New Joint – Living Legends

Living Legends – “LLXL” (@LivingLegends / 2022)

West Coast super-group and underground stalwarts the Living Legends make a welcome return to damage the mic device on this new Eligh-produced track.

New Joint – Born Allah / Lucky I Am / J-Ro

Born Allah ft. Lucky I Am & J-Ro – “Westside” (@LABornAllah / 2014)

The Los Angeles representative joins forces with members of both Living Legends and Tha Alkaholiks to put a distinctly Left Coast twist on Liquid Liquid’s classic “Cavern” break.

New Joint – Sunspot Jonz

Sunspot Jonz – “Underground Legend” (@SunspotJonz / 2012)

The Living Legends member drops a creative video to accompany this track from his recent project “Galaxy Of Dreams 2”.

New Joint – Living Legends

Living Legends – “Trojan Horse” (Legendary Music / 2012)

Eligh-produced track from the influential West Coast collective that counts the likes of Murs, The Grouch and Sunspot Jonz amongst its members.

Live Review – Murs

Venue: The Jazz Cafe, London  Date: 13 April 2011

Murs is a born performer. That much was evident mere seconds after the West Coast emcee had casually sauntered down the stairs onto the Jazz Cafe stage, placed his backpack down and launched into his opening cut complete with star-jumps and animated head-nodding, turning what had been a fairly subdued crowd into a sea of waving arms and cheers of approval.

Having missed opening act Stig Of The Dump due to traffic issues, this particular writer arrived at the venue just after 9pm to find a mixed crowd of fans chatting amongst themselves as the sound of  Beat Junkie J. Rocc’s new instrumental album “Some Cold Rock Stuf” found its way from the speakers.

The atmosphere in the venue was hardly electric, with things picking up only slightly when Murs’ deejay Foundation took to the stage and dropped some Dilla, with the Living Legends lyricist appearing soon after and thankfully dispelling any doubts that the crowd were simply their to pass the time rather than fully appreciate the talents of one of the most entertaining artists to come from the underground West Coast rap scene.

Although Murs has a fairly hefty back catalogue behind him, with almost twenty years worth of releases to his name including albums on Def Jux and Rhymesayers, it was clear early on the majority of those in attendance were interested primarily in seeing the LA wordsmith perform material from his four collaboration albums with North Carolina super-producer 9th Wonder.

Tracks such as the humorous “Bad Man” and the Curtis Mayfield-sampling      “H-U-S-T-L-E” were met with much appreciation as 9th’s crisp beats boomed across the venue and Murs dropped his lyrics with the type of pinpoint precision that can only come from an artist who has spent countless hours on stages across the world perfecting his live act. “It’s cool to be in front of a crowd I can actually converse with in English,” said Murs at one point, hinting at the amount of time he’s spent in recent weeks trekking across Europe.

Breezing through his recent remake of Common’s 1994 classic “I Used To Love H.E.R.”, Murs then showed his more diverse musical tastes, performing both a short cover of a Tech N9ne track that became his anthem after touring with the cult rapper in 2009 and also a cut recorded with Italian dance duo Crookers, which seemed to perplex as many members of the audience as it entertained, prompting Murs to laugh out-loud whilst thanking the crowd for “letting us bug out with y’all.”

Proving that the  down-to-earth, everyman personality heard in his music is definitely no act, Murs displayed a genuine connection with his fans, engaging in banter with those in the front row, flirting with female audience members and recounting tales of broken relationships and tour stories with the candour and timing of a stand-up comedian.

With a clear knack for expressing both the joy and pain of the ongoing battle of the sexes, Murs dropped an almost back-to-back selection of his female-orientated rhymes, including “Silly Girl”, the poignant “Break-Up (The OJ Song)” and the self-explanatory “Dirty Girl”, originally recorded with Atmosphere’s Slug on the duo’s 2005 Felt album “A Tribute To Lisa Bonet”.

Bouncing around the stage like a Hip-Hop Peter Tosh, with dreads flying in all directions, Murs was clearly ready to end the performance earlier than his deejay. After the rapper thanked everyone for coming out and supporting, Foundation seemed adamant about ensuring Murs performed for just a little longer, leading to an amusing exchange between the pair – “You dick! What if I can’t remember the words to that?” exclaimed Murs when Foundation pointed to a track title on his Serato set-up that obviously wasn’t a usual addition to their set.

Part intimate performance, part exuberant showmanship, Murs’ Jazz Cafe gig included all of the elements that make much of his music so enjoyable – raw honesty, witty wordplay, personal reflection, genuine humour and an ability to tap into the ups and downs of the daily grind that are shared by us all.

An underground rapper who is serious about his art but who doesn’t take himself too seriously – now, that’s not something you get to see everyday.

Ryan Proctor

New Joint – Lefty / Scarub

Lefty ft. Scarub of Living Legends – “See No Evil” (Uzi Scott Productions / 2010)

Taken from the Bay Area emcee’s album “Kill The Messenger”.