Murs has been a lot of things in his career: president, conflicted indie rocker, scenic storyteller. While his versatility keeps him afloat, it’s tough to get a bead on exactly who Murs is and what he stands for—is he the conscious backpacker or the straight-talking street dude? He embodies the urban alternative, kids who crave artsy shit and push skateboards to the corner store, but after 18 years and many projects, there’s no single album that offers his full narrative. Have a Nice Life is perhaps the closest thing to such a release; many of these anecdotes pertain to Murs and offer insight into his California upbringing, finding the rapper at his most reflective. He’s assessing his current stature and how he arrived at this moment.
It doesn’t take long to get the point. He’s got cute kids and a faithful wife. There’s food in the fridge and money in his bank account. Following a slew of record deals—including stops at Warner Bros. and Definitive Jux—Murs seems content at rapper Tech N9ne’s Strange Music label (a notion shouted out a few times on Nice Life). Oh, and in case you didn’t know, Murs gave certain West Coast rappers their first shot to shine. "I could drop names, I could be that asshole," the rapper fumes on "Surprises". "After all that, you’d think they’d be thankful/ But hoes ain’t loyal and niggas ain’t grateful."
Once the brash young reformist, Murs approaches Nice Life with gray-haired wisdom. He’s not trying to prove anything, instead sounding comfortable simply talking to his children and addressing societal issues. "No More Control" feels especially relevant amid the recent killings of unarmed black men by police. Yeah, he says, it’s fucked up what the cops are doing, but "we got to start to take a look in the mirror … if we don’t respect ourselves, then they always gon’ fear us."
Have a Nice Life is as much about Los Angeles as it is about Murs. Between its autobiographical bent and rap-rock instrumentals, the album declares the rapper’s survival while paying homage to friends who didn’t make it. That’s why, at age 37, he’s embracing the signs of advancing age by hood standards. "I don’t wanna dye my hair," Murs asserts on the opening track, "‘cause a lot of my homies died before they got there." Just how they passed is anyone’s guess, but listening to Have a Nice Life, it could be from a number of things: Maybe it was from the same stress outlined on "PTSD" ("niggas kill niggas just to fuck a bitch") or "Woke Up Dead", which outlines the dangers of L.A. gang life. If those songs peek into Murs’ personal angst, it bubbles over on "I Miss Mikey", the album’s closing track and probable mission statement: "One day I’mma lose and then I’ll be gone, I’m making these songs so that I live on."
As a whole, Have a Nice Life stands as a decent collection of songs that, while palatable, casually floats by in a sea of average beats by Jesse Shatkin, who produced much of the album. The composer specializes in hulking, pop-infused tracks, which don't quite mesh with the rapper's cohesive tales. At times, some of the stories grow stale without strong lyricism. We learn more about Murs, but he's still searching for that complete statement.
