Rik Rok

Rik Rok was born Rickardo George Ducent in London, England on June 17, 1972. His parents migrated from Jamaica to England in the mid-60s in search of greater economic opportunities but never lost touch with their roots. Jamaican music played a great role in Rik Rok’s childhood. “When I was growing up it was pretty much Jamaican people who came over,” he recalls. “My father was a big Reggae fan, especially of (singers) Gregory Isaacs, John Holt and Dennis Brown. He had a big record collection and on Sunday’s he would play music all day at home.” The romantic Reggae crooners Rik Rok heard in his childhood and his love of R&B, influenced the honeyed singing style he now possesses.
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Rik Rok was 11 years old when he returned to Jamaica with his family. While attending high school there, he discovered his singing talent and soon realized he had a flair for songwriting too. “One day I was listening to Babyface’s “Tender Lover” album and I remember thinking, I could probably be a songwriter,” Rik Rok says. “So I wrote a song, put it down, came back to it and tried it again. Then I started writing more and more songs. I wasn’t really good at it at first; some of them were really corny, really stupid. But it was just a hobby and I never thought anything would come from it because it seemed like a completely unreachable dream being in the music business.”