On Tuesday I interviewed Murs, the Los Angeles-based Living Legends MC that released his major label debut, Murs For President, on Sept. 30. He plays the Hawthorne Theatre tonight.

And, I gotta tell you, this interview was great. Murs was frustrated with his new label (the first thing he said to me was “I don’t know what the fuck they’re doing, man”), excited about the album and it’s potential to reach people, fed up with rap and trying to make it better. He was talking about the next generation being materially poor but spiritually rich, about the illusion of security and about the presidential election. He was open and funny and smart and deep about all of this stuff. So imagine how shitty I felt when I discovered that I had connected my phone to my recorder wrong. The recording I wound up with is 20 minutes of my own questions, with Murs’ voice nowhere to be found. It’s heartbreaking.

But I won’t let that keep me from being as evangelical about Murs here on LocalCut as I am in my everyday life. The following, unprecedented on LocalCut for a national release, is my review of the new album:

Listen while you read: Murs, “Can It Be,” Murs For President

Download audio file (Can It Be.mp3)

Making the transition from indie hip-hop stalwart to major-label personality isn’t going to be easy. The underground is going to cry sellout and mainstream audiences are going to be skeptical of new faces (and why shouldn’t they be, when so much fabricated shit is propped up by the majors?). So the prospect of a Murs album for Warner Brothers was scary, even before it took like a bzillion years to come out.

So what did Murs do? Did he embrace the major label way of going about things—focusing on big name stars and producers—and forget his roots? Or did he just play to his strengths and make another record that sounds like 3:16 and Murray’s Revenge?

He did both.

I didn’t think the cheeky title Murs for President was very applicable on first listen. This wasn’t an overwhelmingly political album. But now I think it was the absolute correct choice. Because as we’ve seen with Barack’s long, strange trip to the White House, making big moves requires appealing to people that, on the surface, anyway, you don’t have a lot in common with. It means kissing babies and going to old folks homes. And while he opens the album with the inspirational big-picture joint with longtime collaborator 9th Wonder, “I’m Innocent” (which one could consider his convention speech and mission statement), Murs’ big move means potentially big singles with Will.i.am and Snoop Dogg.

“Lookin Fly” (set to be the second single after the very solid MJ-sample-driven “Can It Be,” which you’re likely listening to now) is more pop than we ever thought Murs would get. In our interview he said that—transcribing from rough notes here—making a major label album was like “if you’re used to making sketches and someone hands you a set of oil paints.” He also said that he was looking to take on some different styles as a personal challenge. Still, the album’s second cut, “Lookin Fly” is kind of hard to swallow. That Al Hirt sample is dope, but the big bass drum would sound more fitting on an old Mix-A-Lot track or the new E-40 album. It’s something Murs has hinted at with tracks like “H-U-S-T-L-E,” but where that song was tongue-in-cheek, this one seems entirely earnest.

It also sets up one of the craziest hip-hop segways I’ve ever heard. He goes from “Lookin Fly” to “The Science,” which examines the discrepancies between crack and coke prosecutions, the allure of the welfare system and gives a brief synopsis of hip-hop’s history, all over one of the sickest beats Murs has ever rhymed over (this one produced by Snoop Dogg beatsmith Scoop DeVille). And it is here that he sounds like someone I’d vote for: “It’s not black and white/ It’s so much more/ It’s rich staying rich and the poor staying poor/ The poor whites, meth; The poor blacks, crack/ It’s not about race and once you realize that/ We as a nation are free to move on/ And become one people: A movement, strong.”

When he hits on this album, he hits incredibly hard. And where past efforts have focused in on Murs’ own life (something he did with incredible sincerity, directness, humor and skill), Murs is President takes his heightened major-label platform very seriously. It would be an incredible risk for most MCs, but anyone who has spent time with Murs is ready for him to talk on a larger scale than what he’s risked before. On “Everything,” which features a James Blunt sample AND an electric guitar line (both of which, I have to admit, work really well and to dramatic effect—despite the fact that I would never recommend electric guitar OR James Blunt for a hip-hop song), the campaign continues as Murs rhymes “Waiting on the day when it’s okay to love/ When black men won’t pretend that they are thugs/ When teachers and doctors are treated like celebrities/ You can get a job even if you’ve got a felony.” More promises from the stump.

The album gets more adventurous as it goes, sometimes for the best (the stilted G-Funk of “You Think You Know Me”), sometimes for the not-so-great (”A Part of Me,” which is a lyrically thoughtful relationship tune but musically overwrought with riffage in the rap-rock tradition). And occasionally, Murs touches brilliance. “Love and Appreciate II” is a downright genius ballad (and the dude who sings the hook, Tyler Woods, could well mature into being the next D’Angelo—he’s been working with 9th as well). And yeah, I’m a sentimental motherfucker, but this is also where some of the album’s best lyricism comes into play. “B-word this, H-bomb that/ And in the midst of all this I’m wondering where your mom’s at/ Cause if she ain’t one, then tell me where the hate from/ You just calm down, and maybe you could date one/ Buy her some flowers, open some doors/ She need some tampons, homie go to the store!”

That’s the shit we love Murs for. The man is a realist. Because talking about respecting women doesn’t mean he’s not going to talk about sex; He comes across as humble but also calls himself the best rapper in the world (he did that in our interview, too. Man, I really wish you coulda read it.). But as a realist, Murs understood that making a major-label album meant making some tracks that might appeal to major-label audiences. Is that such a bad thing? Because any kid who gets hooked by “Lookin Fly” is going to have to reckon with “The Science.” Anyone who buys it for a Snoop Dogg cameo also has to hear Murs rapping “Word to Kurtis Blow, you gotta know ‘The Breaks’/ And if you don’t know your history I know you’re fake.”

So yeah, Obama has to talk about being tough on terror, and Murs has to make a big single or two. I’d still vote for either of them in a heart beat.

Murs plays the Hawthorne Theatre tonight with Kidz In The Hall and Isaiah. 8 pm. $15. All Ages.