The long-term partnership between Los Angeles, California MC Murs and producer 9th Wonder is taking a new turn, as the self-described “Captain California” heads to Duke University to start a week-long residency as part of its African and African American Studies program.

Finding himself in a college setting is not something the teenage Murs could have imagined, he shared in an Instagram post put up this morning (February 6). “I graduated high school with a 0.545 GPA, with umpteen absences,” he says. “I was made fun of, bullied and chastised all throughout my high school career and now I’m here.”

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Events start tonight with a public conversation between Murs and Joseph Winters from the Duke Religious Studies and African and African American Studies departments at Beyu Caffe in Durham. The Felt co-founder and Living Legends member is slated to speak on his career, influences, and his record-setting 26-hour rap that landed him in the Guinness Book of World Records in 2016.

Announcing his appointment on IG, Murs said how his invitation to join the academic program where Grammy-Award winning producer 9th Wonder has long taught Hip-Hop classes is “that anything is possible sh*t,” adding “when I say anything is possible, it is so real.”

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“If you’re being bullied or whatever, don’t worry,” he says. “Worry about what’s right for you and makes you happy as long as it’s not hurting anybody else. Don’t worry about the rest of that sh*t, all of it is temporary.” He then ends by saying, “Focus on your vision and your dreams.”

The Murs/9^th Wonder musical partnership is more than a decade strong and numbers multiple collaborative albums, the most recent being 2015’s Brighter Daze.

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Information for the Durham Beyu Caffe event tonight describes their musical alchemy this way, “On a series of six albums and mixtapes, Murs has shared tales of domestic bliss, youthful woe, and social criticism over the trademark Soul samples of 9th Wonder.”

Murs’ week-long residency at Duke also includes a duo set alongside 9th Wonder Thursday, February 8 at Motorco Music Hall in Durham and is billed to include the best of their dozen years of partnership. Recent Jamla Records signee Reuben Vincent is support at the all-ages show.

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His next album, the appropriately titled A Strange Journey into the Unimaginable is due out his March 16 birthday, via Strange Music. Last week, he released the “Powerful” single.

#BonusBeat: Murs and album producer Michael “Seven” Summers speaking on Strange Journey… This is the first installment of “The Unimaginable Interview”:

Previously, Seven has produced songs for Tech N9ne, Krizz Kaliko, Brotha Lynch Hung, Rittz, and others.