A constant collaborator, indie rapper Murs remains strongly individual

Los Angeles rapper Murs never sought to be different as an angle or platform to get his music heard. His moniker is an acronym that translates to Making Underground Raw Shit or Making the Universe Recognize and Submit. Now in his thirties, Murs is still out to make raw music, but with a grown man’s wisdom.

Murs’ latest album, Love and Rockets Vol. 1: The Transformation, was released in October 2011, but he’s just now beginning to work on Vol. 2. In the following interview, Murs speaks more about the Paid Dues festival as well as his slate of upcoming projects, including a collaboration EP with Fresno-based rapper Fashawn.

What I’ve enjoyed about the Paid Dues Festival you throw, is that there never seems to be exclusion or allegiance to a certain sub-genre of hip-hop. You have no problem inviting Mac Miller and Dipset, along with Boot Camp Clique and Brother Ali–people who probably would never share a bill together. What’s your mindset in curating?
It’s started with me trying to get all my friends together. I was the guy that was friends with Aesop and El-P and down with the Legends. We all knew of each other, but I was the one who’d sleep at their houses and know everyone’s wives and girlfriends and kids. That kind of stuff. So I was able to bring everybody together.

In the same groove, I did a song with Kendrick Lamar–like before Dr. Dre knew who he was. So I was in with those guys. I was at the first Odd Future Christmas show. My former assistant is now their road manager. I have a genuine connection to so many people. Growing up I realized that people aren’t all that different. I seem to be in the center of this web. Five years before the Based God was born, Lil’ B was coming to my shows at Berkeley.

I don’t have any borders in my life. So the festival has always been a reflection of me bringing my friends together.

Living Legends just rocked Paid Dues together. You guys still make music together. Not a lot of groups can say that about their careers over the passage of time. What keeps everything tight knit amongst the crew?
I don’t know, man. Everybody is who they are. We’re a group of eight individuals. The name and the crew existed, and we didn’t even think about making a record together until Almost Famous in 2001. We’d been living together and touring together for years and never even thought about it. Then, it was three or four years before we thought about making another one.

As much as people say it, it was never Wu-Tang Clan or Odd Future or Hieroglyphics. It was something different. It works for us, but the individuality for other crews may not work.

Love and Rockets Vol. I is obviously part of a series. How is Vol. 2: The Emancipation coming along?
It’s not on a deadline. I think about it every day, write little notes for it, but I don’t think it will come out until like Paid Dues [Festival] 2013.

Will it be produced by Ski Beatz again?
Umm, probably not. It could always change. I know certain things about it I’m not ready to reveal yet. It was never intended to be Murs and Ski Beatz Present Love and Rockets. There will be another book with it. I can say that. It may be an electro record for all I know. It may be a symphony. I don’t know who I might meet next. I don’t want people read this article and say, “Aww, he said it was going to be Araabmuzik producing soft jazz shit.” I don’t want that down the line.

What are you looking at releasing before that? I saw on your wiki page that you’ve got an EP in the works with Fashawn.
We’ll hopefully have that done by the summer. These two producers, K-Salaam and Beatnick, we’d talked about doing something together for a while. My solo albums, up until my last one didn’t seem to be working out, so we’d been trying to find away to work together because I’m a big fan of their music. They suggested collaboration with someone, threw out possible members of The Lox and went through all these musicians and connections we both have.

Then, he brought up Fashawn, and Fash is a kid I’ve seen around and talked to, had him on Paid Dues, but we didn’t ever vibe or kick it. I’m a fan of Fash though, like I have his album [Boy Meets World] and the Grizzly City mixtapes. But it seemed like it might make sense as an outsider option. Randomly, Fash’s manager called me just asking for advice and just update on business. I told her it was crazy she called me. But I had to ask if Fashawn was even a fan of mine. I didn’t want to assume anything.

Have you recorded any songs yet for the project?
We recorded a song that was completely funny. We have a lot of similarities. He goes through the same things I go through. I’m associated with the backpack crowd like Aesop Rock and Atmosphere. He’s associated with The Alchemist and Evidence. But, we’re in a middle ground together of rapping about inner city and at-risk youth–but we’re both non-traditional with it. Things are naturally coming together. We’ve got way more in common ground than I expected.

K-Salaam and Beatnick have this really mid-to-late ‘90s sound they’re giving us. It’s sounding like, what I hope will be the West Coast version of [Only Built 4] Cuban Linx [Raekwon’s solo debut]. That’s ambitious, but you set the bar high to shoot for the stars and land on the moon, type thing. It will be for people who genuinely love Raekwon and Ghostface and Tha Dogg Pound.

Have you and Fashawn had the opportunity to record together or is it a project that’s emailed back and forth?
Every time we’re both in L.A. we’ll hang out for four or five hours. We got the name of the album, while hanging out with Maseo of De La Soul. Maseo basically named the record.

As long as there’s an understanding or friendship between the two it works. I used to think that we have to be sitting there and looking at each other. But, the more I’d talk to people like DJ Quik and hear about how he recorded All Eyez on Me, people can tell if there’s a true connection or if it’s forced.

Have there been projects you’ve turned down from a lack of connection?
Definitely. I wouldn’t name those projects though. There’s people I’m good friends with, but we haven’t made good music together. Brother Ali and me are the best of friends, but we’ve never made a song together. We’ve toured together. That’s my homie. That’s my brother. We’ve just never recorded a song together. It’s never even come up.

There are people I’ve tried to record stuff with and we both just let it sit there and nothing happened with it.

Have you considered updating the MURS acronym?
No. I’m not doing anymore. No more of that shit.

Indie MC Eligh battles back from the depths of addiction

If you hadn’t heard from Eligh in a while, it’s because he was on the verge of death. Dramatic? Yeah, but it’s true. Eligh was unwittingly killing himself.

By the time he reached his early 20s, Eligh (born Eli Nachowitz) was already a world-renowned MC, rocking shows across the globe. But he slowly began to slip into the shadows of his crew, the Living Legends, the group of likeminded artists that he eventually came to know as family. At shows, he slurred his words and wouldn’t make eye contact with the crowd. As his crewmembers, such as Grouch and Luckyiam, began to experience a certain Zen derived from independent hip-hop success, Eligh took to wandering the streets of Los Angeles in search of booze, weed, pills and, eventually, heroin.

Eligh, once a fiend for the hip-hop life and culture, deteriorated into a straight-up junkie, set to end his existence like Alice in Chains’ Layne Staley–talented, sick, destitute and alone.

But unlike many who find themselves walking the cracked path of heroin addiction, Eligh searched within himself to find a way out. He found safety in Narcotics Anonymous meetings, and with a sturdy dedication to recovery, Eligh in November released Grey Crow–his first solo album since 2003. The album, full of Eligh’s mindful production (which strays from hip-hop to new wave, ska and rock), has climbed steadily up the iTunes hip-hop charts. With his trademark rhymes (that sped-up baritone flow), a cast of Legends crewmates, plus help from other artists (K-Flay, Pigeon John, Brother Ali and Marty James), Grey Crow has become more than just an album. It’s Eligh’s welcome back, his rebirth and his awakening.

Let’s talk about your addiction to heroin. What was the extent?
I drank and smoked weed when I was a teenager, did all the hallucinogenic mushrooms, acid–all that shit. And then I started fucking with ecstasy. I think I was like 20. And then it just went downhill from there. [When I discovered] Vicodin, I found the one for me. Opiates were my downfall. I went from Vicodin to China White within a year.

What did that do to your relationships?
My family–my mom in particular–knew something was wrong. They knew I was fucked up, but they didn’t know that I moved to heroin. I didn’t tell anybody. But they could tell that something was very wrong with me. When I was going to see my mom in Arizona she would tell me I was jaundiced. My skin was yellow. I was skinny as fuck. I was dying.

My mom has serious back and neck issues, and she takes Vicodin as prescribed. She would come visit, and I would literally empty her bottle and fill it up with Excedrin and send her home.

And she caught me. She was so upset–a mixture of being worried and disbelief. That was like the last time my mom yelled at me like I was 7. And I was 23 at the time.

When you’re in your active addiction, I was thinking, “I’m not hurting anyone but me. I’m the one doing this to myself. What are you fucking worried about?”
That’s the self-centered thinking we have when we get caught up. Needless to say, when I got clean, people were just so happy and proud. Now, it’s not just a personal thing. I feel like I have more purpose than ever, especially considering the age of people listening to me. A lot of them have no idea about recovery. It’s an amazing thing.

I’ve been sober for about as long as you. But my drug was crystal.
Oh, really? So we’re on the opposite spectrum, but on the same level.

Yup, a similar, horrible, realm. I imagine you’re more creative now.
Creatively, getting clean just opened me up–took the fog away. I could really see what I was doing when I’m doing it–and doing shit when I’m high and going, “Ah, that’s tight,” and the next day when I wake up I’m like, “What the fuck was I thinking?”

But at the same time, when I listen to my old stuff, I remember exactly where I was, exactly what I felt, and it still makes sense, because it’s still me. I just had a mask over my face.

You must hold your breath a little bit when an album comes out, huh?
Oh, hell yeah. I’ve never been more anxious than this one, because this one’s very personal. It’s like that with every project. I’m standing on the tip of my toes waiting to hear what people think. But on this one it was extra. I wasn’t nervous. I was anxious. Since it was literally me and one other guy, officially, how well it does is up to everybody else. I don’t have a machine working behind me.

So what about Living Legends?
Those are all my brothers. We’ve known each other for 15 years. We lived together for a couple years, all of us, in one warehouse. Those types of experiences don’t ever go away. Everybody has grown up more. Everybody lives in different places–a few of us in Los Angeles; Grouch, in Maui; Murs, back in Arizona; Aesop, in Fresno; and Bicasso, up in the Bay.

Living Legends have always been a crew of guys who have their own personal careers and own solo endeavors. The hardest thing is getting us all together in one place to do an album. And that’s all in the back of our heads. All of us want to get together to make that happen. Is that going to happen? I don’t know. I’m going out with Grouch in December, and I’ll be doing a solo set for the first time without a hype man. It will be a whole new fear that I’ll be working through.

I was going to ask you about that.
Yeah, dude, I had planned to bring somebody with me, but Grouch said as far as room in the van, you probably shouldn’t bring anybody else. And I’m like, fuck it. I have a 30-minute set. I’m going to do this shit by myself.

You know, 10 years ago, when I was on some crazy drugs, I went to a Living Legends show, and you came off the stage and said, “What’s up,” to me. It sounds small, but when you recognized me as human–even though I didn’t feel that way–it helped me out.

Thank you, man. That’s awesome. I was probably in a fucked up state, too.

Yes, we were probably both high as shit.
Yup.

How the Grouch Stole Christmas Tour, featured The Grouch, Brother Ali, Eligh and Los Rakas in Sacramento on Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2010 at Tropicana (1696 Arden Way).

Gift of Gab at Home in the Unknown

It is hard to believe it’s been nearly 20 years since rapper Gift of Gab and DJ/producer Chief Xcel formed Blackalicious within the walls of Kennedy High School and later went on to form Soulsides Records after meeting DJ Shadow at Davis’ KDVS. That was 1992. Times have changed, but one ideal remains true: testing Gift of Gab on the mic will put MCs in trouble.

Soon the prolific wordsmith will be over the hill, and 2012 will be Blackalicious’s 20th year in hip-hop. “Hip-hop has grown up. Most of the dopest rappers on the planet, in my opinion, are over 30. If you never stop loving what you do and doing it with a passion, you can’t outgrow it. Unless you get caught into that box.”

Next week the self-proclaimed El Gifto Magnifico will release his second solo record away from Chief Xcel, entitled Escape 2 Mars. Furthermore, Gab says he has already finished his next album.

“I feel like I haven’t done half of the music I’m going to do yet,” he said. “It’s all about busting myths. Twenty years ago, you’d probably think you can’t rap at the age of 30. This is something you do when you’re a teenager.”

An important transition in Gab’s career is staying out of the dreaded box, but he seems content with his situation. He has been on both sides of the fence and has truly discovered which side has the greener grass. Although MCA folded beneath Blackalicious’ only major label record, he remains grounded in independent music. Gab started his own distribution company three years ago called Giftstribution releasing two mixtapes and a Mighty Underdogs EP. “Sometimes a big machine like that is needed to get to those outlets that may be more political based than culturally or artistically based,” he said.

Free to create, Gab is releasing Escape 2 Mars this week through Giftstribution. The title and Mayan calendar apocalypse artwork might be cause for alarm that Gift of Gab is buying into the end of the world theories. The imagery is not meant to be a direct translation, though, and he’s not suggesting he’s got reservations booked on the first alien spacecraft out of here come 2012. “I’m not promoting 2012 in any way,” he began, but then backtracked, “Well, I am subtly, but to say I believe in it would be going too far. It’s just interesting information.”

Intriguing information is the motivation behind the songwriting for Gift of Gab’s record. Gab weighs in as an environmentalist with songs like the title track and “Electric Waterfalls.” The escape to Mars for Gab is less of a prophecy and more of a result should we not take care of what’s left. “I’ve seen a couple movies and read some information, so it was something that was in my mind at the time I wrote some particular songs,” Gab explains.

Production is primarily handled by DNAE Beats with fellow Bay Area producer and Headnodic behind the boards for a few beats as well. DNAE Beats is heavily influenced by electronic music, giving his laser synth beats a futuristic bounce. Gift of Gab hooking up with DNAE Beats for his electronic style is all part of Gab’s predilection for forward thinking. As we speak on the phone, he relates on several occasions that with each record he has the responsibility to “lyrically explore new styles.” With such province comes a necessity to challenge his sonic surroundings in order to escape convention.

Prior to going into the studio to work on Escape 2 Mars, Gift of Gab, performing as Blackalicious, did several shows with San Francisco dance DJs Bassnectar. For Gab, these shows were an eye opening experience that took him back to his younger days as a shorty on the hip-hop scene. “In a lot of ways this is the new hip-hop, because it’s so underground,” he said regarding his experience with Bass Nectar. “It’s still kind of pure and hasn’t been commercialized. The energy of the crowd is that of a hip-hop crowd… on a little more ecstasy though.”

As we chatted on the phone, Gab asked for my honest opinion of his album, assuring me he would be cheating himself to not hear me out. It was a rare moment, as we discussed the lack of introspective songs on the record, an element I have always respected, and his necessity to challenge preconception. “I’m aware that people listen to me for those songs on personal growth and look to me for that,” he said. “But if I set down [to write] and thought, ‘I have to write songs like these because this is what people expect me to do,’ I can’t be free.”

In preparing for the interview, I had my reservations about Escape 2 Mars. It took me a while to appreciate “Cliffhanger” off NIA, but the frigid synths on his latest solo left me in the dead of space seeking the soulful side of Gab. The dual producers do lend opportunity to hear him in familiar territory. Listening to the leaked single “Dreamin’,” which features Del the Funky Homosapien and Brother Ali lessened my criticism, but I questioned the two formats clashing. Gab did not share my concern, chalking it up as an expression of working the angles. “In my mind it’s a full body of work with different elements and angles to it,” he said. “With every record I’m trying to go into ground that hasn’t been charted, or if it has been charted, I’m trying to chop it up in a new way.”

See Gift of Gab on The Deadliest Catch Tour with Chali 2na, Mr. Lif and Lyrics Born on Nov. 23, 8 p.m. at Harlow’s.