MURS is still better than your favorite rapper

For an icon of the hip-hop underground, it’s a risky move: Put out your seventh album on a major label (Warner Bros. Records) and give it the mock ambitious title MURS for President. But MURS (which stands for “Making Underground Raw Shit”) has never followed the obvious route to success.

The rapper was born Nick Carter, but he’s no Backstreet Boy. His love of West Coast music and culture is undeniable, yet he’s also looked further afield for influences and collaborators, teaming up with producers like North Carolina’s 9th Wonder and rappers like Midwest hero Slug (with whom MURS recorded two hilarious albums under the name Felt, with another on the way). He was even seen recently on MTV as an “Artist of the Week,” riding a Segway around L.A., flanked by security protecting him from the “wack rappers that want to assassinate” him.

Metromix caught up with the outspoken rapper to talk about his campaign platform for becoming “president of hip-hop,” being a B-level stalker to thick actresses, and his general sense of responsibility for the City of Lost Angels.

Your album is “MURS For President,” but wouldn’t you rather leave that job up to Barack Obama? 
I want to be president of hip-hop. It was a name that we came up with before I knew Barack was running, like three or four years ago. I thought, if I’m going to play the major label politics game, I’m going to be president. I’m going to use the system to destroy the self-image of the young black man and the young hip-hop kid in America. That’s my mission, to go out and speak in complete sentences and be heard and say something positive in the name of hip-hop and in the name of young black men.

People think of us a certain way because there are idiots who make records because they claim they have no other way to feed their children, and it ends up making us all look bad. But there’s also room for what my friend likes to call the “onlys” and the “others”—like if you’re at a jazz café and you’re the only black person in the room, or you go to a book signing and you’re the only black person in the room. We need to have a voice too, and I’m here to be that voice.

That’s a significant void you're talking about filling, because there are a lot of onlys and others out there.
I think people feel like that’s represented by Common and Mos Def and Talib Kweli, who I all respect; Common does occasionally, but none of them really come out and say things like, “Selling crack is wrong, and these niggas who talk about it are wrong and it’s inappropriate. Pull up your pants and say something of merit, because these are dire times and [with] everything that’s going on, the best your dumb ass can say is to talk about flipping birds [selling cocaine]?” No one is criticizing these dudes and I think it’s time to stop criticizing Bill Cosby and start saying I’m your age and he’s right. And if you have a problem with it, so be it, but I’m going to say something different to these children and you can’t stop me.

Well, I wish you luck in your bid to be president of hip-hop. It’s a tough job; if elected, you’ve got a lot of work to do.
There’s a lot of work to do. Expect some progress and expect some sexual scandal. I’m not perfect…but once elected, I’ll definitely have a lot of fun and say a lot more of the right things.

Who would be in your Cabinet?
My staff would consist of Shock G and Humpty Hump, for the Department of Party and Bullshit; Rev Run as spiritual advisor; Curtis Jackson aka 50 Cent as my finance, war and personal trainer); Chace Infinite of Self Scientific, who is the only person who can win a debate with me; Sick Jaken, ‘cause he’s the new voice of Latino hip-hop; Brother Ali, the only truly righteous brother in hip-hop; and OG Snoop Dogg, ‘cause he’s probably the coolest dude in America right now.

You like to address serious topics, but you also do more light-hearted stuff like Felt. Why is that such a rare balance for people to be both serious and entertaining? 
What’s the point of being a good human if you can’t enjoy it? The reason why I want everyone to get along so that they can all freak and dance and play. But, to me, as long as there is violence and an element of negativity in our music and in our culture, we’re never going to be able to enjoy ourselves.

Is there a new Felt album coming? You dedicated the first two to Christina Ricci and Lisa Bonet, so who would be the next? 
Of course there’s a new Felt in the works. I’d probably be drawn and quartered if there wasn’t. As far as the muses go: They sort of just come to us. Well Christina—the thick Christina—was a mutual infatuation Slug and I shared before we met each other. Something we kind of bonded on a small level so we thought it only right we make our first project a tribute to her.

Lisa Bonet just came up while shooting photos with official Felt photographer Dan Monick. We were sitting in the back of his El Camino singing Lenny Kravitz and just thought it had to be one hell of a woman to make a guy write one of the greatest songs of all time. And then for said woman to hear that song and not be swayed? She has to be the real deal. Neither of them has ever given us the time of day, but who are we? Now the third one, she’s already picked out, and I’m sure is ready to ignore us as well. As for her identity, don’t get your hopes up too high. We’re still just two B-level stalkers at heart.

What are some of the ways that living in Los Angeles influences your art? 
It’s my overall love for the city that influences my art the most. I love it so much that I refuse to let its only role in hip-hop history be that it was the birthplace of “G Funk.” There’s so much more to my city than blue versus red and drive-by shootings. I wanna rap about the beaches, our illustrious surf/skate history, the wild parties with Dim Mak and the Cobra Snake, the rich jazz history of Central Avenue and of course the beautiful women, not the bitches and hoes.

The other thing that inspires me is my city’s reputation for being “plastic.” I feel that I have to create music of substance to combat all the bullshit stereotypes dumped upon my hometown. There are a lot of rappers who rep LA but they’re either too gangster, too weird, or just flat too much on New York’s jock to truly represent this great city. So that leaves me and that’s the one thing I have always been told. Hate me or love me, people know after one listen that I am from Los Angeles.

See MURS headline the El Rey on December 11.