NEWS
Keith Murray‘s mental state has been a topic of discussion as of late. However, after his surprise performance at the BET Awards, it appears things may be looking up for the rapper.
Premiering on Sunday (June 25), this year’s BET Awards were more star-studded than ever. However, one of the most memorable moments was when Def Squad – comprised of Murray, Redman, and EPMD co-founder Erick Sermon — took the stage to let fans reminisce about the “Golden Era” of the 90s in honor of Hip Hop’s 50th anniversary this year.
While the performance was amazing to watch, some fans were confused when Murray took the stage. The Long Island native was recently spotted in a video online appearing to be under the influence of drugs.
However, Murray’s recent antics haven’t affected his bravado or stage presence, as he rocked his performance of his hit track, “The Most Beautifullest Thing In This World,” which appeared on his 1994 album of the same name.
Check out the trio’s performance below.
A disturbing video of Murray surfaced online recently, causing many to wonder about his mental state. Even Lord Jamar, who’s had a long-standing beef with the rapper, put it aside to offer his long-time adversary some support.
“Our brother @keithmurrayrap obviously needs serious help,” he wrote in an Instagram post featuring the clip. “I don’t have to see this man do drugs in front of me to know he’s on drugs. Dude crossed a line with me, that I believe if he wasn’t on drugs he wouldn’t have crossed, so I forgive him. We need to get our brother clean, cause this is a horrible look.”
9th Wonder, Doodlebug from Digable Planets, and Immortal Technique all commented on the post in support of Murray, as well.
Prior to his IG post, Lord Jamar implored Murray to get help on his podcast last week. Jamar was addressing Murray’s prior appearance on another podcast, in which Murray allegedly threatened to “slap the shit out of [Lord Jamar]” when he saw him again.
But rather than feed into the taunts, Jamar addressed the larger, underlying issue. “At the end of the day, I just want to say that addiction [is] something that is serious,” he said.
Reneé Rapp is seen as a “huge inspiration” by SZA.
The 25-year-old artist performed SZA’s Good Days in the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge, accompanied by two acoustic guitarists and a harp player. SZA, 35, was deeply moved by the rendition.
She posted a short video of the moment on Instagram Stories and wrote: “Renee is a HUGE inspiration, energy, voice spirit.”
During her chat with the BBC, Renee shared her thoughts about the track. She said: “I mean, I love SZA. I mean, she was one of my favorite artists in high school. And she's remained one of my favorite artists to this day. I think she's amazing. She's also, I mean, she's an incredible songwriter, but I think because she has so much swag. People don't realize how good of a singer she is. She's a fantastic vocalist and is really, really, really articulate. And I don't cover a lot of songs anymore. So I wanted to cover something that was, like, slightly challenging and also really vocally impressive, and frankly, hard for me to do.”
Renee is currently in the middle of promoting her second album, Bite Me, and opened up about how much more enjoyable it was to create compared to her first project.
She explained: “I mean, I feel like everything was incredibly different. I stopped listening to people that don't make music, because if you don't make music, then why the hell am I listening to you. And I also think the biggest difference, I think I just got a lot better. I think I have just become a better songwriter. I think I understand how to make pop music now in a way that I didn't really before. And I was very sure about what this album was and thematically, what it needed.
“So I felt like I was quite like, headstrong in like, what was gonna work and what wasn't. Because, nobody knows something better than yourself. I think a lot of things were different. I also just, like, had a lot of fun making it, like, I made it with like, three people, mostly, like, it was always like, four of us in the studio all the time, and we got so close, and some of us were already so close. So it was also just like a mess. It was such a mess, like we were just tweaking every day. It was so fun. And I don't think I enjoyed making the first one as much.”
