Murray's Revenge is a slow moving mellow album - only a half hour long, but really, who the fuck is this guy. He's been around in the underground since '93 doing little solo things with Living Legends and 3MG, and also I remember him in random forms of media like skate videos and such, but really who is he? When I went to www.murs316.com all I got was some crap site that had nothing to do with Murs. Same thing goes for the label www.recordcollection.com, yielded no answers. To be honest with you all, I don't know whether to love this guy or think he's a total goon. I mean The production quality is amazing, 9th Wonder's beats encompass all space and time and leave you drifting from song to song via head bop and pimp swagger. Then you run into Murs self-righteous preaching and sometimes trife, that's T-R-I-F-E raps that lead you into a retarded world of "Did he just say that shit."

All this trifeness is served up packed to the bone with lines like, " I love Pop Warner, and I love Transformers, but you see big homie standin' out on the corner? He got real guns not the one from GI Joe." Scratch your head say what? Murs does come back on "Dreamchaser" though with the chorus, "We live life like it ain't no thing, fear and respect we collect like kings. Relieve stress with every breath I sing, and we all chase money 'cause we scared of chasing dreams." Also a worthy line, "Dropped out of high school no G.E.D., but on these streets I'm a G-O-D." I guess Murs throws some bullshit at you and then comes back with a snapper. Like on "Murray's Law" he says, "Is this really where you wanna be when Jesus come back? Lying about your life over beats coming wack." This line is Cheeseball McDorkenstien, but he does come back later with the crispy line, "I understand you're broke, you trying to get money, but you don't start gangbanging in your mid twenties…I do feel the music so I kinda respect it, but don't confuse ill lyrics with real street credit."

Even with Murs' west coast ideology and phony rap name calling, I swear it's 9Th Wonder and Joe Scudda that make this album noteworthy. "Silly Girl" is a song of hoes, prudes and "falling in love" and Joe Scudda steals the show with, "Supposed to hit it, quit it, and hit it again, chill for a while and flip it again. But she started acting crazy I split to the end. She told the girls how I get down, now I'm hittin' her friends."

Definitely the strangest song on the album is, "D.S.W.G (Dark Skinned White Girls)." Remember growing up and there was always a half black, half white girl at school that everyone sort of giggled at because if she chose to go with the blackness she would look like a poseur and if she chose to go all white then she would look like a freak as well? This is the subject matter Murs is trying to get out, the stigma of mixed races. I don't know whether to laugh or take it serious, "Now she likes The Smiths, The Cure, really into Morrissey. Heavy on the rock but never fooled with the Jodeci." Then Murs goes full on next level shit by shutting it down with, "Whether chocolate or vanilla or you're somewhere in between/ a cappuccino, mocha, or a caramel queen. Rejected by the black, not accepted by the white world, and this is dedicated to all the dark skinned white girls."

As I mentioned before, this album is riddled with shimmering beats and the sporadic killer rhymes although the grotesque filler shit flailing in the wind slows down the aero-dynamics immensely. I'm not certain Murs will achieve the level of success he's shooting for, but as Murs himself says, "Success has always been the best form of revenge." And I say to this, get your damn revenge.