Eek-A-Mouse & Mystic Roots

Eek-A-Mouse & Mystic Roots
at The Brick Works, Chico, CA
Sunday, April 18, 1999

The long anticipated return of Kingston, Jamaica’s Eek-A-Mouse to Chico was fulfilled Sunday night as the scat-singing, reggae rapper slithered onto stage at about 11:15 PM to a crowd of about 300 diehards all eager to see the tall, lanky singer strut his bootie across The Brick Works’ stage.

The ladies love Eek-A-Mouse. From start to finish, Eek-A-Mouse (born Rypton Hilton) had lovely young beauties filing in and out of the upstairs green room amidst billowing clouds of incense smoke. He was dressed like a straight up pimp, too, wearing brown leather chaps, a black leather vest and a Roy Rogers style black cowboy hat; he called himself "The Black Cowboy" at one point. He didn’t appear to be too grounded as a person, the way he carried himself, swaggering like John Wayne as he made his way to the stage. Luckily, to balance out the ego-effect of the great Eek-A-Mouse, Chico’s hard working and very grounded reggae / hip hop band, Mystic Roots, started things off.

Fast becoming Chico’s only gigging reggae band, Mystic Roots is taking advantage of Cornerstone and Suburban Roots not playing in Chico very much. After seeing the last several shows, I must say that Mystic Roots is quietly building momentum with solid rhythmic barrages interspersed with hip-hop rhymes and DJ scratches. Their sound is as tight as ever, and with a new CD titled Constant Struggle and a full-time DJ (DJ Goodfoot) to broaden their listenership, Mystic Roots is prime to take the next step in their recording careers.

Eek-A-Mouse’s reputation alone kept people on the dance floor as the quite full of himself singer has a one of a kind act. I really don’t know how much of his lyrics I understood with that "Bing bing, badda badda bong bong" happening on songs like "Early Sunday Morning" and "Mexican Border." In fact, I’ll bet he could do an entire show without any lyrics. He would just make sounds with his voice and the crowd would go nuts. His lazy, brazen attitude evoked sex as he prodded several young females in the crowd with his provocative bodily undulations; many happily obliged.

Several rumors about Eek-A-Mouse persisted after the show, including his propositioning of women for group sex, and shooting a guy in the foot on his tour bus. Some stories seemed more credible than others, and the one about him shooting a guy in the foot is a little far fetched for me. However, that’s how legends are created and fostered in the eyes of a music star’s public. It’s great PR and will no doubt work to embolden the 40-something hipsters’ image as a flamboyant performer and person. I’ll bet the next show will be even bigger.

– Bret Lueder

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