"No Homo"

 Murs - Animal Style

With Frank Ocean revealing that his first love was a man, many in the media, both mass and social, were giving Hip-Hop credit for finally having an openly gay artist. Well, there are a few problems with that. Sure, Frank is a part of Hip-Hop culture, but he is not an MC. Also, he did not necessarily "come-out" as being gay. We can conjecture that he is bi-sexual but that is it. I am waiting for an MC to come out before I start to give the historically misogynistic, sexist, homophobic genre credit for being open minded.

The whole event made me think of Animal Style by Murs. This is a chilling tale about two high school boys who were in love and unfortunately paid a cost for that love. The internalization of homophobia, organized religion, and societal pressure are all present in this tale. The ending however may surprise you.

Murs impeccable storytelling and skillfully measured flow are on full display over this track. The pacing, intentional pauses, and matter of fact tone make this song seem like a movie playing out in your head. The video only adds to his words and embolden his message. He even goes a step further displaying his range as a thespian and shares a kiss with the lead actor in the video.

Murs for the win.

I used to love H.E.R.

It's kind of ironic that my last post about Murs was titled with a line from Common's iconic track I used to love H.E.R and he recently released a remake of that same song.  With the help of 9th Wonder Murs put together a strong remake with a decidedly more left coast swing to it. The beat aside, Murs took liberties with one of the more controversial sections of the song. Common spoke about the late 80's emergence of west coast hip-hop music in less than glowing terms...

"I thought it was dope how she was on that freestyle shit..

Just having fun,
not worried about anyone
and you could tell, by how her titties hung" - Common Sense

That closing line in the second verse of the epic Common song is meant to harken back to time when Hip-Hop music was less concerned with image and more innocent.

There are a few rappers today who still have fun and keep the topics light and sometimes, comical.

One such rapper is Murs. IF you were trying to stereotype him you would call him an "everyday guy" rapper. He deals with topics such as pre mature ejaculation, falling in love with girls, girls breaking his heart, and walking through his neighborhood. He has much more of a range than I just gave him credit for however I like this song because I can really relate to it. It is about a perpetual screw-up who for whatever reason ends up "gang banging" and is still a clown...just a well protected one. Far too often tales from the hood project the image of stick-up kids, drug dealers, and bangers as naturals, when that is far from the case. I can think of a bunch of dudes from my youth who one day were being laughed off the ball court, or clowned for something else, a week or year later, they are ice grilling tough guys pumping on the block.

This particular joint is short, thoughtful, accurate and funny.

"Excuse me, Tiny T-Bone from the neighborhood gang
Who if his head wasn't screwed on he would lose his brain"

Read while listening




Now there's one in hood off Pico or some shit
Through the years its been the center for alotta dumb shit
Lemme tell you about this one trip to the store
On the early mornin' tip sometime 'round four
I was standing by the magazines readin' a Maxim
When I heard a familiar voice to the the counter dude and ask him
To empty out the register (Naw that can't be Trevor)
Excuse me, Tiny T-Bone from the neighborhood gang
Who if his head wasn't screwed on would lose his brain
He was with two other dudes, never knew their names
I thought great, it was time for me to shake
But as I headed for the door I heard a voice say (Wait)
When I turned around, he recognized me and I knew it
I was about to leave, that's when the nigga blew it
He lifted up his mask and said (Hey Murs it's me Trevor)
I said "You dumb motherfucker do you use your brain, ever?"
Nevermind, I turned around gave the deuce
walkin' to the car feelin like Q in Juice
Remember when he went into the bar and ? let him loose?
Anyway here comes this nigga running, big bag of money
He hoped in ride, I said "You Goddamn dummy
They Got Yo Ass on Tape" (But they didn't see my face)
"Well they got my car and my fuckin license plate
Man get the fuck on" (Murs why you gotta hate)
"Hate nor love got shit to do with this
You better run for the fives come through this bitch
You know you got to strikes, you better use them new Nikes
To dodge all them blue lights" He looked and said (You right)
Then he bolted up the street
once he left my slight I gave a sigh of relief
But that was right before I peeped, this dumb motherfucker
left the bag full of money sitting right there on my passenger seat