For his first release with Tech N9ne's Strange Music label, Cali rapper and living legend Murs teams with Miami live hip-hop outfit and current label mates ¡MayDay!. Building upon the chemistry created from their collab track for ¡MayDay!'s 2012 album, Take Me To Your Leader, Murs and ¡MayDay! have concocted a fun summertime party-rocking album full of tracks designed to move the crowd. The ¡MayDay! band (Plex Luthor, NonMS, LT Hopkins and Gianni Cash) provide a primarily uptempo groove with a lot of Latin influence, so butts are bound to move. Murs may not be at the top of his game here, at times dropping rather simplistic lyrics with a more rigid delivery, but he impresses more often than not, while ¡MayDay! rappers Bernbiz and Wrekonize more than hold their own alongside the veteran rapper.
Lyrically, the album is light-hearted, with topics revolving around the classic hip-hop motifs of girls, money and having a good time. The big exception is "Serge's Song," a bilingual song about incarceration, similar to Nas' "One Love." With hype tracks like "Beast out the Box" and "Spiked Punch" alongside mellower jams like "New Toys (Hey Love)" and "Here," there is usually little need to skip ahead, with the exception of the "Intro," which is unnecessary and embarrassing and should be skipped for immediate immersion in album highlight "Tabletops," a braggadocio battle track that brings it back to the days of rapping around the high school cafeteria tables. The horns, cuts and vocal stylings make for a hype track to properly set off the album. While ¡Mursday! isn't "the most amazing music you've heard in the past, uh, 40 years," as claimed by Murs on "Intro," it is a great summertime album that should receive a lot of play throughout the season.
(Strange Music)Lyrically, the album is light-hearted, with topics revolving around the classic hip-hop motifs of girls, money and having a good time. The big exception is "Serge's Song," a bilingual song about incarceration, similar to Nas' "One Love." With hype tracks like "Beast out the Box" and "Spiked Punch" alongside mellower jams like "New Toys (Hey Love)" and "Here," there is usually little need to skip ahead, with the exception of the "Intro," which is unnecessary and embarrassing and should be skipped for immediate immersion in album highlight "Tabletops," a braggadocio battle track that brings it back to the days of rapping around the high school cafeteria tables. The horns, cuts and vocal stylings make for a hype track to properly set off the album. While ¡Mursday! isn't "the most amazing music you've heard in the past, uh, 40 years," as claimed by Murs on "Intro," it is a great summertime album that should receive a lot of play throughout the season.
