Murkemz has created a strong Valley presence and now the world is listening

“We going pull up, hop out, spin, slide — tell them mutha fuckaz where you at, we outside.”

It started as a catchphrase in the Valley. Now it’s an anthem echoing through the Footprint Center, local cruise strips and car meets, on top of a Que Suave Taco Shop on Corona Avenue, and in metro Phoenix classrooms.

Thanks to TikTok, a viral snippet filmed at a metro Phoenix house has gone worldwide. At the center of the “We Outside” movement is Murkemz, the Queens-born, West Valley–raised rapper putting Phoenix on his back and stepping straight into hip-hop’s reportedly $17.7 billion industry.

“I moved out here from New York when I was like 13,” he says in a recent Phoenix New Times exclusive interview. “I’m from everywhere in Phoenix — South Side, West Valley, North Side, Central — all that.”

In middle and high school at Desert Edge in Goodyear, he hung out with friends and rapped over beats inspired by Big L and classic Death Row.

I like the ’90s hip-hop,” he says. “That’s the shit I really like — Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Eminem.”

When asked about his rap name, he said, “It’s like a spit over for my actual name type shit.”

And when asked his real name for the article, he responded, “Nah, nah, y’all listen to the music; it’s all in the story.”

Murkemz’ story has been told on platforms like Underground Hip Hop Blog, Hot 97 with Funk Flex, On the Radar, Sway’s Universe (5 Fingers of Death), and Overtime. And on one freestyle, he painted a vivid picture of his youth in Arizona. He posted it to IG with the caption: “This is what it’s like moving from NY to AZ! Who else life did a whole 360 when they came out to the 🌵?”

The verse went something like:
“I’ve arrived
Whole life changed, I was just a child the only Puerto Rican for the next hundred miles
No brick buildings, trains and hallways
It was dirt roads, the blade, and Circle Ks.
Now I’m learning about the game. I was on my way.
House parties get shot, we was ducking from strays.
And we close to the border so they dishing birdies out.
Racist ass judges giving cornerback jerseys out.
Everybody’s got a strap, even the squares. It’s a cowboy town. Think we seeking a fair? — Where?
And hoes getting more money than the n**** but it’s still a lot of broke bitches, don’t you get it twisted.
While them youngins on them oxys, smokers on the meth trip. Gangster ass crackas, wildass Mexicans. Southside and west side n***** be about that set trip.
And for smoke, I was going through it. I never lived in any neighborhood long enough to belong to it.”

He finished school online while bouncing between coasts. “I was on my laptop doing classes, flying back and forth to New York, still trying to rap,” he says. “It was always about the music.”

His early tracks blended classic New York on top of Phoenix grit, call it lyrical punchlines with desert swagger. “My mom, my dad, my uncle, they really put me on,” he says. His dad spun hip-hop on vinyl. His uncle? Murk raps about him often — a young uncle who felt more like a big brother. “Even my friends growing up, just freestyling and shit, that’s what really got me started,” he adds.

That early practice of rapping off the cuff turned into live-fire training on stages and podcasts. In 2020, days before COVID hit and Governor Ducey locked down metro Phoenix, Murk got a significant break on Real 92.3 in Los Angeles, dropping a verse on DJ Hed and Bootleg Kev’s podcast. (Bootleg Kev also came from metro Phoenix and owns 11:11 Nightclub in Scottsdale.) On air, Murkemz delivered a raw freestyle that stuck with listeners:

“Woodside projects, moved away in my teens,
Black and Puerto Rican — explain the hair and the skin...
Hood shit, got a young uncle, he like my big brother.”

Freestyle isn’t just a hobby for Murkemz, it’s a foundation. “It’s like a mental sport,” he says.

But it wasn’t the above podcasts that blew him up. It was TikTok. A 12-second clip of the hook to his song “We Outside” caught fire, and then some.

“I just posted the snippet — wasn’t even the full song,” he says. “Next thing I know, it’s got a million views. Babies, moms, old heads, white folks, Black folks, everybody dancing to it.”

Thing is, he hadn’t even finished mixing the song yet. “I had to call Kilroy like, ‘Yo, we gotta get this done now,’” he says, referencing a local hip-hop engineer who’s become known for working with everyone from Snoop Dogg, Luniz, and Baby Bash to Phoenix’s own rising stars.

Then Murkemz dropped the full single on all platforms and quickly earned radio play. “We Outside” became a certified Valley banger.

The bass-ridden track, built on a minimalist trap beat with plenty of breathing room, lets Murkemz’s voice blaze front and center. His delivery is sharp and relentless, like a long-overdue monsoon ripping through the concrete. The Desert Edge alum channels the punchy, aggressive flows of ’90s East Coast hip-hop, but scorched with desert energy only Phoenix could provide.

Soon after, on October 19, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony invited him to pull up for Ice Cube’s Nightmare on Cube Street at the Footprint Center.

I performed ‘We Outside’ at the Suns arena, and I swear, I thought it was speaker feedback,” Murk recalls. “But then I pointed the mic at the crowd, and they shouted it back at me — loud. That’s when it hit me. This is bigger than I thought.”

Murk didn’t just break out, he busted through. But he’s quick to credit his roots. “Phoenix got talent,” he says. “A lot of people don’t know that yet.”

On the Plug City Remix of “We Outside,” he featured Chris Coke, Judge Da Boss, and Sluggah2Times, who are all local heavyweights.

He’s part of a new generation defining the Valley’s sound that includes less imitation, more innovation. A blend of East Coast bars with Southwest jounce. “That track was for the city,” he says.

This summer, he’s dropping an L.A. remix, followed by a New York version in July. “I’m about to be all over,” he says. “But AZ’s my home, I rep it everywhere I go.”

Then came the Ice-T co-sign. “He found me on Twitter,” Murkemz says. “I was spamming videos under random tweets.”

One of those freestyles made it to the rap legend’s feed. Ice-T didn’t just like it; he reached out, linked up, and mentored the Valley rapper. “He hit me up, met me, gave me advice.”

Then on February 2, it got better, like a movie.

“I wake up, and people are tagging me like crazy,” Murk continues, with excitement in his eyes during our interview. “Ice-T’s on the Grammy’s red carpet shouting me out as one of his favorite rappers.”

For Murk, that co-sign is massive, but the mission continues. He just dropped a new single, “Moonwalk Through Customs.” “It’s not about smuggling,” he clarifies. “It’s about taking this music through every checkpoint, every city, every border with confidence. I’m moonwalking through customs like I belong there.”

And what’s next for Arizona’s rising star? With a calendar packed with shows, a coast-to-coast remix rollout, and bigger stages in his sights, Murkemz is building something real, something that lasts. And through it all, he’s repping Phoenix every step of the way.

“The desert has something to say, too,” he concludes. We’re a culture, and we’re outside.”