Jessie Murph

This week, the universe was screaming the name Murph at me. I saw it’s murph (who is a DJ) on Saturday, ran into a dog named Murphy, & Jessie Murph videos started randomly flooding my FYP again for the first time in months. Yesterday morning I clocked it, & after I did, I went outside to let my dog out & there in the middle of the sidewalk outside my apartment was a trash can that, what do you know, said “Murph” on it. I had to take a photo of that one.

Needless to say… I got the message.

In July, I had written down some random thoughts about Jessie Murph in my notes app but never had a place to share them. She’s the most unexpected new artist I’ve enjoyed this year. I can safely say people who know me would not immediately be like, “Oh this is so Connor.” So the universe was telling me it was finally time to revisit those July notes.

In The Creative Act, Rick Rubin talks about paying attention to signs & letting seeds grow until they’re ready. This week, the seed was ready. Now here I am to revise, revive, & share my thoughts from this summer.

Jessie Murph really took me by surprise. I know she’s been around for a bit, but this spring/summer is when she started releasing new music, & she was still relatively small at that point. I found her song Blue Strips on TikTok & was fucking obsessed. It tickled my brain in just the right way. Plus, a good trend on TikTok really gets me… it’s fun to be part of those cultural moments. I thought that’s all this was going to be though: a catchy, popular song I’d enjoy for a week & move on from. She’s 21 (20 at the time), from Alabama, a former cheerleader & Blue Strips felt like one of those viral tracks that can fizzle out quick. But she completely contradicted that first impression.

She kept releasing singles, & each one revealed a new layer. Touch Me Like A Gangster was another banger & it was a little more edgy & totally unexpected. Then there was the track where she sampled Gucci Mane’s Lemonade, which I thought was such a cool fucking move. That’s when I was like, “Okay, I need to talk about Jessie Murph.”

Then I saw THIS performance. Her live version of Heroine, the last single before her album dropped. She blew me away. You can feel the rawness, the pain, the vulnerability. It reminded me of how Janis Joplin used to sing live.

Her voice is so distinct & so is her style. Nobody around me was talking about her though. Everyone was like, “Connor, I think you’re on a different side of TikTok.” When her full album dropped, it got pretty mixed reviews online. A lot of people had something to say about the lyrics & her voice. But I thought the album had real range. Sure, there were a couple of lyrics where I was like, “Okay, I can see why people are saying this,” but I fear that criticism of a few lines made people dismiss the whole thing.

One song on the album, The Man That Came Back, she wrote at 17 & it’s genuinely wild that someone that age wrote it.

Some artists just take time for people to be ready for.

Had I shared my thoughts in July… well, I didn’t have a place that felt right for it yet, & it would’ve just been about my initial excitement. Now, months later, I listened to the full album three times through yesterday, & everything I felt back then still holds true. I’m excited to see where her career goes & eager to hear her use her voice even more. This seed was worth waiting for.