When North Carolina rap crooner Morray released his new single “FTA (Failure To Appear)” a month ago, it was the Fayetteville native’s first new single in nearly two years, after the Lil Tjay collaboration “High Price.” Prior to that, he’d released the buzzy 2020 single “Quicksand” and featured on fellow Fayettevillian J. Cole’s 2021 hit “My Life” alongside 21 Savage, reprising Pharoahe Monch’s chorus from Styles P’s 2002 standout, “The Life.”
After being featured on XXL‘s Freshman cover, and with the co-sign of one of hip-hop’s unofficial “Big Three,” it seemed Morray was poised to blow up in a big way before he took a long break, basically disappearing for all of 2024. Perhaps that was a blessing in disguise: After dodging the contentious and testy energy of a year defined by diss tracks, Morray has a more-or-less clean slate as he prepares to release his second mixtape, Long Story Short, unencumbered by the baggage of his connections (and label obligations, as he’s newly independent, with distribution through EMPIRE).
Still, he got plenty out of his association with his Fayetteville compatriot, who famously told him to scrap several albums’ worth of material in the process of recording his debut, which he hopes to release this year after setting the table with Long Story Short. As he tells Uproxx via Zoom, “Every song that J. Cole heard that he said didn’t belong, none of those songs are even around anymore.” Instead, he’s focused on reintroducing himself to the world of hip-hop and establishing what’s transpired “off-screen,” so to speak, as he contemplated his comeback.
That slow-cooked approach has served many of his peers well, from J. Cole himself to some of the biggest success stories of the past four years. Musically, the album sees Morray attacking gritty beats with even more bluesy aplomb than ever, while contextually, hip-hop’s soil is ready for some new sounds after the scorched-earth scuffling of the past year. Morray has emerged with some stories to tell, and with Long Story Short, he delivers a useful prologue, synopsizing the parts we need to know before serving up the real plot for 2025.
What have you been up to since we last heard from you?
Honestly, I’ve been just living life. I ain’t going to lie to you: Really going through it and just realizing who I want to be and the kind of music I want to make and the kind of person I want to be, the kind of father I want to be. Just really just been living, you feel me? And learning in these past four years. I’ve really just been working on my craft and working on my pen and working on Morray.
It shows. The raps on this are incredibly top tier. I could never in my time figure out how to get down that melodic style that you’re so good at because my breath control wasn’t there. Do you jog three miles a day to get that up or how do you maintain that?
No, I’m going to keep it a band. Bro, growing up in church, you going to learn that breath control regardless. Auntie ain’t about to sit here and let you mess up the whole song because you can’t breathe, so you got to learn that at a young age. So that sh*t came from me since a little kid because jogging three miles a day, no sir-ski.
It’s 12 tracks and the process of selecting tracks has always been really interesting to me because there’s a logic that goes into it: You record a lot and then you have to figure out which ones. What are the criteria that make a Long Story Short song a must-have and what’s the sort of thing that can disqualify a track?
I wanted to stick to exactly what happened in chronological order, so there’s a lot of songs that I make that sound the same. So it’s like, I have four songs that have the same topic, but which song is the best song out of those four songs? And then I pick the next topic and make four to five songs for that topic and pick the best song… I like to go through and just create different vibes for the same topic just to see what’s the best vibe I can have.
Because there’s so many ways you can tell a story: There’s not just one way. I’ll write a song and record it four different ways just to hear how it sounds. Different flows, different tempos, different everything just to see, “Okay, does this fit the story better or does this one?”
In terms of Long Story Short, what kind of a story would you say that this is? If you had to give it a genre and a log line… You know how movies are like, “Oh, Die Hard on a boat”? They give you a log line and then they give you the genre of it. What would this one be?
Triumphant gladiator vibes. I just see myself being in the middle of the arena, bro, fighting everything that’s against me and really coming out on top. Just ain’t no “Hail Caesar,” it’s “Hail Morray” now. I’m putting myself first and I’m ready to just take on anybody.
What were some of the struggles or obstacles or things that you felt like were trying to hold you back over the last three years? And what were some of your strategies or your things that helped you overcome those in the process of writing this album?
It was lack of confidence for me, lack of support from people that I was doing business with before. It was a lot of small things that became big things. So I can’t pinpoint one single thing, but it was a difficult four years trying to figure out exactly what I was trying to do and who I was trying to become.
I made so many different kinds of sounds, and it was trying to figure it out, and I finally realized: “Yo, bro, get back to you.” And I got that from the people that surround me, the people that support me, the ones that helped me, the ones I call when I’m struggling with something or the ones that surround me and like, “Yo, bro, you got this.” Having a close-knit team is really what makes me feel like I could do it all because I know they’ve really got my back.
That actually reminded me of something that you said prior to… I want to say it was ’22. You were doing an interview with HipHopDX. You told DX that J. Cole made you scrap “hella” albums. How much of Long Story Short is entirely new and how much of it is a remainder of something that J. Cole was like, “That’s not good enough, bro?” And you just reworked it until it was?
Well, I’m going to keep it a band. Long Story Short, it is a mixtape. I wouldn’t even call it my album, because I feel like I just had so much to get out and I wanted to do this. Okay, Long Story Short, before I give you my album, this is what you have to start with. You got to know me first.
And every song J. Cole heard that he said didn’t belong, none of those songs are even around anymore. No lie. So that whole album probably got scrapped there. I’m not using none of those songs ever. This is all a revamp, a new Morray. And he’s heard these songs and he f*ck with these songs so it’s like, all right, it’s cool. I really found my lane. It’s not because of nobody else. It’s just because I feel comfortable with the music now.
I first discovered North Carolina as a hip-hop hub in high school because of Little Brother. I remember the point of contention was Little Brother was really salty about people thinking they were supposed to sound like Petey Pablo. Since then, there’s been Rapsody and there’s been J. Cole and there’s been you. The kind of artistry that y’all make is unique, and it’s always very inspirational. It’s always very soulful… But everybody’s got bars.
North Carolina’s filled with so much culture, so much blues, so much jazz, so much that’s real to the heart core of our culture. So when we rap or when we sing, we’re always finding some way to give it back to the culture, and also tell our own story as well. North Carolina’s just got so much. It’s just so much of everything. So much love. There’s so much affection. There’s so much comfort. It’s so much of everything that you just want to put it in your music. Even in the negative songs, too. You want to have some kind of comfort. Like, “I’m riding around my city but it’s on me,” type sh*t. But it’s just a very comfortable sound, a very fulfilling sound and it makes you feel better than just being a rapper.
Who’s somebody or what’s something that you consider an inspiration that you think most people would be surprised by?
I get my inspiration from watching people that have been in a bad situation and made themself better. It’s not even specific people. I could be on the ‘Gram and see somebody tell their story from who they used to be to who they are now, and it just excites me as a person. Like, “Damn, whatever you went through bro, you just beat the odds. I feel like I need to write a song about beating the odds right now because bro, I’ve been there, and you’ve been there and at least I know you can relate.” And that’s where I pull from. My inspiration comes from everyday life, seeing life. I got to live it, or I can’t write it.
What would you say is the moral of the story of Long Story Short? What would you hope people take away from this project after listening to it a couple of times and apply to their own life?
I really want people to get, yo, everybody’s life, whether you are a rapper, whether you’re a federal worker, whether you don’t do sh*t at all, you’re going to have ups and downs. You got to find the good in all your bad. Every tribulation, every trial, you can have a triumph if you just keep going. Every song on my project is telling people, “Yo, I’ve been through the wire, but I’m not afraid to bet on me.” I’m fearless. The way I name my songs, I want people to say this is their favorite song and feel what that title is telling you. That title is telling you your feelings.
Let’s say next year, you should happen to stop by Uproxx’s new studio, and I’m just in there working and I say, “Oh, what’s up, Morray? What you been up to?” What do you want to be able to say?
I want ’25 to have brought me nothing but success. A successful mixtape, a successful album, a tour. I want to say that I’ve just been working. The amount of work I want to do, that’s what makes me happy. When I see you next year, I want to say, “Bro, I haven’t sat my Black ass down since we talked.” Music is my baby. I wish I was one of them n****s who be like, “Oh, I want to work and then go chill.” I don’t want to ever chill. All I want to do is work. I’m a rapper: My work is fun.
Long Story Short is out now via Morray Music/EMPIRE. Find more information here.