1985 smash "Party All the Time." After that, not much was heard from
the entertainer on the musical front — but he kept on plugging away at
it out of the spotlight.
"When I'm not acting and being funny, in my private time in my
personal time I do music more than anything. I'm always in the
studio," he said.
Now, Murphy is ready to let people know what he's been working on,
Last month, he released a reggae single, "Oh Jah Jah," inspired by
recent events.
"I was watching CNN about two or three months ago and all this
craziness was going on with the terrorism and chopping off people's
heads and then St. Louis, Ferguson. A bunch of police brutality going
on (at the) same time and I had that progression, but I didn't have
any lyrics, but I had that groove," he said. I'd been playing that
progression for about a month and then I was watching the news and it
all came together one day," he said.
While his music releases are occasional, he's been more busy on the
acting front: He's finished a new movie and on Sunday, he'll return to
"Saturday Night Live," for the show's 40th anniversary special.
Murphy spoke to The Associated Press recently about his music, film and comedy.
The Associated Press: Why the long wait before you released something?
Murphy: I wasn't waiting. I was just recording stuff. I stopped
putting stuff out in the 80s because, I don't know how old you are,
but back in the 80s, it was like a bunch of actors putting albums out.
Everybody was singing and it always looked weird, like an actor
singing this weird song, like, 'What the hell is this?' And I was like
'I don't want to be a part of that.'... I just said, 'Ok I'm not going
to put these records out because I don't want people to think I'm
trying to be an actor trying to be a pop star.' So I just kept writing
my stuff and doing my stuff privately because I had no pressure and no
expectations.
AP: Johnny Depp recently dismissed Hollywood stars who launch music
careers off the back of their acting success and he called the trend
'sickening.' What would be your response to that?
Murphy: He talked about what I was talking about. When you see actors
singing it usually looks like some actor who never really had any
musical interest but is throwing that in with all the different
success that their having and is trying to jump in. They may have a
halfway decent voice and always fantasized about singing. Everybody
wants to be a singer. That's why I stopped putting records out. I'm
not trying to become a pop star and flip it to make some extra money,
or become a bigger celebrity or any of that stuff. This is something
that I do and have done for years and years.
AP: If you were to release a reggae album, would you put it out as
Eddie Murphy or would you think of a reggae name?
Murphy: I've got 25 years of stuff on the shelf. I could go right now
and pick six, seven, eight reggae songs and put out a reggae album. I
could go back there and pick seven or eight country songs and do a
country album, or I could do a regular dance/R&B album. I've had
people say, 'You should put a record out because it's a good song and
if they didn't know it was you they'd like it under a different name,'
but, hey, these are my tracks and I'm not hiding behind any of it. It
is what it is.
AP: Will there be an upcoming album or any collaborations?
Murphy: I have collaborations with all kinds of different artists over
the years. Stuff with B.B. King, I've recorded with Paul McCartney,
Snoop, ... Raphael Saadiq. As far as future collaborations, that all
has to come together organically. As far as an album coming out, if
one of these tracks jumps off, if one of them connects with the people
digging it and I get some momentum going, I'll put an album but I'm
not planning an album until I'm sure people want to hear something.
Otherwise it'll stay on the shelf for years and years. A hundred years
from now they dig through eve
