Curtiss King and Murs are slated to release their Shut Your Trap album January 23, a project that is meant to be “a backpacker’s journey into the world of trap music,” according Murs in the announcement video released last week.

Recently, King spoke with HipHopDX about how their collaborative album came together. In 2011, King says he met Murs during an album signing. He introduced himself to Murs, who he says he looked up to “as an artist and businessman.” The two exchanged e-mails and eventually toured together. In 2012, King approached Murs about a collaborative album, but Murs’ schedule didn’t allow for the project to take flight at the time. Finally, Curtiss says the time for their collaborative work came. 

“In one random text message, he asked me, ‘Yo Curt, do you make Trap beats?'” King recalls. “I sent him three [beats] within the hour and the project was born.” 

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Curtiss King Calls His & Murs’ Shut Your Trap A Dream Come True 

The project has been completed and is set to be released later this month, which is a meaningful moment for Curtiss King. 

“Murs has always been an artist and businessman that I’ve looked up to so as you can imagine the entire experience was a dream come true,” King says. “I think I was first impressed by his natural ratchetness over these beats. This wasn’t a backpack/conscious rapper over Trap beats struggling to establish relevance. This was Murs showing more sides of his personality over a different aesthetic. And it was all real and he seemed to be having just as much fun as me. He described the sessions as cathartic on many occasions. [Also,] his willingness to listen to my input was probably the most impressive. Murs is literally a living legend. He doesn’t have to listen to me or my input, but he did and he allowed me to truly produce these records with him.” 

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Curtiss King Says “Justin Bieber’s Black Baby” Is Their “Most Controversial Song”

One of those records is “Justin Bieber’s Black Baby,” a selection that he says is their most controversial. 

“I would say it’s definitely the most controversial song on the project,” King says. “[It] is Murs’ theory that Justin Bieber has a little Black baby in his head telling him to do all the crazy shit he’s been doing lately. So in the song, Murs channels Bieber’s inner ratchet and lets loose lines like, ‘Selena Gomez, that’s my old bitch / And I’m ’bout to clone that hoe because I’m so rich.'”

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The song also features Murs saying the following line, which King says is one of his favorites from the album.  

“My pops the same color as my white tee,” Murs raps on the track. “Am I Justin Bieber’s Black baby? Bitch, I might be.”

King and Murs announced their collaborative album last week.  

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“I guess I’m from the trap and I’m making trap music,” Murs said. “To me, it’s a genre I respect. I don’t like a lot of backpack rap. I don’t like a lot of trap music. There’s not one genre of music that has a bunch of good rappers. There’s a bunch of motherfuckers biting me and especially biting [bleeped out] right now. Some of them are blowing up off of us. Some of them aren’t. And I’m supposed to like that just because it’s backpack or just because it’s conscious? No. Fuck that. It’s not creative. You’re still an artist and you’re failing. I don’t care if you got a positive message. If you suck, you suck. I’m just doing me and having fun.”

RELATED:Murs & Curtiss King Announce “Shut Your Trap” Release Date