By Diego Felix
Note From The Editor:
We at (SALT) like to keep an eye out for cool and interesting people who come to town — When we heard that MURS was taking some downtime in Fort Collins at The Music District, we decided it would be an excellent idea to send Diego Felix to have a conversation with a legend of the hip hop world.
Diego:
Hey Murs, I heard you don’t like interviews.
Murs:
Nah, I hate taking pictures and I hate interviews. Don’t take it personally, don’t internalize that.
Diego:
Have you ever been the face of some tabloid drama?
Photo Taylor Stone © 2020
Murs:
No — I’ve gotten some bullshit in my days, but never from real journalists.
Diego:
I was bumping your song with the Living Legends “After Hours” this morning. We actually have an event series we are starting at the Music District called After Hours. I was wondering if, 1) we could use your song for it, and 2) what is the craziest thing that happened after hours with the Living Legends crew?
Photo Taylor Stone © 2020
Murs:
You can use my song for that, I don’t give a shit — and there are all kinds of stories, but a good one is when we were opening from Run DMC, and I was underage — I’ve been performing with the Living Legends since I was 17. It was at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco and I had to stand outside. I couldn’t even see Run DMC — I could come in right when we performed and had to leave right after we performed. By that time, someone had blocked us in. We were in Grouch’s old-ass Oldsmobile. It was me, Grouch, Luckyiam, and Sunspot Jonz. And maybe Arata. That was the early crew. It was a smaller car, so we all got together and flipped the car over, and then drove our car out. It wasn’t a huge car, but it was a Chevy Spark or something that size. This had to be like, ‘96. It turned out to be our homie’s car, and we had to pay him back for the damage cause’ it fucked his mirrors and windows up.
Diego:
What was his reaction when he saw it?
Murs:
We just heard from him later, like “dude who flipped my car?!” It was a thing in the scene. We found out it was the homie’s car and we were like “It was us, bro.” I think we broke him off some paper to get it fixed. It was cool.
Speaking of “After Hours,” my verse in that song is based on a wonderful girl I met in Yokohama. Or Kobe. One of those two cities.
After [our] show, we talked and she spoke En- English. So I was like, “oh man, let’s go.” My DJ was on acid and I think the rest of my crew was on shrooms — I think I was sober at the time, and I don’t do psychedelics that much anyway. So when I found her, it was great because I was all alone. It was nice to speak English with someone because when you perform in Tokyo, and in Osaka, there’s a lot of people who speak English. You go to Yokohama, or Kyoto, there’s not a lot of people who speak it.
We just talked all night. My DJ met us outside looking bizarre — he has this marine knife, big- ger than a Bowie knife that he carries with him. I don’t know how he gets it through security. Maybe because he looks white — he’s mixed, but he looks like he’s white. He got that into Universal Studios. He had pills, a fucking knife, and some weed on him and all they said to him at Universal Studios was, “you have to leave that here.”
Like, if I got caught with all that shit bro…
Photo Taylor Stone © 2020
Diego:
Holy shit.
Murs:
But yeah, we had great conversations and I just held her hand. We walked to the train station and we made out. Then she got on her train, so that was a great night — that was a crazy night for my crew, but it was a great night for me.
Diego:
That’s crazy because you have that line in the song that goes “Ain’t nothing flyer than a Japanese sunrise / I wasn’t just trying to hit it like some guys”. I was always wondering what that was referencing — Do you two keep in contact?
Murs:
Nah — I’m married to a wonderful woman, and you know, I might not have remembered it had I not made a song about it. It’s a cool thing I think for every young rapper to know, that you can have a great night without having to have intercourse with a woman. Sharing a kiss, hold- ing hands and, you know, yeah.
Two weeks of not speaking English, being in a van with a bunch of literal psychopaths — well not literally, but very crazy kids traveling the Japanese countryside wiling the fuck out. One night of just being with a young lady and having a decent conversation and quality fast food — if that is even a thing.
Diego:
How long have you been conscious of your diet?
Murs:
Since I was 10 — I heard Public Enemy talk shit about pork. I quit eating pork and then my mom told me fucking pepperoni is pork and I was like “shit”.
Photo Taylor Stone © 2020
Diego:
Bacon, too.
Murs:
Yeah, bacon, whoa, I was fucked up. But I stood my ground cause I didn’t want to look stupid, she’s like “you’re not gonna do it”. When I was 16, I just stopped eating beef and chicken. I went to McDonald’s to order my last big mac for my 16th birthday. I’ve had chicken off and on due to financial things. I’m really concerned about living a long time, living a comfortable life, man. So I’m concerned about what I put in my body.
Diego:
That’s crazy man. What are two restaurants in LA that people would have to go try?
Murs:
You know everyone’s doing these food pop-ups now, and I don’t know if it’s regulated by the FDA, but it’s probably better it’s not. I know that my boy Compton Vegan is one. It used to be Fat Burger for me when I ate meat, or when I was on my chicken phase — For years, my go-to was always Fat Burger, whether it was a veggie burger or a turkey burger depending on what I was eating at the time. As soon as I get off the plane now, I want a Compton Vegan. And when I moved to Inglewood, I would always go to Nipsey’s Fat Burger on Crenshaw and Slauson.
Photo Taylor Stone © 2020
Diego:
Nipsey had a Fat Burger?
Murs:
He was invested in it. I don’t know, we have a lot of urban myths about Nipsey even before he passed away. Like — I think he was an investor in World on Wheels, he’s an investor in a lot of things in the city, so I don’t know if he’s the full owner.
Diego:
Did you like Nipsey’s music?
Murs:
Oh yeah, I liked a lot of his music … I can’t watch Snowfall by John Singleton, even though he was an acquaintance of mine, because it triggers my PTSD — like experiencing gang life and growing up with a parent that was a drug addict. Having friends that are drug addicts, drug dealers, and gang members… and losing people to all of those things. It’s hard for me to watch something that is so authentic be-cause John Singleton was very authentic in this voice because he was from the hood.
The same thing with Nipsey, so it’s hard for me to listen, you know? I believe Nipsey and I went to the same high school, many years apart. So I also identify with that struggle. He was an extremely intelligent articulate man that due to circumstances beyond his control was caught in such a violent cycle, even before he passed away I saw it and it was hard for me to hear because it’s some of my own trauma — his story is so real. And it’s hard for me to hear his pain and struggle. Just hearing that shit triggered me — It hurt me to know that someone I loved and respected was going through that. He was dealing with it well, he was on his way to mastering it I think, it just sucks it was cut short. I was able to work with him on Paid Dues
and I tried to get him to have a verse on my last album. I was asking 9th Wonder how we could get Nipsey to get on a song called “Cancun ‘08”.
Photo Taylor Stone © 2020
Diego:
That would’ve been something else.
Murs:
Yeah, I would love to have had him on. That was my dream to have him on there. It didn’t work out, unfortunately. So yeah, I’m a huge fan and now I mean, I open my whole tour with his songs. You know, Last Time That I Checc’d, I was definitely running to that every morning through Inglewood when I’d go on my jogs or when I’d lift weights in the backyard. That gets me pumped up, that’s such an LA anthem. I was happy to see “Victory Lap” be nominated [for a Grammy].
Diego:
Tell me about Paid Dues. Is it true you were the first rapper to start their own festival?
Murs:
No — B-Real from Cypress Hill had the Smoke Out with Muggs, Sendog, and my partner Chang. Perry Farrell had Lollapalooza. And there’s probably more that I am not aware of… Mystic Journeymen did a festival called Broke Ass Summer Jam, which was a direct inspiration.
At the level I did it, I would say yeah — I was reaching out to new talent and putting them on and finding the Curtiss Kings … Everything from the ground up — Venue, lineup, I had a say in everything. I was definitely guided by Chang Weisberg of Guerilla Union, he showed me everything. I was like legitimately walking the grounds with the police department, the paramedics … So the things I care about are people, and space — We had a room that held 10,000 people legitimately, 5,000 comfortably, [for the show] they let us push it to 7,500. The day of, we thought we were going to sell 5,000 — Then we sold 8,300 tickets and we had to move it outside. After that, we got a write up in LA Weekly as a “flop” and I was like “Nah man, I did what was comfortable for our fans” Moving it outside enables next year to get bigger and bigger. Having a huge field that holds 30,000 people with only 8,000 people in it may have looked bad to the press, but the kids who have been with it from day one saw the growth and get it. It was the first time we were able to mix Tech N9ne with the Rhymesayers fans and the Legends fans — It was dope man, it was a great year.
Photo Taylor Stone © 2020
Diego:
What are some other events or festivals you’ve organized?
Murs:
The LA County Museum of Art reached out to me and I was able to curate a festival that was held on their grounds. They let us do a rap show there. Freddie Gibbs was at the LA County Museum of Art screaming “Fuck Police” 20 times, loud as he could on a microphone at a museum that houses Picassos and Rembrandts. Like, because I know my shit — people trust me to do things.
We will make Hip-Hop a fine art, even if they don’t want us to make it.
Diego:
They don’t think about like an art, like “I can’t get better.”
Murs:
I look at art like actors — I’m a fan of the arts. I was into cinema as much I was into rap, almost. That’s why “Juice” was such a, like a pivotal moment: it’s a movie and it’s rap.
I remember at the DNC in Denver, 2008, I think it was when they nominated Obama I got to perform at his official nomination. Me, Janelle Monáe, The Black Eyed Peas… After that, at the after-party, Giancarlo Esposito was there. I know him from “King of New York” and from “Do The Right Thing”. Jeffrey Wright was also there, and I knew him from “Shaft” and “Basquiat” before “Westworld” before “Break- ing Bad” — I was like, “oh my god, those are my favorite actors.” We kept dancing, I’m sure they don’t remember but it was like the most memorable shit for me, my top two actors in the same place. Oh man. It was amazing. And Rosario Dawson told me that I was dope! And the point of that whole thing was to say that I want to get better with my art. Like they didn’t reach their pinnacle until after that meeting at the DNC. “Breaking Bad”, “Westworld”, all that shit. Jeffrey Wright — he is a great actor but people are just now recognizing that. And that could be me, that could be any of these kids at Groundwaves — Rap is an art form that you have to put years into. There should be mentors, and there should be teachers, and there should be coaches. And I think after I’m finished rapping, I would definitely want to get more into stuff like this.
Photo Taylor Stone © 2020
Diego:
Before you go, Murs, can you tell us about Groundwaves at the Music District?
Murs:
Groundwaves was inspired by open mics that took place in the early ‘90s and late ‘80s in Hip-Hop communities in New York, Detroit, Minneapolis, Los Angeles. Places like the Nuyoricans Poets Cafe, Lyricist’s Lounge, the Good
Life Cafe, Project Blowed, the Hip-Hop Shop with Maurice Malone. There’s scenes all over the nation that had these open mics, where people get up and get an opportunity to either win the respect or the disapproval of their peers.
It was a battleground, a building ground. In more mature terms, it’s what other forms of art would call a workshop, but in this era of post-n-play, pay to play, SoundCloud rap, there’s not a lot Hip-Hop meeting the streets where it was created. There are no crowds for these young people to move. And I think that’s essential for the development and the preservation of Hip-Hop culture, which is something I and many others take very seriously. So I was presented with this opportunity to come and speak at the Music District initially, and then he told me they had the desire to connect with the Hip-Hop community locally and beyond, but specifically in Colorado. Being an independent artist that has received tremendous support from Colorado over the years, I jumped at the chance to help elevate Colorado’s position within the Hip-Hop community.
Photo Taylor Stone © 2020
Hopefully, Groundwaves will be able to come to LA and Miami and different places. In the first month, I had no idea if anyone was going to show up. I was prepared to freestyle all night with three other people, but it was fucking packed. So If you don’t think Hip-Hop is alive and well in Fort Collins and Colorado, you are sadly mistaken, so much talent.
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Photo Taylor Stone © 2020
