Sometimes the most memorable tracks are the simplest to understand. Everyone on the planet, regardless of race, sex, and culture, can understand the pain and sadness of losing a loved one. However, not everyone can understand the experience of witnessing a loved one die as a victim of cold-blooded murder. To give people some notion of understanding, Murs pours his soul and tears onto the track “Walk Like a Man.”
Murs is an underground rapper based out of Los Angeles, California representing Definitive Jux Records. As a friend of mine, Andy Kang, put it, “… most of the rappers… try to show how hard or gully they are. Murs kinda rises above all of that. I think it’s pretty rare to find a rapper who would expose himself to people through music, and that’s why his fans love him.” Though Murs is not credited with having the most poignant and sharp lyrics, “Walk Like a Man” is as deep a track as could be written.
“Walk Like a Man” is literally three-tracks-in-one. In the song, Murs narrates the story in three parts. Each part has its own beat, provided by 9th Wonder of Justus League, that serves to compliment the tone of each particular verse.
In the first part of the song, Murs brings a cocky attitude to his rhymes, stressing the seeming stupidity of gun violence with such lines as “Now I used to walk with the gun now I walk like a man/And I walk what I talk and I walk never ran… Used to walk with a gun but I never did use it/What’s the point of holdin’ heat when you ain’t gon’ shoot it…”
However, Murs is also capable of bringing the opposite side of this story by explaining the type of power felt when carrying a gun: “Soon as he walked by I was ready to bust/But he just posted up like he was waitin’ on the bus/Now I’m all pumped up with a steroid trigger/Cause most of y’all are easy just some paranoid ni**az…”
The instrumental change signifies the beginning of the second part of the story. Here, Murs describes the fateful night his best friend was murdered before his eyes. An analysis into the lyrics shows Murs uses specific discriptions to subliminally interject the vision of that fateful night. For example, in the beginning of the second verse, Murs drops lines such as: “It was a late night sunset me and him out…” and, “everybody’s wilin’ out, cause the summer’s about to end.”
Whether this was intentional or not, his use of foreshadowing is delicately integrated into his lines, and may subconsciouly prepare the listener for the experience. Murs goes on to describe the shooting death of his best friend, and beautifully works his lyrics over the track to tell his story. In describing the murder, Murs spits, “I was struck by reality when the two girls screamed/I saw his killer stand up put the gun in his jeans/Saw him wince from the pain as the heat burned his waist/Then he turned up the block disappeared without a trace…”
Murs parallels the bullet to reality and compares seeing his friend die with a part of himself dying. In the chorus, Murs expresses his sadness at the loss of his friend, but segways into the final chapter of the story by stating, “…And I tried to pretend everything was fine/But my soul couldn’t rest until vengeance was mine.”
In the closing chapter, we find Murs attending the funeral of his fallen comrade, where he decides to kick it with his friend, telling him all that has happened since his passing. The bond between Murs and his friend is the same as between blood, as Murs rhymes: “I thought I’d use this time for me and him to be alone/I broke out the ‘Hen poured a little out for him/Told him who was gettin’ married, who had went to the pen/How the homie named his newborn son after him…” In this sense, the friendship shared is so strong that even after death, the two are inseparable.
The pace of the song changes abruptly when Murs sees his friend’s killer. Murs describes chillingly the taste of revenge as the rage in him commanded his actions: “He cried as I pressed the heat against his cheek/then I squoze two times for the homie rest in peace.” Hotaste fo revenge is bittersweet, for in the final Hook, Murs tells: “…And I thought that’s what I wanted until the problem was confronted/Now I’m haunted by remorse that I wish I hadn’t done it.”
This is a true story (according to Murs), and as such, puts into perspective how precious life is, and that revenge is never the answer. Through his compelling story, Murs reveals himself to the listener through emotion-driven poetry, and helps us to understand his pain. He has created a work of beauty from a canvas of tragedy, but most importantly, Murs implores his fans not to take the same path he chose. As the great Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “That old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.”
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March 14th, 2006 at 3:01 am
if this guy is an admitted crime-of-passion murderer, i hope he is in jail and not out roaming the streets. brilliant musician or not, our urban culture’s constant justification (and praise!) of this type of unacceptable behavior is probably one of the reasons why there were 380 murders in Philly last year (over 1 murder a day!), the majority of which remain unsolved. there are no amount of intellectual/anthropological/sociological/psychological arguments that could stand up against those stats. sorry, i can’t relate. i’d rather listen to King, who modeled his non-violent movement after Ghandi, and actually lived what he believed, not allowing his need for revenge or moment of anger to allow him to sink into neanderthal-like behavior, but was a model of social justice, even while in Jail. instead of recommending this, please recommend Letters from a Birmingham Prison. i’m not buying this “do as i say not what i do” hypocrisy.
March 14th, 2006 at 11:54 am
Thank you for your comment and your honesty. I appreciate your feedback and understand your opinion and respect it. I am not one to put down another’s comments merely because they do not coincide with my own. It is your choice not to recommend Murs (or the post for that matter), but it is also my right to publish an article based on what I am trying to convey to the masses. Allow me to explain the justification for the post.
Though Murs is a confessed murderer, the song does not support such actions. The bottom line is: The Message is more important than the Man. We all have skeletons in our closets, and what Murs has done through his song “Walk Like a Man” was explain his actions and the repercussions he feels afterwards. Though I do not advocate with any stretch of the imagination the path that Murs has taken, I also do not agree with the idea of his behavior being “neanderthal-like.” I can honestly say, and I have done some soul searching for this question, that If my best friend were killed right before my eyes, and I was able to see his killer again, I do not know what I would do. Though I cannot speak for everyone, I believe with confidence, that even though we can say we would never not harm the person, until we are put in that situation, the possibilities are infinite. Like you said, and I quote, “380 murders in Philly last year (over 1 murder a day!), the majority of which remain unsolved.” Whether it be by fellow members of the community keeping quiet, racism, bad police work, whatever, people from cities like Philadelphia and Los Angeles, as well as other urban areas with high crime rates, know that the chances of murders being solved are slim. Therefore, though once again, I stress I do not advocate vigilante justice, I can see where Murs was coming from when he took his the law into his own hands.
Yes, Dr. King was a model citizen and a true hero within the black community,and in fact, the quote I had included at the end of the post was from Dr. King. The message is clear, and I would recommend reading the lyrics to the song If this has not already been done. Thank you once again for your insight. Criticism is a staple of freedom of speech, and without that, writing becomes obsolete.
March 14th, 2006 at 2:06 pm
I think Murs would even agree with you, anonymous.
If only all of us could be as strong willed at all times in every situation as those whose ideologies we praise and respect.
March 15th, 2006 at 12:22 am
Ryan, first it must be said that you synopsis on “Walk Like a Man” was on point. The verse-by-verse description gives people a fairly accurate written depiction of the song, which nicely coincides with the structure of the song itself (i.e. verse, hook, verse, hook, etc. matched with verse description, commentary, verse description, commentary, etc.). I wish there was a link to the song, but I was able to find it in the Jukebox. Good work.
Unfortunately, after reading the first comment on this post, my joy from reading the post was stifled by this character attack on Murs, which has left me to think about the comment and the post together with a different view than you have taken in your response comment to Anonymous. I’m fairly familiar with Murs as an emcee (that step above rapper) and his extensive catalogue (he has over seven solo projects and a number of group projects), and with this knowledge of the artist Murs I know, from his music, that he is not an advocate of gun violence. Knowing this, the track that was written about and the mind frame of an emcee (yes, I crowd control with words), then reading Anonymous’s comment I was able to come to the conclusion that Anonymous is not a hip-hop head. Having an option is fine, but once a person voices his opinion, he then becomes responsible for defending that option with a wide spectrum of information and understanding. Once cognizance of various bits of information is displayed, then the opinion can be full appreciated and/or respected. So this is why I cannot full respect the comments of Anonymous.
In an interview with the late Biggie Smalls, B.I.G. revealed that yes he does rap about killing people and a lot of other activities that are not socially accepted, but most of his raps were based off of stories that he heard in his neighborhood. Hence, he never did a number of the things he rapped about doing. He knew these stories had entertainment value and he had to sell the stories with conviction. Though Ryan states that Murs claims “Walk Like a Man” is a true story, there is a possibility that this story did happen but did not involved Murs. It is not uncommon for an emcee to tell stories, as that is their occupation. So on that strength that Anonymous did not take “emcee=storyteller” into account, there is a lingering sense of naiveté.
As I’ve previously mentioned, I am quite familiar with Murs as an artist, and with that familiarity, I can confidently say that Murs is an advocate for the “one up” over the gun. If I’m not mistaken, this is the only song that Murs has rapped about using a gun. So for an artist that has an extensive catalogue of songs and only spoke about using a gun once, one can concur that Murs is not telling the listener the gun is the way to solve problems. Instead, “Walk Like a Man” is not a song about violence, but rather a song about revenge and its consequences. With such a strong fan base, Murs knows that he has a responsibility every time that he rhymes that goes beyond entertaining. As an artist, he knows that the most dramatic and powerful story can achieve more than a few lines in a rap. Ignoring whether he actually did the crime or not, the use of himself in such a lavish story enable his fans to gain a personal connection to the situation, as if a friend was telling the tale. With this approach, Murs is able to drop a more engaging tale than saying, Bob down the road got revenge by killing someone or he himself got revenge for his friend that was jumped by jumping the other person. Strength was found in an authentic autobiography. Anonymous fails to realize as an artist, Murs must find strengths to get his point across. Which he does.
Anonymous tries to defend his argument with Philly stats, which is good, but when Anonymous adds that he/she “can’t relate,” I’m prompted to ask myself if murdering people, for whatever reason, is a fairly new thing that the general public has not been exposed to. In fact, I cannot related to killing someone on the behalf of another either, but my mind is open enough to take into consideration as to what the reason for retaliation was. I look at the “Walk Like a Man” instance as a bit of a parallel to the eye-for-an-eye-hood mentality (you kill my mans and I’ll murk you!), and a parallel to a country fighting another because an ally is involved. The first of the two, if you don’t have a street mentality or enough exposure to it, the concept is lost on you. But the second, though seemingly far fetched, is closely related. Since I’m not political, I’ll devise a quite hypothetical scenario. The US is Murs, Egypt is Murs’ best friend, and France is the dude who killed Murs’ friend. France attacks Egypt and kills a large number of people; US finds out; Egypt is not strong enough to fight back, but US is and declares war on France; US troops (the bullets in the gun Murs used) fight in France and win the war, with and outstanding amount of French casualties; the troops come home to the US and are honored as heroes, as the media claims they fought for democracy. To kill in the name of a country is celebrated, while revenge in honor of a friend is wrong and should be punished- I don’t see it. This particular argument can go on for pages but I won’t do it, but I will ponder on the idea that if I kill someone in the name of the US I will be honored but if my best friend was killed, and the way of life is eye-for-an-eye and I follow Moses’ law, than I am a criminal, it seems to be a double standard (one that most likely would not be argued over without a lopsided debate due to how we are trained to believe how society is supposed to be run). I’m not saying that if war is cool, we should be kill off all of those that have killed our loved ones, but that we, as people, are selective of which type of murder is alright to participate in, and I believe this is absurd. So I ask Anonymous, is it that you “can’t relate” or that you have yet to take the time to completely think about the issue at hand?
Before I dead this, Dr. King and Ghandi were not out to seek revenge for the death of their best friends. Though a number of people were harmed during their demonstrations, their movements went beyond an isolated incident, but rather society changing issue. Violence in their case would have caused problems with a far greater impact on the world, than small man from LA not killing in the name of his best friend. These are two different classes of cause and effect that almost make no sense to debate about. The Dr. King quote seems to be used as a tool to reiterate the message behind the song “Walk Like a Man,” and nothing more. So Anonymous, keep your mind and ears open and your pen fresh. Ryan, keep the dope post coming. And reader, keep it live!
Punctu
March 15th, 2006 at 1:57 pm
I’ll say this much…all of the above posts have defintely stirred my mind into the absurdity of murder; more specifically as Trans mentioned above, how man to man murder is illegal and demonized vs. how country to country mass murder is accepted and often times celebrated. For instance after 9/11 the whole country (US) was screaming for bloody murder and revenge against anyone who even LOOKED like someone of Arab decent..but conversely if I kill someone because he rapped my daughter I’d probably have to stand trial and perhaps even serve time.
I don’t like murder, I think its the ugliest of all human expression..but I hate the double standards of murder that we as humanity allow.
I believe that the current civilian casuality statistics in Iraq stand at over 20,000! That is a mind boggling number that we’re all supposed to tuck under our collective mental rugs because all their deaths are supposedly in the name of freedom (and Mr. President puts it so righteously), but realistically all of those people were murdered…and the world keeps turning..and when its all over and cemented in the history books Im sure that the US goverment will exalt the whole ordeal as a “victory”