Morse and his band are famous in Haiti for their political songs and performances critical of the Raoul Cédras military junta from 1991 to 1994.
[4] The family did not stay in Puerto Rico for long, and Richard grew up in the town of Woodbridge, Connecticut in the United States.
A conversation with a French record producer persuaded Morse to start over and move to Port-au-Prince to better explore Haitian and Caribbean music.
[6] In restoring the hotel business, Morse hired a local folkloric dance troupe and slowly converted it into a band.
When other performers, such as Boukman Eksperyans and Manno Charlemagne, left the country in exile, Morse and his band chose to stay in Port-au-Prince.
The music that Morse wrote and RAM performed was often laced with political messages critical of the military junta led by Raoul Cédras.
Despite no overt references to the political situation, it was widely played on the radio and immediately taken up throughout the country as an unofficial anthem of support for Aristide.
By the summer of 1992, playing or singing the song was banned under military authority, and Morse was subjected to death threats from the regime.
[7] In September 1994, U.S. military troops arrived to oust the Cédras regime, and Morse and his band were finally able to release some of their music in their own albums.
In 1998, Manno Charlemagne, the newly elected Fanmi Lavalas mayor of Port-au-Prince, sent armed men to the Oloffson to dismantle the float on which RAM was scheduled to perform in the upcoming annual Carnival.