For more than ten years, Lil’ Rick has churned out ultra-popular tunes year after year, backed by high level performances sure to delight his fans and enthral audiences. On Sunday, January 10 at this year’s staging of the Barbados Music Awards (BMA), he walked away as Barbados’ Entertainer of the Decade.


When the decade began, Rick was one of the island’s hottest deejays, both on and off-the-air and his popularity as a soca artiste was also on the rise. Best known for his ‘fancy juks and stabs’, Lil’ Rick a.k.a. Hypa Dawg, a.k.a. Chihuahua Business Man released hit after hit and copped several titles over the ten year period.

In the 2001 Party Monarch competition he placed second with ‘Ent Missing’. Then we saw a more serious side from him in 2002, when he made it to the finals of the Pic-O-De-Crop where he eventually placed fourth. In that same year, he accomplished a major feat when he won both the Party Monarch and Road March titles with his hit single ‘Hypa Dawg’.

He was nominated in four categories at the inaugural BMAs in 2006 and received the Cornerstone award for this stellar contribution to the development of the Barbados music industry. For Crop Over 2007 he released three songs; 'Conch', 'Girls Gone Wild' and 'Caan Wait', with the latter earning him his fourth Party Monarch title.

In 2008 he released the album 'Crave' and music videos for 'Hypa Dawg', 'Girls Gone Wild' and 'Caan Wait' then went on to receive the award for Entertainer of the Year at the 2009 BMAs. Throughout the years, Lil Rick has collaborated with several Barbadian artistes, soca diva Alison Hinds, Edwin Yearwood, Keann and Madd. He has also done several compilations with regional soca stars, Machel Montano and Iwer George from Trinidad and Jamaican dancehall artiste Lexxus.

When we review the decade gone, we can see why  Lil' Rick is Barbados' 'Entertainer of the Decade'. Congrats Rick!