Reggae Movement :  I'm sitting here with Rocker T.  It's Saturday, October 19th, we just finished a show here at The Aggie Theater here in Ft. Collins.  How you doing Rocker?

Rocker T : Very Lovely, most blessed

Reggae Movement :   How did you enjoy the show tonight?  did you enjoy the crowd?

Rocker T : Oh yeah, it was very nice, really really hyped for real

Reggae Movement :   Now you grew up in Brooklyn and are now coming out of San Francisco, is that right?

Rocker T :  hmmm..no, I grew up in Brooklyn, then I lived in San Francisco for a while, then in Amsterdam for a minute, and now I've been living in Madison, Wisconsin...which will become the latest spot.

Reggae Movement :    With such a background and history, how and when did you grasp the Rastafarian Faith as your own?

Rocker T :  I started listening to dancehall.  I was already well into hip hop and into all kinds of music, like Jimi Hendrix, Led Zepplin and Pink Floyd.  Then I heard Supercat, and then I heard Bob Marley.  Then I started hanging out on the streets a lot, and in certain neighborhoods they had some certain record stores..and burnin' herb in the park and burnin' herb on stoops and stuff and i had met a lot of rastas and met a lot of cruicial elders.  They really showed I the right thing.

Reggae Movement : So in effect you really learned it as you went along

Rocker T : It was like something that I had to have.  Like I already had it and i just had to let it out.

Reggae Movement : When did you begin to become a reggae performer?

Rocker T : I guess I'd say 1986, I'd say.  I was already in bands since 1983 and i heard reggae for the first time in 1972, but I was very small.  I don't remember anything but hanging out with this Jamaican kid, and i remember that my parents brought me down to Kingston in the middle of these political riots, and i was just 3 years old.  And this dude came down and yelled at me and yelled at his kid for playing with me.  That kind of stayed with me and came out later.   That is over with....no segregation.  

I could say a lot of bad words about how i feel about that, but basically that effected a lot about the music that i got into as a teenager.  I didn't realize it at then, but I asked my parents about stuff.  They used to say....gunshots every day, reggae every night, Ha ha....that will have an impression on ya, you know.

Reggae Movement : So you've always been a musician but you found out that reggae is your calling?

Rocker T : Yeah, my mom had me singing in the choir when I was 3 years old.  She made me play the piano since i was 7.  I couldn't get out of the choir until I started playing another instrument full time.  So then I started playing the guitar and started playing bands.

Reggae Movement :  How do you choose which riddim to sing over?  what's the though process behind such a decision?

Rocker T : Most of my lyrics are on original riddims, and some of them i write on versions that i really really feel...cause you just get inspired like that...your favorite tunes you end up chatting lyrics to them over your own.  So for a dj show or a soundsystem show, i'll go through all the records i really check for and all the riddims i really like.  And i'll sing lyrics on them all, and say "wow, that one fit real good on that one."   and i'll then use that one.  And i have partners that I DJ with, and they'll say "hey, you know what will sound dope on this riddim" or "you should try this on that riddim"...so we kind of figure it out as we go along.

If I'm playing with a band, it's basically going to be all original rhythms, and we may flip some classics.  But that's two ways of approaching it for me.  You have to be able to chat lyrics on any rhythm.

Reggae Movement :  Do you like that aspect of it?  the pressure of the free form?

Rocker T : Oh yeah, cause that's the true test.   That's what being...if you're going to dj on the microphone, you have to be able to do it off the top of your head.  That's how I came up doing it.  I was rhyming, you know, battle a lot.  Try to get the mic at parties where they have the big DJ's.  Freestyle all day long.  That's how I got into all this.  More than just singing, and to really rhyming and singing at the same time.  

Reggae Movement :  Now you have a new album coming out to follow up your If You Luv Luv, Then Sho Ya Luv album?

Rocker T : Yeah, I dropped a 5 song demo, and the complete album's finished, but we haven't released it yet, so it's kind of  due out....well, momentarily.....Ha Ha...it's called "More Luv", and it's like the part two of the growth and continuation of the first PSM album (Positive Sound Massive Recordings) I have which was called "If you luv luv, then sho ya luv", so i figured i'd call it "More Luv", seems like a proper title.  Something that we all need right now.

Even some of the most wickedest folks that people really want to hate on them.  You know, in my opinion you got to chant it down, you can't just sit there and say 'yeah, that's okay'...you have to step up and say what's really going on, and if you don't like it, and you don't think it's right, you have to speak out.  But still, even the most wickedest need more love.  That's what it's all about right now.  

People want more war right now, i want more love.

Reggae Movement :   In your albums, what kind of message do you try to put out?

Rocker T : every album i have is all conscious...i don't try any slackness at all.  I don't promote anything except fighting for your rights and self defense...i don't promote any attacking or genocide.  I censor my lyrics so hard...i won't spin a lot of records because if I find one word i don't agree with I'll say "nope, I'm not feeding that to the youth!"

So that's the way i am on wax...real hardcore.    I'll be sure to check for anything that might have word sound power that would make the youth feel bad.

Reggae Movement :   With your philosophy in mind...what is your feelings on the current emergence of the popularity of slack lyrics purported for commercial reasons.  What is your feelings on the current reggae scene from a high level outlook?

Rocker T :  well for sure there were decades of reggae that has always had both styles of music, and there's always been a crowd for both forms of that.  But in my belief system, reggae comes from Nyabingh, and from Jazz and from Ska, and that's what reggae is formed out of.  And if you don't represent for the roots and culture of reggae, then you're just playing around.

And that doesn't mean that someone else can't think it's really good or be into it.  Because I support the need for people to have parties and community, for it is still a gathering and people need to feel good.  So if the whole crew is into it and everyone is into it, then that's how it's going to be.  So i can't sit there and say you can't do this or you can't do that, and that this is good and that is bad, I can only keep check on what my Soundsystem is playing and what my band plays, and it's going to be strict because of the way i was taught and the way i feel about reggae music....and how powerful it is for healing and saving the world.

So you can just use it for some party music to put some money in your pocket or you could really use it to forward a just cause and help improve what people think of themselves, and still make some money while your doing it.  

Because that's what reggae has done for me.  Reggae was the first music that I've ever heard that didn't...I've heard other socially conscious music before but most of them were all angry.  which, as heated as you might get in reggae, you still have to say "love man, love woman" or else you're wrong.  So i check for that vibe straight up and down front back left center staight forward and all around.

Reggae Movement :   What is in your CD Player right now?  

Rocker T :  Lakshminarayana Shankar.  There's a whole connection between lots of ancient Ethiopian and Indian music and reggae.  That music is great to delve into and to listen to because they heal and expand your consciousness and reggae draws from all these ancient memories and forms and ancient vibes.  

True Rastafarian is not for religious prosecution.  And this is one thing i'd like to say and you don't even need to ask me a question about it.  You have a lot of brethren on the wax who are totally misleading the youth about what Rastafari is and what it stands for.  Rastafari never chant genocide.  Hale Selassie never chanted bad words and cuss words and slackness.  Never tell people to pull out guns and chase people down in the street and murder this man or murder that man just because of their way.  Never did that.  That is straight out not Selassie business.   

So more better to check out some irie music...that's why I draw on all those ancient ancient vibes.  Because back then you had to deal with God straight in the face.  There wasn't so many people and so much confusion, you couldn't feel like you were getting away with something way back in time.  That's why the scriptures and revelations exist from them, because it was right up on you then.  and you see it mashed up and righteous forward.  And now it's less perceptible, but it's still the truth.

And that's why I'm not going to just follow fashion and support fashion just because it's fashion.  I'm going to chant true Selassie business which is mother nature business.  Ethiopia Business.  Checking for Ma and checking for the Empress, and respecting the business.    If you're going so high and mighty, you better be teaching what is right and true and good.  You better not be coming incorrect and misleading.

That's one of the reasons that I enjoy talking about stuff.  Let it be known that there are people out here, tons of people, that just want roots and culture music.  Especially here in America and all over the world.  And even in Jamaica.  There are tons of people who don't want to go into town to go to the dance because they're all mashed up.  They'll just sit at home and spin some roots on their home system that are blessed.

Slackness comes and goes but culture lasts forever.

Reggae Movement :   What is your message to the youth?  If you were to sit down and address a group of youths, what would you tell them?

Rocker T :  You have to take charge of your life and you have to feel it.  You have to sit down and think about what you feel. What you believe, what you stand for.  And then get up and stand for it.

And if youth organized and youth makes moves?  I know big youth movements that do big things.  And look, their clashing with the WTO, and they're just kids.  And there's big countries that are worried about clashing with the WTO.

That's what i would tell the youth.   Don't be afraid and be loving at the same time.  Because we can get it done.

Reggae Movement :   Thank you Rocker T, it's been a pleasure.