LOVE OVER EVERYTHING

Words by amari johnson | Image by King Texas

Even if you've never met him, there's something familiar about Jersey rapper MoRuf. Maybe you went to school with him and used to check him at lunchtime where he spit clever lines that always made you laugh. Ya’ll lost touch after high school. He stuck with it. Now, having graduated from college this past May, Moo feels that there’s nothing holding him back.

“I wanna see what’s out there. I’m ready for the new,'' says Moo, who was born in Newark and raised in Irvington.

But what does that mean in a time when the “new” is really just the remixed old with a higher price tag? For Moo, who released his latest project Shades of Moo last month, that new is “bigger than the music. It’s the energy. It’s a vibe. It’s like, MOB [Money Over Bitches],'' he explains. "What does that build up for self? What does that build up for your own? I wanna use my music to open up people’s minds, you feel me?”

Moo’s acronym of choice is LOE—Love Over Everything—, which he describes as “living love and spreading it, ” Don’t get it twisted, though. Moruf brings more than just generic, positive rap. “I ain’t sitting around talking ‘bout, ‘Eat ya' vegetables kids’ or tryna be hella preachy but I feel like within the music there's a vibe so why not help others through it. For instance, Marvin, Badu, Dilla, Ripperton, you can feel the music and it's nurturing…soulhop.”

Over the past three years, this gift has taken him to Africa, Canada, and up and down the East and West Coast working with artists such as Jesse Boykins III, and MeLo-X, his Romantic Movement affliates. In August of 2012, Moruf released a mixtape with LA based producer-singer Iman Omari. The project, Euphoria, brought Moo a wider fan base and taught him a crucial lesson: “Taking risks is necessary. You have to do be willing to do something different. That's what allowed me to get out of my cocoon and fly. Cats thought it was weird, for me it was growth.''

Now, with the release of Shades of Moo, he’s ready for that next level. The title, a reference to Miles Davis’ legendary album, Kind of Blue, reflects the influence jazz has had on this project. “Jazz is emotional music, like blues it's brutally honest, something you can feel. This is an evolution of MoRuf, the artist, the person, this is me unlatched.”

Listen to or download Shades.Of.Moo for free here