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Within seconds of beginning our interview by phone, Def Jux rapper Murs has interrupted my questions to ask where I’m from (I have an accent). When I tell him, he says he’s surprised I even listen to hip-hop. “Hip-hop’s not that important—it’s just entertainment.” I tell him Tupac’s face is one of the more common images on T-shirts and walls in Africa (where I’m from) and he seems to accept...
Formerly of the Living Legends crew, currently on the cutting edge Def Jux label and aspiring Harvard student, Murs is finally starting to break it big after many years on the West Coast underground. Def Jux has become the hip-hop label to watch thanks to the careful management of rapper and CEO El-P, the Jay-Z of the underground. Jukies always appear on each other’s albums, and the tours become traveling carnivals of talent dominated by the Jukies themselves, but with a healthy accumulation of friends and guests to round things out. In fact...
Murs says of the Def Jukies that, even if their not all best friends, “We all get along. There’s a common respect.” How much does El-P’s choice of who to sign have on the label community? “El would never bring anyone in who we didn’t respect, who isn’t a good human being. There’s no hardened criminal assholes here. Everyone is at least somewhat intelligent...
...career move. Ask rapper SHYNE, a.k.a. Jamal Barrow, a Sean (P. Diddy) Combs protege, convicted for assault in 2001 after the now famous 1999 shooting at a New York City nightclub. Though Barrow is serving a 10-year sentence and may not be up for parole until 2009, Def Jam Records reportedly signed him to a record deal, worth up to $3 million, after a bidding war with at least two other labels. Alas, his touring schedule will be limited...
Hollywood's beautiful people and their makeup illusionists aren't taking kindly to high def, but they realize that the technology will soon dominate television. Like it or not, they're all going to have to be ready for their close-ups. --By Jeanne McDowell/Los Angeles