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Eek-A-Mouse: He’s man and Mouse |
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Written by Glenn BurnSilver
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Thursday, 08 March 2007 |
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He is the man they call Mouse, named after a horse.
Born Ripton Joseph Hylton in Jamaica’s most infamous Trenchtown slum, Eek-A-Mouse seems an unlikely moniker for a man who stands 6 feet 6 inches tall and half as wide, but it is one he gratefully accepts. There is no confusion with his identity or the instantly recognizable singing style he created called “sing-jay.”
Yet Mouse took an unlikely path to fame, at least for the average ghetto youth. His mother scrimped and saved so he could go to college. But, he admitted, he wasn’t too studious, singing and playing sports when he should have been hitting the books.
“I was failing out of school, but singing put food in my mouth,” he recalled. “It was my getaway.”
Still known as Ripton Hylton, his “getaway” began as a roaming roots reggae singer, working the streets with the various sounds systems that are prevalent fixtures in Jamaica. Traditionally, sound system DJs “toasted” (essentially rapping) over the dub plates — instrumental tracks — they played. Eek-A-Mouse quickly moved away from “straight” singing and incorporated this toasting style, but with one difference — his nonsensical lyrics contained no actual words.
“All I was doing was singing, singing every day,” he explained during a phone interview. “Sometimes I was singing freestyle and I didn’t want to stop singing, so if I couldn’t find no words I would sing ‘biddy beng biddy bong biddy beng bong biddy dem do wah’ until I could sing words again. It came out styling … so they call me a ‘sing-jay’ sometimes.”
His unusual style and high-pitched voice eventually led to an invitation to the studio where he cut his first tracks. Those tracks were issued in 1979 under his birth name, but when he cut his next tracks, “Once a Virgin” and “Wah-Do-Dem,” he decided to become Eek-A-Mouse full-time.
So, how did he get his famous name?
The original Eek-A-Mouse was a racehorse that Hylton regularly bet on at a Kingston, Jamaica, track. The horse, however, always lost. That is, until the day Hylton failed to place a bet. The horse won that day and his friends would not let him hear the end of it. The horse ran again the next day, but this Mouse did not return to the track.
“My friends, they call me Eek-A-Mouse. So I said ‘OK I’m not going to bet,’” Mouse said. “And he won again. Of course, then he retire.”
For Eek-A-Mouse, the man, the price of fame came cheap. He only lost about $20 on the horse, but gained an instantly recognizable name. Clearly, however, without his unique singing abilities, it would all be for naught and he just might still be down at the track betting on other horses with strange names.
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TO GO TO THE SHOW
Eek-A-Mouse with The B Foundation
Doors 8 p.m.; Show 9 p.m.
Tuesday, March 13
Aggie Theatre, www.aggietheatre.com
204 S. College Ave., Fort Collins
482.8300
$12. Go to ABCDs, 484.2223 or Rockin’ Robins, 221.9977 for tickets.
www.eeksperience.com
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MOUSE MEETS MOUSE
Naturally, being a Mouse and musical celebrity can create some interesting encounters. Eek-A-Mouse recalled one such event with a touch of irony and a great deal of laughter.
“I went to Disneyland the first time I was in America,” Eek-A-Mouse recalled.
“Eek-A-Mouse went up to Mickey Mouse. He say nothing. I say ‘Mickey Mouse I am Eek-A-Mouse.’ He still say nothing, so I shook his hand. It was cool though. Brother Mickey, yeah, very cool.”
Glenn BurnSilver | Only registered users can write comments.
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