Street Sermons

Fayetteville singer Morray is here to help: “What don’t kill you make you stronger,” he says during the intro to “Trenches,” the second song from his debut mixtape, *Street Sermons*. “And what don’t break your pockets make your money longer.” The Apple Music Up Next alum’s project is packed with these kinds of platitudes, along with drawn-out testimonies of struggle, the singer recounting—track after track—the hardships he saw growing up poor and proud in the South. His flow is notably influenced by gospel harmonies, Morray having grown up around the church, but he’s got a unique command of the pocket, weaving in and out in the 808-heavy production he favors to sing about faith (“That’s On God”), being wary of the people close to him (“Big Decisions”), and also of romantic interests gone awry (“Nothing Now”). If Morray is anything throughout *Street Sermons*, he’s grateful, both for the life experience that informs his music and for the fact that sewing it into song has taken him this far. He’s only just begun, but if “Kingdom” is to be believed, he’s not far from obtaining the kind of stability that will really put his mind at ease: “I just want a kingdom for my queen/A castle for my team/Money for the baby’s college fund/Flat-out flexing on ’em, one on one.”

The Fayetteville rapper’s debut album is at its best when he shines a light on his darkest moments and traces his glow-up step-by-step, imbuing each word with purpose.

Emerging in 2020 with a distinctive sung-rap style, North Carolina vocalist Morray became a viral success on the back of his debut music video, "Quicksand," before making his full-length debut with 2021's Street Sermons.