''U-Neek'' is an album by the

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispan ...

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use the ...

artist

Eek-A-Mouse Eek-A-Mouse (born Ripton Joseph Hylton, 19 November 1957) is a Jamaican reggae musician. He is one of the earliest artists to be described as a "singjay".Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2004) "The Rough Guide To Reggae, 3rd edn.", Rough Guides, ...

, released in 1991. He supported the album with a North American tour. "You're the Only One I Need" was released as a single.

Production

The album was produced primarily by Glenn "

Daddy-O ''Daddy-O'' is a 1958 B-movie starring Dick Contino, Sandra Giles and Bruno VeSota. It was directed by Lou Place and written by David Moessinger. The film is notable for its soundtrack as being the debut film score for John Williams. The film ...

" Bolton, Matt Robinson, and Augustus "Gussie" Clarke. It includes a cover of

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are c ...

's " D'yer Mak'er". "Border Patrol" is about the Immigration and Naturalization Service. "Rude Boys a Foreign" concerns drug trafficking. "No Problem" involves Eek-A-Mouse leading nations and solving hunger crises. "So Fine" contains a sample of "

Spinning Wheel A spinning wheel is a device for spinning thread or yarn from fibres. It was fundamental to the cotton textile industry prior to the Industrial Revolution. It laid the foundations for later machinery such as the spinning jenny and spinning ...

Critical reception

Newsday ''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and ...

'' wrote that "''U-Neek'' is full of oddities, from an apparently sincere love song ('You're the Only One I Need') to 'Gangster Chronicles', which features the Eekster rapping—or toasting—his own lyrics to part of the 'Theme from ''The Godfather." ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' determined that "the album moves faster than most reggae purists would like, but Eek-A-Mouse delights and informs while breaking new musical ground." ''

The State A state is a centralized political organization that imposes and enforces rules over a population within a territory. There is no undisputed definition of a state. One widely used definition comes from the German sociologist Max Weber: a "stat ...

'' noted that Eek-A-Mouse "can toast and rap with the best of the dance-hall sing-jays, then turn around and croon a romantic melody like a rasta Sinatra."

Track listing

Personnel

*Eek-A-Mouse –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...

*Glenn "Daddy-O" Bolton – various instruments *Danny Lipman –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standar ...

*Paul Vercesi – alto saxophone *Danny Moynahan –

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

*Anthony Brewster – trumpet *I. Timothy –

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrat ...

Dean Fraser Dean Ivanhoe Fraser (sometimes appearing as Dean Frazer) (born 4 August 1957)Allmusic.com biography by Sandra Brennan/ref> is a Jamaican saxophonist who has contributed to hundreds of reggae recordings since the mid-1970s. He was awarded the Mu ...

– horns, vocals *Matt Robinson – keyboards, vocals *

Robbie Lyn Robert "Robbie" Bernard Lyn is a Jamaican session musician who plays piano, keyboard and synthesiser. Biography Robbie Lyn is a popular Jamaican session musician, who has played with various session/backing bands including Now Generation, Sound ...

, Handel Tucker, Jamie Carse, Michael Hyde – keyboards *Danny Brown, Vere Isaacs –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

*Danny Drum, Carl Wright –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

*Keene Carse – drum programming, trombone *Johnny Rivers – drum &

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis ...

programming *Dave Tobocman – programming, vocals *Kevin O'Conner, Tommy James, Debra Falconer, Mikey Bennet, J.C. Lodge, Tony Gold – background vocals * Producers: Daddy-O, Matt Robinson, Keene Carse, Sidney Mills, Augustus "Gussie" Clarke, Johnny Rivers *

Engineers Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considerin ...

: Kevin O'Conner, Butch Jones, Rob Sutton

References

{{Authority control 1991 albums Island Records albums