 ALERT! Pull up to the last Groundwaves on October 10th, 2024 at the Skyline Mansion We all heard the 1,000 listeners framework to being an independent artist. All you need is 1,000 loyal fans and you'll have enough support thrive as an independent artist. But few artists can say they've reached that feat. But when your name is "Making the Universe Recognize and Submit" or "Making Underground Raw Shit." there's no way you not gonna reach your milestone. That's who Murs is and what he has done. The 46-year Los Angelos born artist has a Spotify listener count of 185,000 monthly listeners and has done everything any artists has hoped to do. But most impressively is that he's done it independently while still having respect from up-and-coming artists. But it's with this new generation of artist that Murs is proving his new skill, artist development, as he puts on multiple open-mic events throughout the country called Groundwaves. I had the opportunity to get an interview with the legend Murs before the last Groundwaves Tulsa event. How did you come up with Groundwaves? Ground waves was an idea I came up with when a friend of mine asked me to help with a foundation in Fort Collins called "The Music District" they have a facility that wasn't getting used, utilized by the younger people in the community. And they wanted to get young people in, so they asked me what would they need to do, and I said, you should probably have an open mic because kids today feel like they can put music on SoundCloud and DSPs that they recorded in their bedroom by themselves and call themselves emcees. And in my era that wasn't the case, you had to be outside. I grew up going to the Good Life Cafe and Project Blowed in Los Angeles California, and those are open mics, and those were places where you were able to see how you measured up, to be inspired to be criticized, to cut your teeth so to speak, and sharpen your sword as the Wu-Tang says. Was the mentorship sessions always apart of Groundwaves? The mentorship was an idea that I came up with, but it has been a part of the program since its inception. I was just thinking an open mic would suffice. Jesse Elliott who worked with the Music District, initially and then with CACHE Creates in northwest Arkansas. Jesse Elliot was the one who suggested I do the mentorship the day after. I didn't think anyone would want to talk to me, but I was booked from 7 AM to 7 PM the next day after the first ground waves, and I've never, or I should say, really have I had a mentorship day that has any empty slots since the inception of Groundwaves, so I guess six years running. It also turned out to be tremendously rewarding for me, I won't say my favorite part because I love it all, but I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I do the open mic. What sort of things do artists ask in these mentorship sessions? The most typical questions are; "How to roll out an album? How to book a tour? And sometimes critiques on their performance and how they can get better. Have you seen artists take your advice and have you seen them grow from the mentorship sessions? I've definitely seen a lot of growth in the artist and the community. I can't say which is more rewarding, but I've seen collab albums and friendships, marriages built out of our community, and I've also seen individual growth in artists rollouts and mostly in just productivity and refining their craft when they really listen and apply. ALERT! Pull up to the last Groundwaves on October 10th, 2024 at the Skyline Mansion You took some of the artists to LA to perform. What was the significance behind that? When I got to Tulsa I saw the level of talent and I thought what was needed most was opportunity, not so much mentorship even though I felt like I may be able to help some folks, I thought the level of talent was ready for a bigger stage figuratively and literally, and Marcel P Black had asked specifically about how can he get on to the THOP fest, The Happiness of Pursuit Festival, its ran by a young man named 60 East. who was a performer at my festival Paid Dues back in the day and has asked me for some mentorship or advice along the way, and I was more than happy to help, and he's also booked me, which is amazing and we have a good rapport, so I called him and I asked could we have a stage, could we take over stage and he was kind enough to say, "fuck yeah". And from there I decided I would take the five best emcees from each chapter that are the most committed, the most ready to make the trip, and initially I said that everyone would have to pay to get there themselves because that's how I came up, you don't just go up there to perform for free and selling merch and tapes at the shows to cover the cost of travel. And then the organizations that fund Tulsa and Arkansas very kindly stepped in and said they will cover the travel costs for those two chapters. And the folks from Colorado still made it out there somehow, both busted their asses the past two years, and we did a GoFundMe for them, but usually you would maybe cover a one-way ticket, so the Colorado chapters came out of pocket, but not Tulsa, but no one went into it expecting that. What I love, is that everyone I DM'd and said, "I want you to come." They took the leap, and were down to pay their own because they saw the benefits, and it's a small stage, but it's the only stage inside where the alcohol is being served, so we have that to our benefit, but I think everyone that comes out enjoys it, has a great experience, and I always say it's good to have your name a flyer in the mix with other names you admire, it's a good motivator, it's good juju as they say. It's a blessing to be heard and seen any time. But yeah, that's the origin of going to Los Angeles for the THOP fest, we've been able to give people opportunity to be there the first time on festival, first time on the plane, first time in California, and the day after we try to have some time to get together if possible, or the day before. The day before this last Paid Dues I took everyone I could to [eat] Ethiopian food and we toured FYI (an app founded by artist Will.i.am) campus, which is the app we are using to conduct this interview. And also, the building where I met the person who is going to be giving social media strategy classes to anyone that wants to participate, so FYI has been instrumental and hopefully we can continue the tradition this year. I'm pretty sure we won't get any funding, but I think 60 East may let us perform at the THOP Festival again, I'm hoping, so yeah! Can you explain how the "Thank you, come again" rule came about? The overall inspiration from Groundwaves comes from the Good Life Cafe, a lot of it came from the Good Life Café, some from The Eurican, some from Project Blowed, But at the Good Life Cafe. if someone was wack the whole crowd would chant, "Plllleeeeassse pass the mic, Plllleeeeassse pass the mic," and I in the documentary Ava DuVernay, she used to rap at The Good Life Cafe (Ava DuVernay the director of Origin and A Wrinkle in Time, and many other things and dope documentaries). There was no cursing allowed at the Good Life Cafe, so is it was helpful, and shoutout to R/KainBlaze and I think it's his mother B. Hall and they started (The Good Life Cafe) and their rules were no cursing, so the way to get people off the stage you couldn't say, "Get the fuck out of here!" You had to say, "Plllleeeeassse pass the mic," and it was harsh, but it was clean, there's a documentary on hip-hop on Netflix where I talk about being there when Fat Joe got, please pass the mic, and he was signed, and he was on a major label, and he came to rap, so I thought that. And I have a lot of respect for how Joe handled it, I have respect for everyone and that's not a diss to Joe. But I was liked that energy in hip-hop where no matter who you are, or where you're from, you've gotta be dope. Getting that spirit back in hip-hop, but also with, thank you, come again, I added the element. Because there's not a lot of criticism, and when there is, it's a lot of blind trolling, so if you do start a, thank you come, again chant, you must get up, the loudest person or the first person to start it, must give some constructive criticism. It's only ever happened a couple of times in the Colorado chapter, it's never happened in Arkansas or Oklahoma. What's your take on AI in Music? I don't really have a[n] opinion about AI in music, just a curiosity. I've been around long enough to see things go from vinyl, to cassette, to CD, to MP3, from record stores to DSPs. Yeah, just asking how the Internet would change music or how car stereos will change music, we'll see, but I feel like if you want to continue to create or just live in this world it's one of those things, cars, the Internet, headphones, electricity, all these things affected music in positive and negative ways. The hardest job is to take it in and work with it. What's your advice for artists that have went through the Groundwaves experience? My advice for Groundwaves artists is to continue to have fun and continue to work on your craft, travel, read, have no shame in promoting your art, and continue to support the community as a whole, continue to support and respect the culture as a whole. What's next for Murs? Next for me, continue to praise God, raise my family, put out my final album, do my final tour, and possibly expand Groundwaves. Continue to freestyle on twitch and stream there, podcast, write books, make film, continue to create, and just no longer making albums and touring, but always doing. spot dates and performing, and still reading. getting better at my craft, supporting the culture as a whole. Working hard and having fun! Thanks again to Murs for taking time out of his busy schedule to sit and talk with us. Groundwaves is one of the those once in a lifetime events that happened for Tulsa. We need everyone to come out October 10th, 2024, to Skyline Mansion and support the last Groundwaves and show Murs that Tulsa appreciates his hard work and everything he's poured into the artists and the community. Lastly, don't forget to follow Murs. He's still putting out dope music and dop content. Follow Murs here: Spotify: Murs Twitter (X): @Murs Instagram: @Murs316 Twitch: Murs YouTube: MursTV Groundwaves website: Groundwaves (groundwaveshiphop.com)
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