Eek-A-Mouse: Wa-Do-Dem - 1982


Produced by Linval Thompson and backed by The Roots Radics, the mouse was another "singjay" - rapping relatively melodically over a backing track. He uses even more "biddly-bong" and "minna-now" vocal augmentations than Yellowman and the backing is similarly dubby and nicely bassy. 

There are some fine organ breaks too, such as on Ganja Smuggling. Noah's Ark is an impressive cut too as is the pleasing, soulful Long Time Ago. Shout outs too are due for One Hot Summer and Slowly But Surely as well. Mouse probably overdoes the vocal trickery a bit in comparison to Yellowman, however. 

This, and Yellowman's Mr. Yellowman are definitely two classic albums of the DJ/dancehall sub-genre and, in that, very much the sound of the early eighties.


★ I could have chosen Skidip! from 1982.


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