With the music video for “No More Control”, MURS released one of the more divisive pieces of his career, which is unfortunate, because as he says in our exclusive interview, “We are all different, but we are all the same.” In the video, MURS goes to a police brutality rally, holding up a #BlackLivesMatter sign at the end. This stirred a reaction that #AllLivesMatter.

However, MURS couldn’t agree more. The single from Have A Nice Life addresses police-on-black crime, but also black-on-black crime as well, addressing the dually problematic nature of his own community.

MURS chats with us about his track, “No More Control”, discussing its meaning, how it came about, and how Strange Music gave him the power to express himself freely.

“No More Control.” Tell me about this track.

No More Control is the first song that me and Jesse did when we sat down to work on this record. We had the privilege of working with MNDR, she helped us write the hook. This album is kind of like me defining myself. We just did the two verses and as the song progressed and grew, we needed a third verse, so I added a third verse.

It kind of spoke to what’s going on with the Mike Brown situation and everything came together. I’ve always been a rebel, I’ve always been different. And, I feel like in this era, there’s room for everyone to be different. With the advent of technology, everyone can express themselves more freely and we can see that we are all different, but we are all the same. No matter what we post we all want fucking ‘likes’ on Instagram. You might want ‘likes’ for your fucking horse hair shoes and you might want ‘likes’ for your American Psycho sweatshirt.

The news is irrelevant because we can see what’s going on in Sudan, Libya, or Iran on our fucking Twitter feeds and shit, if the countries allow it out, and even if not, they can’t out-think the hackers. We’re smarter than most world governments now, our generation is kind of taking over, this is an era of No More Control. To me it’s even bigger than black and white people. That’s kind of why I added a third verse.

I’m not going to let my skin color control me, I’m not going to let the fact that I’m on Strange Music control me, or anything. I’m just going to be me and I feel like we’re living in a time when that’s more accepted.

What I appreciate about that song is, when you first listen to it, it doesn’t scare you off with the message, because of the music. It makes it easier to reach people.  

Yeah, when you finally get a good hook and a great producer, it does make it easier to listen and know what’s really happening. I’ve had great producers before, but I’ve been so concerned with being a rebel and being anti everything, I’ve never in my life made music, wanting other people to like it, until I came to Strange. ¡MAYDAY! and I’ve always wanted to be underground and different. I was making so much effort to be different, but I just want to be me. If it happens to be different, that’s great, but I don’t have to try as hard to be different. I feel like when I was younger, I was just so interested in rebelling that I thought I was being me, but I was just trying to be contrary.

It’s weird that coming to Strange would give you an interest in having a broader appeal, or do you just think it made you feel comfortable? Like you were saying before, you were just being different for the sake of being different?

I feel like coming to Strange gave me the fire power. There’s a lot of power in this label and I feel like with Tech heading-up the ship artistically, I knew I’d have the freedom to say and do what I want, and I knew this place had the power and energy to push it forward or propel it to where I need it to go. You would think that coming to the number one indie label wouldn’t be the place you would try to go world wide.

I have a good ear and a good feel, and I’ve been in business with Strange Music on another level for a long time. I feel like this is the place to be, this is where it’s happening right now. When I listen to ¡MAYDAY!, when I listen to Krizz, when I listen to Stevie Stone, when I listen to CES Cru, Prozak, I think that we have it. I want to come and make everybody proud. I want to come and be me, and destroy shit and bang Strange. It’s a real movement, it’s a real thing. It was real before I got with it and I’m just here to make it realer and expand it. Fight the fights that Tech shouldn’t have to fight anymore because he’s rap royalty and I feel like I’m still in the streets. And Rittz, I forgot about Rittz, my brother Rittz. You know, we’re all pushing in different directions in growing this thing.

WATCH:

• What is your favorite part of MURS’s video for “No More Control”?

Let us know in the comments below.

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