¡Mursday!

MURS

A longtime friend of Definitive Jux leader El-P, rapper Murs first appeared as a solo artist in 2003, after nearly a decade of working with various groups in the underground. Based in Los Angeles, his first single was released in 1993, and came from a self-released album by his first group, 3 Melancholy Gypsies. The track barely made a dent, but it did catch the attention of indie hip-hop fans in the area. Through time, the group members became friends with Mystik Journeymen, who asked 3MG (their shortened name) to join them when they started the Living Legends collective in 1996.
Between both 3MG and the Living Legends, Murs rapped on several influential indie rap albums, appearing on more than 20 records, EPs, and singles within a seven-year period. When El-P started to pull together his Def Jux label, Murs contacted the producer and told him he would release his solo record for the company once he had the opportunity. His commitments to both the Legends and 3MG often kept him from working on the album, but after a few years of slowly putting together tracks, Murs finally delivered The End of the Beginning in the spring of 2003.

Featuring flashier production than his group projects, the album was more in tune with a mainstream hip-hop record, though projects with Anticon rapper Slug under the name Felt -- A Tribute to Christina Ricci and A Tribute to Lisa Bonet -- unveiled a more experimental side to his artistry. The rapper returned to solo work with Murs 3:16: The 9th Edition, a collaboration with producer 9th Wonder, in 2004. One of the tracks from that album, "Walk Like a Man," inspired a movie starring Murs himself, along with Damien Wigfall. The soundtrack, Walk Like a Man, also appeared in mid-2005. Murs teamed up again with 9th Wonder to release Murray's Revenge in 2006. Two years later, he jumped to the majors for a contract with Warner Bros., which yielded Murs for President, with appropriately major-label features for will.i.am and Snoop Dogg. Another two years later, Murs reunited with 9th Wonder to make Fornever. ~ Bradley Torreano, Rovi

MAYDAY

¡MAYDAY! may sound like a battleship distress
call, but the Miami-based hip hop group is
generating a sound too strong for any ship to produce. The unique blend of electro-rock fusion is
changing the frontier of music as they flex their muscles in areas of funk that hip hop has yet to explore.
Their call to attention and explosive live show is impossible to ignore and have earned the group
accolades from critics, music aficionados and hip hop artists alike. ¡MAYDAY!'s recent series of EP's
has set off media alarms throughout 2009 and provided music fans with a taste of the near future as they
prepare to release their sophomore album Stuck on an Island in 2010.