Longreads

It's a glorious thing, hearing Eddie Murphy say "fuck" again. Few people ever said it better – and down here in the basement of the stone-and-marble mansion he built on a Beverly Hills cliff, it's coming from his lips often enough to make Shrek blush. "Come on, motherfucker," Murphy shouts, over the throb of James Brown's "Hot Pants" on a formidable sound system.

The motherfucker in question is a bowling ball, which is speeding down the center of one of the two polished lanes of the alley Murphy keeps here, along with an arcade full of video games and a blue-lit "club room," inspired by a similar space in his new friend Brett Ratner's house. Hanging in a corner, above an electric keyboard, is Ernie Barnes' iconic painting Sugar Shack – as seen on the cover of Marvin Gaye's I Want You and in the opening credits of Good Times. It is, of course, the original.