

The humble brag isn’t a good look for a rapper. That’s how Murs starts off this album with an odd God-centric track that basically talks about his comfy life, his faithful wife and his willingness to create radio-friendly music. Look, I’m no cheerleader for the G-man, but when athletes basically say, “I’m not great, I’m just blessed by Jesus with a 50″ vertical and a 4.3 forty that allows me to juke motherfuckers,” I think even their lord and savior wants to tell them to shut the fuck up. So it’s instantly disappointing that Murs would go that way out the gate. I mean, I think I’ve liked at least one this guy’s albums in the past, but this was a real buzz kill. The rest of the album takes a bit of a different bent, saying the word “hood” at least 27 billon times and PTSD another 4 billion. And after hearing about his good woman and his flush bank account (which I’m a bit skeptical about considering he’s on a label I’ve never heard of and is, well, Murs) we get to listen to what amounts to a weak version of an early Ice Cube album — and an obvious obsession with “It Was a Good Day,” which should be obvious enough given the title of the album — overlaid with what I assume he thinks are those radio-friendly choruses. Not so much.