Name: Keith Murray Aliases: None Age: 27 Location: Long Island Upcoming Projects: “He’s Keith Murray” (due April 1), new Def Squad album (summer 2003) What’s bangin’ in the whip right now: Scarface, Dub C, Diplomats Discography: It's a Beautiful Thing   Enigma The Most Beautifullest Thing in This... Best of Keith Murray

Words By Isamu Jordan

“Shakin’ the membrane of Encyclopedia Brown,”

Keith Murray sent a shockwave through the rap game with his cunning linguistics and gravel pit vocals on his 1994 gold debut, “The Most Beautifullest Thing In This World.’’

Showcasing a mind-warping vocabulary on guest spots with the likes of LL Cool J., Mary J. Blige, and Funkmaster Flex, the Erick Sermon prodigy, alongside his fellow Def Squadians, cemented a position among hip hop’s elite of most feared and respected emcees.

 If the Def Squad were Goodfellas, Murray would be Tommy, a quick-witted short fuse who can invoke laughter and disaster with effortless concurrence.

And like the tragic and unforgettable character played by Joe Pesci, Murray has seen his share of run-ins with the law.

 Murray served a two-and-a-half year jail sentence after he was convicted in 1997 of second degree assault for hitting a fan over the head with a bar stool during a brawl two years prior.

 (It was later reported than an eyewitness came forward and said he was bribed to keep silent of his testimony of Murray’s innocence during the proceedings.)

Before serving his bid Murray was able to release two solo albums (“Enigma,’’ in 1996 and “It’s A Beautiful Thing,’’ in 1998) plus Def Squad’s “El Nino.’’ But the hiatus kept Murray out of the rap limelight until he set fire to P. Diddy’s 2001 symphony, the remix of “Special Delivery.”

 “Me and Puffy go way back to the remix Mary J. Blige’s  ‘Be Happy.’ I didn’t even hear the track to Special Delivery, I just wrote the lyrics, recorded them and the sent them (to Puffy),’’ Murray said.

 Now Murray is back on the block and signed with Def Jam, set to drop another hot parcel, “He’s Keith Murray,’’ on April 1.

“Keith not Bill, Murray not Sweat,”

 Approaching a decade in the rap game, Murray assesses the new rules as he has graduated from promising rookie to seasoned veteran.

“It feels good to be looked at as a person who has lasted beyond the expected lifespan of an artist,’’ said Murray, who emerged from the same class as artists such as Nas, the Wu-Tang Clan, and the Notorious B.I.G.

 According Murray, hip hop is like the most recent episode in the Star Wars saga – in the opening stages of a clone war.

``Right now in hip hop you have a lot of individuals who are really opportunists. They are not from the culture of hip hop,’’ Murray said from a telephone interview in Manhattan.

 The new album, Murray says, is a piercing look into the psyche of a man who grew up seeing the best of worst of what life has to offer, from being raised around drugs and violence to his inception to stardom when he was just 19 years old, and the stress of having to go to jail when his momentum had peaked.

 “(‘He’s Keith Murray’) is an intricate view into my life. It’s expressing the good and bad of my life. To know Keith Murray is to know this album,”

Before Hit Squad fugitive K-Solo introduced him to Erick Sermon, Murray was going to college, studying business.

 “I came from the rough side of the tracks so I knew without excelling through education there wasn’t going to be any success. My family has been on drugs and in jail so I was trying to better myself and make my grandmother proud. But I was going to school and selling drugs. Walking home from school and selling drugs. My life has been a double-edged sword,’’ Murray said.

 Although Murray dropped out of college to pursue a career in music, he continues to stress the importance of education for young people.

“If you don’t build a future when you’re 18 or 25 years old by getting some type of degree you’re fucked up, unless you become some type of entrepreneur, and even then you still need to know how to make a living. Otherwise you just end up being desperate and that leads you to further negative situations,’’ Murray said.

Speaking on his own philosophy, Murray said he is spiritual, but not religious.

The difference?

 “Being religious is practicing rituals. Being spiritual is positive energy, not dwelling on the negative aspects of reality, not waking the negative spirit,’’ Murray said.

Murray maturation is evident on the mind states of each of his solo releases.

“On ‘The Most Beautifullest’ I was free, I was new to the game. It was just me. Then, on Enigma I had just caught the case, they lied on me, and put me through all this hell. I had to go to court. I was angry on that album,’’ Murray said. “On “It’s a Beautiful Thing,’ I knew I had to go and I couldn’t be free so I couldn’t really be focused. Now I’m resorting back to the first album. But I’m better now because I have matured.”

 Murray said he’s be touring in February for his new album and the Def Squad are gearing up for a sequel to El Nino set for this summer.

“The new Def Squad album is gonna to be crazy. It’s Red, Erick, and Murray back after four years,’’ Murray said. “And I’m coming on April fool’s day for all the fools to get rambunctious so get ready. I’m about to rekindle the love and understanding I bring to the rap game.”  You gotta crew you better tell’um.