A longtime friend of Definitive Jux leader El-P, rapper Murs first appeared as a solo artist in 2003, after nearly a decade of working with various groups in the underground. Based in Los Angeles, his first single was released in 1993, and came from a self-released album by his first group, 3 Melancholy Gypsies. The track barely made a dent, but it did catch the attention of indie hip-hop fans in the area. Through time, the group members became friends with Mystik Journeymen, who asked 3MG (their shortened name) to join him when he started the Living Legends collective in 1996.

Between both 3MG and the Living Legends, Murs rapped on several influential indie rap albums, appearing on more than 20 records, EPs, and singles within a seven-year period. When El-P started to pull together his Def Jux label, Murs contacted the producer and told him he would release his solo record for the company once he had the opportunity. His commitments to both the Legends and 3MG often kept him from working on the album, but after a few years of slowly putting together tracks, Murs finally delivered The End of the Beginning in the spring of 2003.

Featuring flashier production than his group projects, the album was more in tune with a mainstream hip-hop record, though projects with Anticon rapper Slug under the name Felt -- A Tribute to Christina Ricci and A Tribute to Lisa Bonet -- unveiled a more experimental side to his artistry. The rapper returned to solo work with Murs 3:16: The 9th Edition, a collaboration with producer 9th Wonder, in 2004. One of the tracks from that album, "Walk Like a Man," inspired a movie starring Murs himself, along with Damien Wigfall. The soundtrack, Walk Like a Man, also appeared in mid-2005. Murs teamed up again with 9th Wonder to release Murray's Revenge in 2006.