Amazon.co.uk Review
Before recording
The End of the Beginning, Left Coast hip-hop don Murs spent most of his decade-long career travelling the underground, making tapes and throwing jams worldwide. Now he has found the time to commit to wax and the results are impressive. Choosing El-P's super-dope Def Jux imprint as his outlet, Murs brings his own distinctive brand of emceeing, which he has dubbed "Sitcom Rap".
The album is an adventurous and entertaining mix of humorous storytelling and braggadocio-fuelled bangers that's underpinned by beatwork from El-P, Shock G, Ant, Sunspot Jonz and more and enhanced by guest MC spots from Humpty Hump (yep, the one from Digital Underground) and Aesop Rock. A heady, lyrical cocktail full of drugs ("Happy Pills"), irresponsibility, materialism, wisdom, skating ("Transitions of a Rider") and plenty of humour, this is a tight debut and a solid profile of an already respected underground talent. --Paul Sullivan