*Netflix is negotiating for “Soul Soul Soul: The Murray Murray Story,” a fake documentary that will star Eddie Murphy. Deadline reports that Brett Ratner will direct a script by Chris Case, with Brian Grazer and Tyler Mitchell producing.
Murphy will play Murray Murray, “a soul singer from the early 1960s, in a docu about his life. Murray Murray, a legend in his own mind, puts his old band back together and tries to take down hip-hop when a hot artist samples his hit song from 1962.”
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Sampling classic records by music pioneers and mixing it with new beats is quite a popular style of music making among hip-hop artists, including A Tribe Called Quest and Sean “Diddy” Combs, who are considered masters in the field. New artists also find it lucrative to mix beats with old sounds for the delight of new audiences. While some fans love the mix, others believe sampling lacks originality and true musicianship. Many old school musicians believe sampling is stealing — especially when those being sampled aren’t given their props and money following the new record release. This has led to many court battles where new artists defined the so-called artistry of sampling the work of those who came before them and put in all the hard work.
“Soul Soul Soul” will unite Murphy with Ratner, whom he worked with for 2011’s “Tower Heist.” Eddie’s work on the critically acclaimed film “Dreamgirls” similarly explored the world of soul in the early 1960s. “Soul Soul Soul” could be the hit that Murphy so desperately needs. While he’s one of the most profitable film actors of all time, in recent years, his big screen presence has been anything but memorable.