Eek A Mouse on Jail

[Mick Sleeper]

A few months after the heated exposure they wanna tarnish his image! They do this shit all the time...

Do you *honestly* think that the rape charges against Eek A Mouse are an attempt to "tarnish his image" after Eek speaking his mind on what he perceives as racism in the music industry? Who are the "they" that you speak of? And when else have "they" "done this shit all the time"?

[jamjam]

Wow!! I am shocked to hear about the Ace Of Base group member.
They were big back in the 80s, and the irony is that they were making pop-reggae style music.
Imagine being a neo-nazi bass player and making a shed load of money off black music??
He must have really come a long way from his white power band days.

[jamjam]

As for the Eek A Mouse statement regarding skin tone, i have to say i partly agree.
Just take a look at the movie The Harder They Come. Although it was a film, it does reflect some of the goings on in the Reggae music industry at that time.
Some of the fairer skinned artistes tended to get more of a look in, and were even considered less of a threat.
For example, Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh were too militant for Chris Blackwell, Desmond Dekker was overlooked as much as he had big chart hits. Jimmy Cliff never really got the acclaim he deserved and JA see him as their first true superstar!
Even to this day colour prejudice is rife in JA.
With regards to Shaggy, i think he has been very fortunate and i would say that his success was not solely down to skin tone but more to do with timing.
He had a good team working with (Sting and Robert Livingston) plus America was the perfect launch pad for their tongue in cheek type of Reggae.

[star]

As for the Eek A Mouse statement regarding skin tone, i have to say i partly agree.
Just take a look at the movie The Harder They Come. Although it was a film, it does reflect some of the goings on in the Reggae music industry at that time.
Some of the fairer skinned artistes tended to get more of a look in, and were even considered less of a threat.
For example, Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh were too militant for Chris Blackwell, Desmond Dekker was overlooked as much as he had big chart hits. Jimmy Cliff never really got the acclaim he deserved and JA see him as their first true superstar!
Even to this day colour prejudice is rife in JA.
With regards to Shaggy, i think he has been very fortunate and i would say that his success was not solely down to skin tone but more to do with timing.
He had a good team working with (Sting and Robert Livingston) plus America was the perfect launch pad for their tongue in cheek type of Reggae.

Peter didn't want Blackwell, and Bunny did work with Blackwell for his most militant albums. Blackwell was wise not to keep working with Bunny because his stuff wasn't that good. Jimmy Cliff's problem was that he never found a distinct style. Chris Blackwell had the same vision for Jimmy Cliff he had for Marley, but Jimmy left and that backfired big time.

Like someone said earlier it is foolish to think producers tried to suppress black artists. Why would they care about skin color? They were in the business to make money not to promote a personal agenda. I can see producers not being very willing to put out militant tunes because they probably wouldn't get much airplay or exposure. Especially tunes that lyrics specifically are directed towards a specific race. That is just bad marketing. There are of course examples like the Marley song Survival or Peter Tosh's African that prove even songs that alienate the majority of the potential market wouldn't stop producers or labels from working with premier talent.

[jamjam]

Star,
To be totally honest both Peter Tosh's and Bunny Wailer's initial solo efforts, post Bob Marley were their best. IMHO
The Black Heart Man and Legalise It albums are timeless classics.
I would not go so far and say Bunny or Peter did any bad works on their Intel Diplo or Solomonic labels respectively.
There are things that i am still hearing within their music decades later, that i may not have caught at the time of release. What may not have sounded good then can oftentimes sound better later.
With regards to the militant material - understandably it was not profitable for producers then but fast forward to now and there is an immense hunger for this said militant music that was been refused. If all the veteran artists and producers were more so thinking about the money then we would be faced with a barrage of Ken Lazaruses and Boris Gardeners. No disrespect to Ken or Boris in any way!

[ruffa]

I used to laugh when Eek-A-Mouse would ask all the crowd to throw him their ganja on to the stage and you'd see tonnes of bags flying at him and him picking them all up filling his pockets, maybe thats why the babylon disliked him although i also heard the rape allegations before but only from forums like this, i agree with the guy who said best not speculate unless we can link to the evidence here so i think best to post links to news articles which verify these rapes when mentioning it as mud does stick like they say. If he's guilty then bad for him agreed but if he is innocent then i'd hate to think his fans might be disowning him over something thats not true. It doesn't take much these days for babylon to take a disliking to people who smoke ganja publicly or ask for it on stage, this would be reason enough for them to want rid of the guy right..... they locked a guy up teenager in prison for typing a rap on facebook the other week and he's still there, the police are ruthless, someone explained the story behind how the charges came about and the arrest warrant and him not being able to get back to US because of the volcano so i think maybe some people are judging him a little harshly, i may be wrong but i'd say give him the benefit of the doubt like we should any man, innocent till proven guilty. I love his early contribution to Reggae regardless of what he's done later in life, many people go off the rails and i feel for him if he has done but he always had mental probs right... if he is guilty he needs help and rehabilitation not persecution and ridicule(unless he really is the predator he's being made out to be), thats just my view on things although i admit i do not know the full story of the mouse! That mouse hole video was FUNNY!! a

[Congo Bunny]

Of course if you can't make bail because of a volcano, you call on the phone (I think both Americans and Jamaicans have phones) and you explain this and then you get the very next flight out there that you can and turn up with your lawyer and proof that you made it there as soon as you could and you where held up by reasons beyond your control, and the system is pissed off, but there is nothing they can do about it. You don't run off to South America and wait to to extradited/deported. Its bull flap to say a volcano stopped you from making bail when you clearly made no effort to prove this. I agree he is innocent until proven guilty but I'm willing to bet that the average innocent man doesn't run to South America to hide without a visa. People who run and hide make them selves look guilty. If your innocent get yourself legal council and fight the system for all your worth

Edit - Come to think of it. if you are stuck in another country you go to the local police and say I'm reporting to you because I can't make bail in the US, please can you contact the department I was supposed to report to and let them know that I am stuck for reasons beyond my control and that to show good will I have reported to you instead. That way Babylon can be as pissed as they like, but they can't do you for not reporting in as you have done everything in your power to report to a police force, and it will all be officially logged and submittable to court as proof of good intent

[Fabricio Uhuru]

Eek-A-Mouse gets time served on reduced charges:

http://outerbanksvoice.com/2013/07/08/e ... d-charges/

"After evading extradition on rape and kidnapping charges for four years, reggae singer Eek-A-Mouse was scheduled this week to finally face the music in Dare County Superior Court.

As it turns out, the musician, whose real name is Ripton Joseph Hylton, had the felony charges reduced to two misdemeanors last week in Camden County Superior Court, and he was released for time served, said his attorney Phillip Hayes.

But he is still not a free man...."

[Fabricio Uhuru]

Could someone please translate the text above to a "less-law jargon language"? (I´m not a native english speaker...)

Thanks a lot!!

[Congo Bunny]

Yeah ditto that, I don't understand the charges he was convicted for... They don't sound very serious if he only got 120 days. So maybe the charges were trumped up afterall. Which is very good news. If he's now in trouble with immigration, then maybe he should have tried to find an alternative way to report in after the volcano instead of fleeing....