Few people, if any, would dare to argue Eddie Murphy has not earned his place as one of the greatest comics the world has ever known.

For two decades, Murphy held the record for being the first Black comic to sell more than $1.1 million in tickets for back-to-back live comedy shows. Entertainment juggernaut Kevin Hart blew past that ceiling when he raked in $15 million for two dates of his 2011 comedy tour, “Laugh At My Pain.” Hart also became one of the few acts to sell out Madison Square Garden, a feat that Murphy pulled off with his iconic “Eddie Murphy: Raw” special in 1987.

However, the 63-year-old is confident that no one has raised the entertainment bar since the world first learned his name. “There’s a lot of people I think are funny, you know, and all of that. I haven’t witnessed the next level. The ceiling of the whole art form, you know stand-up comedy, that’s Richard [Pryor] and the ceiling for, you know, movies and stuff, for me, is [Charlie] Chaplin. And I haven’t seen anyone come along that’s better than Chaplin,” he told The New York Times in a newly released interview.

Murphy likened his rise to fame as a young twenty-something in Tinseltown to navigating a minefield. “At any moment you can step on a mine. At any moment it can happen. That can undo everything, but I was oblivious to the fact that I was in a minefield,” he said. The multi-hyphenate talent became a household name appearing on four seasons of “Saturday Night Live” (1980-1984) and then making Hollywood fall in love with him when he ventured into movies, nailing the popular franchise Beverly Hills Cop.

But his success, though widely recognized, was anything but the norm. He told the outlet he dealt with racism and endured plenty of cheap shots along the way.

“This business, it’s not set up for a Black artist. It was a new thing… Black artists are usually the sidekick… I’m doing this stuff that no one’s ever done. And it’s in a business that’s not set up for me,” Murphy said. “It’s set up for some white dude to be,” the You People star explained about his trailblazing, which opened doors for others, such as Hart, Dave Chappelle, and Chris Rock, to name a few. While he shied away from accepting that he forged a path for the aforementioned comedians, Murphy still noted how his movie star status was part of the catalyst that shifted how studios viewed Black talent.

“The comic used to be the sidekick, the comic was the opening act, and I changed it to where the comic can be the main attraction,” said Murphy. “They thought of comics one way, and it was like, no…a comic could sell out the arena, and a comic could be in $100,000,000 movies. It doesn’t have to be Black exploitation movies, it could be a movie that’s accessible to everyone and all around the world people would go see it. A Black star.”

Check out more of Eddie Murphy’s full interview with The New York Times below.