Murs

Murs' new album, Murray's Revenge, is a follow-up to his last collaboration with underground producer 9th Wonder, 2004's critically acclaimed Murs 3:16: The 9th Edition. While that album was moodily introspective -- its cover image featured Murs under a freeway, tipping his hat toward the night sky -- Murray's Revenge is bright and accessible, ranging from the anthem "L.A." to assertive battle tracks like the self-titled cut. A storyteller in the tradition of Ice Cube and Slick Rick, Murs rhymes about a 9-year-old youth led astray by "the big homie standing out on the corner/He got real guns, not the ones from G.I. Joe/Feared and respected, like everywhere he go" on "Dreamchaser." Unpredictably, he dedicates a song to "D.S.W.G. (Dark Skinned White Girls)," and says, "She talk with that tone but she's white to the bone/You would swear she was black if you spoke on the phone." 9th Wonder laces Murs with genuine bangers like the head-nodder "Murray's Law" and the dreamy anti-love song "Silly Girl." But Murs' detailed raps are the highlight of Murray's Revenge.