MURS and maturing hip-hop

(this piece was published by Planet JH Weekly)Aside from deejays spinning hip-hop, there’s not a lot of rapping going down at Town Square Tavern—especially not the level of talent that will arrive with MURS and his crew. The thirty-five year old Nick Carter, aka MURS, is an underground (yet widely respected) L.A. rapper that is loved for his relateability as a lyricist known to take a more thoughtful approach than his gangsta counterparts. As a teenager, he hustled his music hand-to-hand on the streets for rent, leading to a stage name that is an acronym with multiple meanings including "Making the Universe Recognize and Submit" and "Making Underground Raw Shit."A zoomed-out look at MURS’s recording career since 1997 is one of ambition and range—nine solo albums including one on Warner Bros. label, as a member of hip-hop groups Living Legends, Melancholy Gypsys, Felt, and Melrose, as well as a stint as the lead vocalist of rock-rap super group, The Invincibles. An emotional realist, he often shuns the hip-hop gun culture in favor of insightful dialog about the streets. He also has choice words for his rapper peers.“It’s phenomenal the amount of rappers who don’t read books,” MURS told The Smoking Section last August. “If you don’t read, you can’t write. There’s a bunch of people writing, but they are not developing their intellect. Hip-hop has been an adolescent art form for thirty years, and that’s unacceptable. I’d like for rappers to have a sense of responsibility and grow up.”MURS’s tours are known to be as varied as his recording career. He has grown a dependable reputation not only to deliver a fresh show with the occasional scissor kick and high-energy, friendly crowd interactions, but also for bringing different collaborators out on the road with him. MURS, 9:30 p.m. Sunday at Town Square Tavern. $18/advance, $20/day-of-show. 307Live.com, 733-3886.