Dre Murray dropped the "W.L.A.K." album with his cohorts Swoope, Alex Faith and Christon Gray. It was met with very positive reviews for the most part. Not even a year later, he drops, Gold Rush: Maybe One Day on Collision Records. He talks to NRT's Dwayne Lacy about the album cover, message behind his songs and what he would say to his critics. 

 

Dre, you should know this question is coming, so I want to get it out the way so you won't get too annoyed. Yes, I know the title of the album, but why did you have your whole head in gold for the album cover?

(Laughs.) People can see in the physical package. Adam Thomason [at Collision Records] even released a full body picture on Instagram. When King Nebuchadnezzar had his dream about the statue and Daniel then interpreted the dream—that was basically what my full makeup was. The head was gold, then you had bronze and different pieces of metal on the body. Different layers of clothing represented that. Then my head represented the gold head of that particular statue. That's what it represents on the cover of the album and so it leaves it open for discussion. We were trying to get the point across that Nebuchadnezzar had all of these kingdoms that Daniel dreamed about. All those kingdoms will pass away and God's kingdom will remain. 

 

Why did you choose the title, Gold Rush: Maybe One Day?

I didn't know what the title was going to be and we have some great leadership with Adam. He's a visionary and he's a pastor. He mentioned the title "Gold Rush" to me. We had a meeting and we were talking about different ideas for branding. I don't know how it came up, but I just remember saying, "Maybe one day" as a subtitle. It kind of ties into the whole "Maybe I can have this or be this." It's that drive to get things with the wrong motive behind it. At the end of the day, the evil in man's heart is saying, "Maybe I can be God. Maybe I can dictate what goes on and rule over my own life." Adam mentioned the title and we just felt like the timing was right with everything that is going on in our culture. 

You spilt the title into two tracks ("Gold Rush" being one track and "Maybe One Day" being the other), which I haven't seen done very often. Tell us about the idea behind doing so.

Well, it's two different ideas. They go hand in hand. For "Gold Rush," we drew parallels to the California Gold Rush with many people locked into one place. We just likened that to what we see in today's culture. We'll use rap for instance. Someone can put out one song and sign a million-dollar contract. Now you have these kids wanting the same thing. Nobody is really about legacy and working hard. All of the things that the Bible speaks about, like reaping and sowing. Now it's about getting it quickly and getting it while you are here on earth. After death, they think that it's nothing else. I already explained the "Maybe One Day" piece, but they go hand in hand. At the same time, they are two different pieces of the puzzle and two different ideas. That's why we separated them like that. 

 

I love the way you deal with the everyday, man. You tackle the struggles with drugs and alcohol on "Fiend" and "Letter in a Bottle."

With "Fiend", I grew up around a lot of drug activity. This was not only dudes that sold it, but I knew people who were users. This was not just marijuana, but crack, which was heavy when I was younger. You see a lot of people who were once thriving in the community who turned into something completely different after crack hit the scene. Basically, I saw dope pushers and dope boys and the ones using the dope as fiends. The user is fiending for that drug and on the flip side, the pusher can't operate without that fiend. So he's fiending for that user to be there. He's out there just as early as the fiend is to get the money. Without the fiend, the pusher doesn't have a business. So at the end of the day, both of them are in need of each other. They are both looking to replace the hole that only God can patch up. 

 

We just dropped a short promo video for "Letter in the Bottle," which kind of explains the idea behind it. I grew up in a family where there was a lot of abusers of alcohol. So I've been around that my whole life. It was a play on words because they say when you throw out a letter in a bottle into the ocean, someone is supposed to find it. Well this song is him telling his story to whomever receives that bottle. The bottle represents the alcohol that he's drinking. He is losing his family, but he finds redemption. He is basically trying to warn someone out there of the evils of alcoholism and abuse. It's a story that I've seen before and a lot of people are without redemption. My uncle died of cirrhosis of the liver. Not everybody has that moment where they see the light.
 

When listening to your album how would like for your listeners to listen to it to get it? I'll be honest, some Christians will want you to come straight out and tell them what you mean in your lyrics. Some want you to use Jesus in every lyric. What would you say to these people?

It's simple for me, man. As far as my fans are concerned, I prepped them the last three or four years with the music that me and Wit have done together (Hell's Paradise series). It was kind of the start of me really coming into my own with what God really wanted me to do. This new one is "Hell's Paradise" on steroids. I'm comfortable with the gifting and purpose that God has given me. I truly believe that this type of art is the way that I'm supposed to do it. My supporters already know about me and I am getting some good feedback.

As far as the people (especially believers) who don't know me, I would say: For one, a lot of the stuff that I'm saying in this record can be taken as me communicating with nonbelievers. I want believers to sit down and hear this record and understand that I'm talking to them as well. A lot of this stuff that's going on is happening in the church. We can't just look outside of the church. I realized this is what God was doing. I said, "Wow, this music isn't just for the nonbelievers," which is what I thought when I first heard it. It's actually for the believer, too. 

 

For those who want to criticize and want me to have "scripture, scripture, scripture," I come from a different life where I wasn't necessarily a gangster or selling a bunch of drugs. I did want I did, but I was around a lot of that. I had people that died and were locked up in the side of town (Houston) that I grew up in. I'm using all of that to reach a certain demographic and a certain people that were forgotten about.

I'm just speaking on issues that were real to those people. My brother flew up to here to Oklahoma to get my mom. I gave him the We Live As Kings (W.L.A.K.) album. That album was great and I love that album, but I can tell by the look on his face that it was dope, musically. However, that's not something that he's going to listen to 24/7. He will listen to this new album because of his experiences. It's relatable to him. I feel like this is the right time for him to do this and I feel like my method is definitely purposeful. I came to the understanding that those that won't like it can basically turn it off.

I have a job to do and I have those who were depending on me. I've held my tongue in the past; I have friends who are dead now and I can't talk to them. I'm not going to continue to do that. I'm going to say what I gotta say and ask God for grace when I'm not on the right path. 

"The sky is the reddest that I've ever seen, your face be the brightest blue / Pockets painted with a shade of green / I'm missing every part of you." Those are the first few things bars from "Red Light." I listened to that and was like wow, Dre is going with figurative language, metaphors. You gotta break that down for us.

That's probably the song that is going to need the most decoding on the album. I did that on purpose and I was actually going to change the lyrics. Basically, "The sky is the reddest that I've ever seen"... in the navy or whoever knows about storms knows that when a storm has passed, they say the sky is red. So whenever a storm has passed, we're happy and full of joy. "Your face be the brightest blue": I performed this the other day, I was trying to get people to notice that I was looking at my watch when I said that line. My watch's face has time on it. "Pockets are painted with a shade of green" is the money is in my pocket. So the song is basically about a person who is reminiscing.

In 2003 is when I started living this life with Christ. It's like a person is sitting at a red light, but is saying, "I can go back and get that life again." God has called us to live a different way. We know that our eternity is set and we'll be with God forever. That's what we have have to focus on. Everyday there's a temptation to go back to what we used to do. I'm not going to sit here and say that sinning didn't feel good. That temptation to go back and chase those things that we once hoped for is there. So it's just a poetic way of saying that we have to overcome temptation.