Eek a Mouse Tickets

Born as Ripton Joseph Hylton in Kingston Jamaica on 19th November, 1957, Eek-a-Mouse was destined to be a musician himself. His delightful voice had a melodious touch to it from the way beginning but he did not find it until he went to college. So he was a late bloomer in this regard. But this late bloomer has certainly caught up with the rest of the world is doing his country a great service by sticking to its roots.

Where most Jamaican artists have somehow managed to shake off the last reminiscent of their culture and background, Eek-a-Mouse is one of the only Jamaican artists left today who are aware proud of the place where they got roots at. Which is what is explicit in his musical approach as well. This has paid off well over the years and turned him into a mega Jamaican star amongst other reggae artists in the Americana.

He is one of the earliest artists to have been called a singjay, which is a go-between a singer and a deejay. Singjaying is a unique style of reggae music which comes from within Jamaica with the true essence of Jamaican music. Singjaying is an integration of vocals with rhythmic and toasting which is typical way of performance for a deejay. Toasting literally stands for all the chatting, chanting and talking the deejay does in a monotone over the beat. This combination of singing and toasting is referred to as singjaying. One of the earliest singjay was Michael Rose who utilized completely meaningless toasting over his beat. Eek-a-Mouse did not work on his music until he was in college. It was during his college life that he released his 2 root reggae single. These were the first songs ever released by him under his own name. The producer of the songs was none other than his mathematics tutor, Mr. Dehaney. His early music was heavily influenced by Pablo Moses and had the faint reminiscence of his vocals as well.

After the first two single releases, Eek-a-Mouse starting working for different sound systems but he did not forget his music during this time. He released a few more singles during this time. It was during this time when he started calling himself 'Eek-a-Mouse'. In 1979, it officially became his stage name. The inspiration of this stage name had come from a racehorse and for some time, his friends had started calling him with this name as well. It was this very year when Mouse started recording songs for Joe Gibbs. This fusion of the two great music minds resulted in a hit song in the form of 'Once a Virgin'. This time around, the influence of Ranking Joe was explicit in the song. The song which followed this hit one was 'Wa Do Dem' and it was produced by Douglas Boothe. For his next single 'Modelling Queen', Mouse collaborated to make an association with the name of Linval Thompson which later on produced his debut album Bubble Up Yu Hip.
Towards the end of 1980s, he had made many partners in his musical career. The most influencial was perhaps that of Henry Junjo Lawes with whome he had gotten his first two hits. Lawes colloborated in producing many hits like 'Wild Like a Tiger', 'For Hire and Removal', 'Ganja Smuggling', and 'Do You Remember' etc. In 1982, he released his second album Wa Do Dem, which was also the name of his second single. The year that followed these hits turned out to be a tragic one for mouse. The loss of a close friend DJ Errol Shorter, who had been lynched by mob as a result of vigilante justice affected Mouse very much. His song 'Operation Eradication' has a palpable distress which shows the more serious, more mature approach towards music.

Today Eek-a-Mouse is a permanent part of the Sunsplash. His recent music compilations like The Very Best of Vol. 2 and Most Wanted which were released in 2003 and 2008 respectively sold millions of copies. This alone is proof enough that Eek-a-Mouse is one of the most famous Jamaican artists today. So do not miss the chance of seeing this mega star in action. Grab your Eek a Mouse tickets to have a chance of listening to exotic Jamaican booty shaking hip hop.