ROCKER T INTERVIEW

 Sunday February 21 2004, Ras James did an interview with Rocker T over the phone. Contained in this page is the In-depth interview, touching on many different Topics. Rocker T’s latest release is the album More Luv, which was reviewed several weeks ago, and is one of the Bay Area Reggae staff’s choice picks for 2003. Enjoy.

Ras James: Who are your biggest musical influences?

Rocker T: Jimmy Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Burning Spear, KRS One, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Super Cat, Pinchers and Ninjaman: plenty more; Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, New Order

Ras James: How did you Get involved with Skadanks and the NY Ska scene?

Rocker T: I well, we were there for it (laughs) we were in high school at the time, and I was playing punk rock, and I was rhyming, and I was poppin' and lockin' and writing graffiti, and I started listening to reggae and dj's and nyahbinghi music.  I also began listening to the Specials and the English Beat. Pretty soon we were listening to Jamaican Ska, Studio One Records, and you know after that we formed Ska-danks, and that was part of the whole, we were involved in the whole part of that. With groups like the Toasters, the Second Step, the Boilers, Bim Skala Bim, Scofflaws, all of us were playing all the same clubs. I don't wanna short change any of the bands there at the time. We were playing every week at different places, we packed Irving Plaza (1200 seat venue in New York), as teenagers. We packed it with the Boilers, Second Step and Skadanks. We were just out of high school when we pulled that off, pretty intense. Myself, King Django, and definitely other signers and dj's and in NY there's a lot of reggae sound systems, lot of Jamaicans in NY, especially in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, and everyone liked to go clubbing in Manhattan, and all these big sound systems were in the boroughs. That's where I started rhyming in patois and getting into the sound system business, and Ska-danks went in even more of a reggae direction and more down into the hip-hop roots that we had. And at that time reggae/hip-hop was very prominent with us and Jamalski, KRS One and Bobby Konders. And that's when, around 1990 the Ska-danks became Skadanks

Ras James : What about the Rastafarian faith, how’d you get involved with that?

Rocker T:  This kinda things come to I, and my past leads me into all types of discoveries. And, various people that were around me; various images around me and things I was reading, and I was just feeling all this stuff, just searching through life kind of. There's no specific point, other than one of the very first records I bought was "A Tribute to the Emperor" By Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus, and pretty much ever since having that record, and I had a copy of “Bob Marley & The Wailers live in England,” and pretty much ever since having those 2 records I've called on the name of Rastafari, Haile Selassie I, and I think that the journey has taken me many places and more recently come to a truer evenstanding, of what's going on around I, and what the universe is, and who the most High is.

Ras James: Seeing that you play most of the instruments on your albums, is there a particular instrument you like playing the most?

Rocker T: 3: Guitar, Nyahbinghi Drum, Melodica

Ras  James: How long have you been involved with the PSM Recording label?

Rocker T:  I've been involved since 97, the past to I is one day, and it's called the past.

Ras James: Out of all the shows you have performed, do you have a particular favorite performance, or any interesting or funny things that have happened while you’ve been on stage.

Rocker T: That's a whole other interview, could write a book. I wouldn't even wanna say which one is my favorite, cause I'd keep thinking of others and we would be on the phone for hours.

Ras James: What gives you the inspiration to write your songs? Especially the songs that speak out against Slackness, like "Bad Wrong Sign", "Tek It out Again", as well as songs about Love and praises to Jah.

Rocker T: One of the main things that inspires I is that I hear and feel music, feeling riddims and patterns and everything that's going on around me, I'm constantly hearing music in my head and soul, feeling music. What inspires me to chant down the slackness is the slackness itself and the general state of affairs in the world.  The way that people talk and think about themselves, and other living things, and supposedly other inanimate things are treated disrespectfully by people, but that's what inspires me to sing about beauty, I wanna inspire people to call each other nice names. I wanna inspire people to think about the earth like it's sacred, to treat life with more respect.

Ras James: How do you feel about the current popularity of dancehall in America, with some of the artists who are now getting popular focusing on slack lyrics?

Rocker T:  Well, this is America man, you know. That's where we live. And, like I said, if you don't regard yourself as much more than an animal, just here to consume and fornicate, and if you don't consider the opposite sex anything more than an object to consume and fornicate with, if that's the way you're thinking, then the music you buy reflects that. Slack music, weather it be dancehall, rock, trance, with all the ways they utilize media, that's what their gonna buy. But to step outside that, a lot of Americans are more conscious than that. I meet these people, encounter them, and they tell me “I don't go to other shows" They don't wanna hear people saying negative things about people. We're chanting up livity the way we're chanting down Babylon, we're not just complaining about everything. I
think most bands playing reggae in America are mostly conscious bands, but they don't get the media.  If people aren't caring how they make their money, they're gonna sell things that easily sell.

Ras James: Some of your songs talk about the benefits of herb, do you ever see herb being legalized in this system?

Rocker T: It's... (slight pause) There are laws that have changed in different levels in different parts of the system. This system definitely has a multi-national, global corporate goal that's the main push behind all that, behind the interest of the people. However, there are groups in this country that do represent the people of this country. You've got different aspects of the government and the people. People do have a lot more power then they realize, especially when they realize that Jah lives inside them, and that everything inside them is transcendental

Ras James: do you have any plans for live shows coming up in the bay area, or any of the major festivals?

Rocker T: I'm playing Shattuck Downlow Lounge, February 28th, this Saturday. We have a national tour going as far as Wisconsin from here going through
Colorado, Illinois, then Minnesota, Montana, Washington, Oregon, and back to California. And then I'm gonna be playing at SNWMF this year as well.

Ras James: Over the last few months I’ve really been enjoying the album More Luv, how long did it take to put that album together?

Rocker T:  Some songs were from a couple of years ago, some songs were made in thelast couple of months, so technically you could say it took 2-3 years to make, to get it all done

Ras James: In Rainbow Country, you burn fire on the corrupt leaders of the world, which leads to my next question. With all the strife in the world, such as war in Iraq which is still killing innocent people daily, do you believe the world leaders you mention in your songs are helping society destroy itself?

Rocker T: I think their contributing to the chaos, pitting one against another, they preach love and practice war, that can't be good for anyone.

Ras James: What has your experience been as an American reggae artist?

Rocker T:  have a ball, it's hard work, and the bliss is amazing.

Ras James: What do you think about using the internet to promote music?

Rocker T: I think that any form of media needs to be formed by conscious people, I take the Marcus Garvey approach to media, his philosophy on that was
there is so much propaganda by wicked rulers and the news agencies, that it's incredibly important for righteous people to propagandize righteous things, to show people it's not all bad. One of the reasons music is so awesome, because it can reach so many corners of the earth, through person to person. The internet has caused that to be more incredibly easy.

Ras James: Anything else you want to add?

Rocker T: Always give thanks, also I think folks really need to center themselves, not in a selfish fashion, more in a humble fashion. Especially in the realm of getting centered in how we treat each other, and how this religion is strange to me and this culture is strange  and when you center yourself you start to see similarities in others first. We as a population of the earth kind of help the bad people who are in control in the way we are put off by culture and religion, instead of embracing are differences, the different colors, sounds, feelings, the beauty of creation.

 Major thanks to Rocker T and Stand out Selector for taking the time to arrange this interview with us. The Bay Area Reggae Staff highly suggests picking up a copy of More Luv, as well as checking out Rocker T live.