Murc Jones strives for greatness with release of new 14-song album

WOODBRIDGE, NJ – To this day, Murc Jones doesn’t know why his best friend starting calling him by that nickname.

When he was younger and started rapping professionally at around age 16, he and a friend would often get together and record their freestyle raps. At one point they started discussing stage names, and his friend randomly said, “I’m gonna start calling you Murc.”

“I still don’t know why he called me that,” Jones said, “but I’ve been using it ever since. The Jones was something I chose to represent my change and growth as an artist.”

That evolution from early freestyle rapper to one of the country’s hottest young hip-hop artists is perhaps best displayed on his new album, “Greatness Over Dishonesty.” It’s a 14-song album that he said tells the story of who he is and what his music is about. Its songs display a variety of different vibes – all of which, he said, show his versatility and unique sound in ways that make him stand out from the crowd.

“I’m not trying to sound like anybody else,” he said. “I want to be great, and it’s gonna take honesty to be great. If you want people to listen to you, then you have to be the real you. I think it’s my originality and the fact that I’m not trying to sound like anybody else – that I’m just being myself – that makes me stand out.”

Murc said his songs tend to lean toward storytelling, and that the medium of music as a vehicle to share stories is one of the things that first attracted him to hip-hop in the first place. He said he finds it amazing that you can tell a story through music, or create a music video that other people can relate to in a way that makes them perfectly understand what it is he’s trying to say.

The main single off the album is called “Live For The Moment,” and is a perfect example of his use of storytelling through music.

“It’s a song about how I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make it in the music industry,” he said. “The video is me and a couple of friends just hanging out, chilling to the song. And that’s, in a lot of ways, what I hope other people do when they listen to this album.”

To find out more about Murc Jones, fans can follow him on social media @murcjones on Twitter and @murcjonesmusic on Instagram. Fans can also sample his album and other music he’s created on Reverbnation, Soundcloud and Spotify.