Eddie Murphy releases video for reggae single... Also has new collab with Beenie Man
Published:Friday | May 8, 2015 | 12:00 AMShereita Grizzle
With just some four months passing since putting out his reggae single, Oh Jah Jah, Eddie Murphy has released the highly anticipated music video for the song.
The video which is directed by Richard Gumbs III, was released on Wednesday via Murphy’s YouTube account and has already amassed over 22,000 views. The song has been doing fairly well since its release and in February, Murphy cemented his place as a rising force in the reggae industry when the song dethroned reggae veterans Sister Nancy and Bob Marley to gain the top spot on the iTunes Reggae Top 100 chart.
This isn’t the first time the famous actor/comedian has dabbled in the reggae genre. Back in 1993 he collaborated with Shabba Ranks on the track, I Was a King, and in 2013 he teamed up with Snoop Lion to produce Red Light, and it seems Murphy is not yet done churning out the reggae tracks.
In an online interview published on Rolling Stones Magazine's website on Wednesday following the release of the video, Murphy revealed that he has collaborated with dancehall artiste Beenie Man and said that the track would be ready for release later this year. He however, gave no details surrounding the pending track. In that same interview, Murphy also said he believed reggae was the best medium to bring his message across effectively.
"I wrote that track the first week that Ebola jumped off, and Ferguson was going on – it was pulled out of the headlines," Murphy said. "To say this stuff, it has to be reggae. You can't touch on none of this with an R&B track, because people will shut down to it. But do a roots reggae song that feels like Bob Marley type of stuff, you can say it."
Oh Jah Jah, is Murphy's second reggae number in a year and was released by VPAL Classic, the digital arm of VP Records. In a recent online interview, Murphy also spoke about his love for reggae and listed Garnet Silk, Chronixx and Beenie Man among his favourite Jamaican artistes.