the old school, was an entertainer. It was about making money and it wasn't like that in the blues area. But hip-hop now, and even rock and roll, just music in America has become about making money.

This was another one of those moments where I felt aligned with someone whose art and message I had grown up loving. I don't know if these artists shape my opinion because I have never heard Murs talk about Uzi before this interview; however, I have always thought of Uzi along with a handful of others in their genre to be considered the punk rock of hip-hop. They have a different message, not so politically charged, but their attitudes are that of punk rock. The new will always have a struggle finding a place with the old. Whether it was metal clashing with classic rock, or Elvis swinging his hips when the older generation deems something unfit it becomes rebellious and this repetition of new music being misunderstood brings me back to Murs first point of “everything new is old.” If everything new was old, I guess it was time to figure out what the old is?

UHH: Strange Journey was your fourth project, third strange release, since signing to StrangeMusic, but it was also your last contractual project alongside Mursday, Have a Nice Life and Brighter Daze. Brighter Daze is one of my favorite projects you've ever done. Can you talk a little about the growth within StrangeMusic? Have a Nice Life to me felt more experimental whereas Brighter Daze was a newer twist on a very sonically familiar EP.

Murs: [Have a Nice Life] was mostly produced and executively produced by Jesse Shatkin (DJ Belief). [He] produced God's Work for me on Def Jux [and] Brother Love and I was on a few of his tracks. We grew djing together in high school and so I have known him [as] now one of my longest standing friends. He also produced Chandelier for Sia. He has also produced for Kelly Clarkson […] and I was just like 'hey, you want to make a record together I know I can't pay you what these guys are' and he was like 'yeah, of course, let's just make music.' But he produces for a lot of pop stars so his music can't help but come off a little poppy. So [HANL] was just me and my friend and him giving me [beats] that I would sound good over. He has known me forever.

“Everything new is old.” It's a four-word sentence that began to become the focus of this interview. I felt like Have a Nice Life was new, but it came from one of his oldest friends. Stepping back a little further into his first album with StrangeMusic, a collab album with ¡Mayday!, Mursday! seemed like the next place to find what's new.

UHH: I wanted to go back a little bit to your Mursday Album. One thing I wanted to know is if you are still working with Bernz and Wrek and the crew or if there is a plan for another project?

Murs: No. I don't think there will be another Mursday.

UHH: I am actually fine with that because I felt like Mursday was such a complete project that it didn't need to be expanded upon.

Murs: That's how I felt! I was also disappointed that it didn't do better. If it had done better we probably would have made another but I am not gonna make something that good again for it not to be recognized by the rest of the world.

UHH: Yeah and it really felt like it should have been bigger. I wondered how much ¡Mayday! influenced you and how much of a creative expansion that album allowed for you.

Murs: I think it just worked. What I do know is how to collaborate with people. So [that album] was something that I wanted to do and is part of the reason I signed to StrangeMusic. I wanted to come in and create a lane for Ces and ¡Mayday! to come into my world and for people on my side of hip-hop to really enjoy them and it didn't work out like that, but also I really enjoy working with them. Coming from Miami they had a nice beachy vibe and we are both coastal groups of kids so I wanted to do something brighter with them and we had a good time. The creative process was fun.

Murs went on to explain how it was really Bernz who stepped up to be the alpha and run the show on the album. Things ran through him and he really made his voice loudest when it came to putting things together. Murs even gave a little gem about how the first song, Tabeltops, was very much a sight that Bernz could see before him.

Murs: I don't know what I was right about because I don't keep score like that, but I know what I was wrong about was that first verse on Tabletops. I did it like three times cause he didn't like my verse. I don't like rapping double time so not only did I have to re-write my verse, but I also had to do it in double time. I suck at the double time, but it ended up being the right verse. I don't think it's tight now but it ended up being a memorable verse of the album.

For those readers who have followed my previous interviews you know that I had recently sat down with Ces Cru and had questioned Ubiquitous on whether he had squared of against Murs, and here were are a few months later and I was still waiting to hear the results on their matchup.

UHH: So we recently sat down with Ces Cru and I follow your twitch and had heard the UBI is a pretty avid gamer as well. I had to ask if you two had ever squared off and his quote was 'he really don't want no problems with me.'

Murs: Ohh, that's interesting. He really gets all his video game talent from his son, who is [I think] 10. So I think I can handle a 10-year-old skill level that he is playing at. So him and [his son] can go and keep practicing and get there bars up and when they wanna come to see they know where I'm at.

Stay in the realm of the animated I couldn't let one of the things that I actually had in common with Murs, comic books. He was conveniently sporting a Hulk shirt and had paid homage to the comic book universe.

UHH: I couldn't let you leave here in that Hulk shirt without talking comics. Also, on your latest album, you have that track 'Super Hero Pool Party' that is so upbeat and fun of a track. So I was wondering what your favorite superhero is and if you have a favorite comic book episode?

Murs: My favorite comic book character was Black Panther but I don't like the current writer of the book and it's ruining my life. So right now I would have to say Hulk or Thor. And my favorite comic [is] Guardians of the Galaxy second run Episode 3 by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. [It was] just they're way they wrote Rocket Racoon.

UHH: That's dope man. Yeah, my favorite is probably the episode of Green Arrow Green Lantern, I can't remember the issue, is the first episode that DC really talked about the drug issue. Green Lantern's sidekick Speedy is on heroin. [Murs: Wow, that's really dope though] Yeah and I think it plays into life nowadays. I really want to take a moment to thank you for sitting down and let you shout out your social media.

Murs: @murs316 on Instagram and @murs on everything else. Twitch, Twitter and Facebook is @murs.

Often times the world tells you not to meet your idols, but lately that's all I have been doing. This interview is one that won't be soon forgotten for many reasons, but the thing that will stick with me the longest will be “Everything new is old.” I think it's important to not that this doesn't mean there isn't anything new, what I believed his point to be was that for him, new music stems from life lived. In that sense, all new music comes from old events. This notion is vital because to me it means that you can't create anything new without living life. I have spent the last two years trying to live this without having a motto, but it feels like I have just found one, and if my life has seemed like something you have enjoyed following, I suggest you live this motto as well.

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