Rupee
Rupee was born Rupert Clarke on September 10th, 1975 in Germany the youngest of three brothers to a Bajan father and a German mother. His father was in the British army and Rupee also spent some of his childhood in England.
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His family moved to Barbados in 1985. While attending Harrison's college Rupee began entering school talent contests singing Reggae tunes. Encouraged by friends he decided to enter the infamous Bajan talent contest called the Richard Stoute Teen Talent Competion in 1996 and won.
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Rupee then joined the group Calishun also featuring Adrian Clarke and T.C. they released the ragga soca hit "Thundah" written by Edwin Yearwood. Their next hit "Ice Cream" became an international hit and led to tours of England, Canada, the U.S. and the Caribbean.
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Rupee would release other hits over the next few years including "Peppa", "Titanic" and "stop" which earned him third place in the Bajan Party Monarch competition in 1999. However it was the following year that Rupee would release his signature song.
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"Jump" an energetic soca tune had crowds jumping in every West Indian carnival in 2000. He won the Bajan Road March title in Barbados that year, and also in the Boston Carnival, New York's Labour Day, Toronto's Caribana and the Miami carnivals. The song went #1 on both of Barbados most popular stations and was even chosen by the Barbados Volleyball Team as their anthem during their successful bid for the men and women titles in the Caribbean Championships.
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"Insomnia" released the same year also became a hit and was included on his "Blame it on the Music" CD released in 2001. Rupee continues to release versatile songs on 2002's "Leave a Message" such as "Tempted to Touch", "Till Morning" and "I'm Tired". Rupee also speaks very openly about losing his parents to AIDS. He does Public Service announcments and is extremely active in the fight against AIDS.
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In 2003 Rupee released "thisisrupee.com" independently, at the timing of writing various labels were bidding for him as he is an obvious crossover success just waiting to happen. In his spare time he writes songs, learning to play the guitar and Piano, playing Playstation and watching movies.