RAM is a mizik rasin band based in the city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The band derives its name from the initials of its founder, songwriter, and lead male vocalist, Richard A. Morse. The band's music has been described by Morse as "Vodou rock 'n' roots", and has been one of the prominent bands in the mizik rasin musical movement in Haiti. RAM began performing together in 1990, and recorded their first album in 1996. The band's music incorporates traditional Vodou lyrics and instruments, such as rara horns and petro drums, into modern rock and roll. The band's songs include lyrics in Haitian Creole, French, and English. RAM is famous for its regular Thursday night performances at the Hotel Oloffson in downtown Port-au-Prince, attended by hotel guests and a wide spectrum of the country's political and racial groups. During the years of the military junta of Raoul Cédras, one of the band's singles, "Fèy", was banned nationwide by the military authorities who perceived it to be a song of support for the exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The band continued to play weekly concerts in defiance of death threats from the regime until Morse only narrowly escaped a kidnapping from the hotel in 1994. The band began recording albums in 1996, after United States military intervention restored Aristide to power. In 1998, the band clashed with the newly elected mayor of Port-au-Prince, a supporter of Aristide, and survived an assassination attempt during their Carnival performance. Through its song lyrics, RAM continues to provoke the antagonism of both the supporters of Aristide and former military regimes. History Background and early years RAM was formally created in 1990 by Richard A. Morse, his wife Lunise, and a group of folkloric musicians and dancers in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Richard would become the songwriter and lead male vocalist. Lunise became the lead female vocalist. The other band members were all recruited from Port-au-Prince, including some of the poorest neighborhoods in the city. The name of band, RAM, comes from Morse's initials. Morse was born in Puerto Rico, but grew up in the town of Woodbridge, Connecticut in the United States. His father, Richard M. Morse, was an American academic sociologist and author, and his mother was a famous Haitian singer, Emerante de Pradine. Morse graduated from Princeton University in 1979 with a degree in anthropology. He joined a band in New York City, called The Groceries, that