By admin | December 6, 2007
Soca extraordinaire Rupee, is a big activist for HIV causes. Rupee, who is well known for hit song “Tempted to touch” promotes HIV awareness and uses his own experience to send out the message of practicing safe sex. Even when Rupee is not promoting the cause, he still sends out the message during his on stage concerts. Rupee knows all too well the effects that HIV has on families, because his parents died from AIDS. He stated that his father whom he loved very much contracted the virus by having sex outside the marriage. In turn, his father passed on the virus to his mother. Rupee describes that time in his life as an especially difficult one and also admits to periods of depression. The artist went on to say that with the love and support of close friends and family, he was able to get through it.
Rupee Biography
Rupee is a soca star whose desire to be an artist was fuelled by the victory that he attained in a talent contest that was quite popular in Barbados. His performance was highly applauded. He has been influenced by three cultures i.e. Barbadian, English and German, which he had experienced by the time he was nine years old. His mother is from Germany and his father is from Barbados. His multi-ethnic lineage has influenced him and his music significantly.When he decided to go solo, ‘Ice Cream’ was the hit that brought him great acclaim. It had been rendered in the soca genre. Rupee moved towards calypso, even though the style he started off with as a vocalist was dance-hall.
Earlier, subsequent to having done well in contests for discovering new talent, held in the local area, he was able to join ‘Coalishun’, a group that performed reggae music, in 1997.Rhythm & Blues, hip-hop and soca influences were quite evident in the albums ‘Thisisrupee.com’, ‘Leave a Message’ and ‘Blame It on de Music’ that were released in the early 2000s. All of these were solo albums.’ Tempted to Touch’ was the track that became an international hit and was a part of his album ‘1 on 1’ that was released in 2004. After the market potential of soca had been convincingly proven to the company by the popularity attained by Kevin Lyttle, Atlantic Records struck a deal with Rupee and him signed to the label in 2003.
Recently, Rupee along with artists, Shaggy and Faye-Ann Lyons from Trinidad recorded ‘The Game of Love and Unity’ which is the Cricket World Cup’s official song. The Crop over Festival in Barbados is a festival where Rupee performs quite regularly. Tokyo, New York, Paris and many cities in Australia are among the places where his concerts have been held with the tickets having been sold-out well in advance.
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