Update: Local Rapper Murr To Release New Album and Play Release Party at B-Side Lounge

Update: Founder of LOUD: Mind & Music, a cause that uses creativity to raise awareness for mental health, as well as the co-founder of the Community Jam, the local artist Murr has appeared on the No Bad News podcast, the Into the Music podcast and The Local Spotlight with I’m From Cleveland co-founder John Stursa.

This week, he’ll release his new four-song EP, uPoN ArRiVaL. The project will stream everywhere on Friday, and Murr will play a release party at 7 that night at B-Side Lounge in Cleveland Heights.

“Going into 2020, I was really optimistic about where things were heading,” he says in a press release. “I had just released my first EP, Cloud 99, and was riding that wave. I was also just starting to get past a tough time where my dad experienced a heart attack. He survived it, but it definitely took a toll on me mentally. So I was looking at 2020 as a fresh slate with nothing but positivity and even kept repeating the mantra ‘2020 vision’ as I was starting to see myself and the world more clearly.”

He says he had been “kind of a rogue” for the last few years working non-stop to develop his sound.

“UPoN ArRiVaL represents my landing back on Earth after years of tunnel vision,” he says. “I was ready to reconnect with old friends, share what I had found and just vibe out. Looking at the world in its current state...it was a lot to take in. It pained me to see so much unrest. So I did what I do whenever I’m trying to understand something — I began reflecting and writing throughout the year and the EP was born. This project is my initial shockwave response to 2020. While listening to this EP, I encourage everyone to take some time to think, reflect and evolve your perspective as an individual and as a part of our humanity. Embrace your own humanity, don’t try to be perfect and just ask yourself, 'Where do we go from here?'"

Original Post 3/5/2021: In high school, Cleveland rapper Murr took inspiration from Shaker Heights native Kid Cudi’s Man on the Moon: The End of Day album. At that point, he decided to become a musician.

He's gone on to do great things. The founder of LOUD: Mind & Music, an Ohio State University student-led festival that "uses creativity to raise awareness for mental health" and the co-founder of Community Jam & Underground Sets, the alternative hip-hop artist has just released a music video for “Pluto,” a track from his 2019 debut EP, Cloud 99.

“This song and music video are a dynamic display of my artistry as a rapper, singer and director,” Murr says in a press release about the tune. “‘Pluto’ comes from a place of isolation, paranoia, over thinking and drive. It comes from feeling overlooked, feeling underappreciated, feeling cast to the side, then accepting that and choosing liberation over bitterness in my pursuit of my internal peace.”

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