Today marks the release date of Murs x Wiardon dropping the Speak n Spell Deluxe project wherever you listen to music digitally. The original Speak n Spell EP dropped earlier this year on March 10th and it was the first release from my record label, Mid90s. If you missed the original drop on this project, here is some background on how it came to be.
With the Speak n Spell Deluxe version now available to stream, you’ll find 3 brand new tracks and 2 fresh remixes that weren’t on the original release. The first single from the Speak n Spell Deluxe project was “Flowers for Guru” which dropped on Guru’s born date, back on July 17th. “Flowers for Guru” was a track that didn’t make the cut on the original release due to timing and because we kept going back and forth making various tweaks and adjustments to the track. If you missed “Flowers for Guru”, check out the lyric video below that was created by James Dunn from Dunn Deal PR and his team at 360Promo. The visuals created pair with the beat and vocals quite well and I couldn’t be happier with the final result. Kind of like a little Jazzmatazz in 2023.
The other new tracks find Murs opening the door for Wiardon to step away from the boards and drop a fire verse on “Wiardon 3:16”. I’ll never forget hearing this beat for the first time when Wiardon kicked it over to me along with about 20 others that I could choose from for the final track on the project. He called the beat “Roberto Duran” when he sent over the beat packs to me several months ago. The first time I heard it I knew it was special and it made me feel good knowing it was one of Wiardon’s favorites as well. When I got Wiardon’s verses, they didn’t hit home for me on the first few listens as it’s a newer style and what can I say, hip hop is youth culture at its core and I’m stuck in my old head ways. As we went through the mixing and mastering process with Nothing Else and I listened to this track over and over again, it really grew on me. Now, with its release date finally here, I feel it might be the most impactful track on the project. While Wiardon’s is half the age of both me and Murs, I feel he has the rare ability to connect with both young and old heads. Give this track a spin and let me know what you think.
“Birdman-616” finds Murs bringing some comic book references and OG rap observations over a straight boom bap slumper from Wiardon. This track originally was going to be left on the cutting room floor but as we worked on the deluxe version of the project we felt it completed what we were working on quite well. Murs finds a comfortable pocket on the track and his verses over the clean production make you hope that Murs’ retirement isn’t really f’real.
The first of the two new remixes on this project brings Balt Getty’s production skills to the Speak n Spell party. The story about how we even got here is great. If unfamiliar with the name Balt Getty, you’ll definitely recognize the face as Balthazar Getty has been a Hollywood actor with roles in movies like Lord of the Flies, Young Guns II, Natural Born Killers and other countless other appearances in movies and TV shows over the years. Murs dropped the line, “Tell Balthazar whenever he wants to battle I’m ready” on the OG version of “Spaghetti at The Getty” as he liked the way Balthazar’s name flowed with his bars. Eventually word got to Balt that he was name dropped in the track and Balt shared the story on IG. Murs hit me about it and then it was up to me to lock in Balt on a remix which made a ton of sense since he is nice on the MPC already. I got Murs’ acapella over to Balt and he did his damn thing on this remix. This shit slaps and brings a whole new feel to the track. Shout out Balt, Hector, and finally Purplehaus Records for this collaboration.
On the final track of the project, we got ProducerTrentTaylor remixing “Starting Lineup” featuring Larry June and ICECOLDBISHOP. ProducerTrentTaylor is somebody I first heard about back several years ago as from his Rare Candy project in 2018. Going back to around 2015, I’ve been very active on the Spotify playlisting scene and I constantly have young artists reaching out to me looking for placement on my many playlists. As an up and coming artist, you have to pound the digital pavement to network and get your music heard and that’s exactly what ProducerTrentTaylor did. I first heard one of his tracks through Playlist Push where artists pay to have their songs reviewed by playlist curators who can bring them streams. I digged that first track and we connected at some point shortly after on IG. For the past few years, we’ve remained in contact and a few months ago we started building with each other. This beat absolutely knocks and it brings a new twist to the OG version of “Starting Lineup” which is equally as dope.
The Speak n Spell Deluxe is available now wherever you listen to music. If you enjoyed the original EP, you’ll dig the new tracks added on this version. And if you missed the first project entirely, hit the links included in the article and the embedded Spotify and Apple Music links to the project below.