Turbulence: "I am a musician, so I am the voice of the people!"

Give thanks and praises.  It's a pleasure to be here.  Selassie lives and reigns in the hearts of all flesh.  Blessed is the man, woman and child who walketh not in the council of the ungodly.  We're here, we're just chilling and burning the fire same way!

You just played four shows in a row with veteran Cocoa Tea, how was the vibes?

European people, especially Holland people, are full of vibes.  In Holland, you have a mixture of people : there are Suriname people, Holland people, Gambian people, all sorts of people.  So the vibe is OK, the vibration is pushing.  The movement is great and we love it.  We keep on pushing the Gospel of Rastafari.  That we deh pon.

Another message that you are spreading is Love…

It's one message.  Jah is Love so let us all love.  If you a say Rastafari, you still a say love.

You have started as a early age and your first tours were with Sizzla Kalonji.  How was this experience?

That was a life teaching that was very good for me.  Sizzla is a very prolific artist.  He's a very powerful and professional artist.  He's lightning and thunder.  When you watch him, there's lot to learn off him.  Later on I also toured with Junior Kelly, Jah Mason, Anthony B and shared a lot with them too.

How is the experience of touring with Cocoa Tea?

If feel very good about it.  I really want to big him up!   He's a living legend. You know you should big up the legends before them die.  When Bob Marley died they called him the King for example.  So what about when he was alive?  Nuff respects to Cocoa Tea.

Now I am also a teacher myself.  Because there are some youths out there, some aspiring artists, like LePrince or Ziggi, who are following my footsteps.  They told me themselves they are taking inspiration from Turbulence work.  I learned from elders, so now I am becoming a bit elder and so I got to teach the little youths.

What is the meaning of your name Turbulence?

When the wicked hear the name of His Imperial Majesty, they tremble.  So with my name "Turbulence" you know that the whole evils will be shaking.

When you were coming up in the music, you used the nickname "The Future".  Where did it come from?

I didn't take it for myself just heard it from people, like Phillip Fattis Burrel, from the Xterminator label, who brought up Sizzla or Luciano.  He told me that : "You don't have to worry youth, you are the future". 

Now some have replaced that name by "The Notorious".  How do you see that?

It's just that a lot of people misunderstand that song.  Basically, you have two kind of currents that build up life : the good and the evil, the up and the down, the devil and God.  This song is all about making choices.  I made a choice.  I followed Rastafari and stepped away from the Notorious.  That's why I sing "I could have been, one of the most notorious…"

The message that you are spreading is channelling through reggae as well as through dancehall.

I am a musician so I am the voice of the people.  Sometimes when you are in a bad mood, you sing a bad song, and when you're in a good mood, you spread righteousness.  Sometimes if you're in a bad mood, you feel to say "if this man mess with me, I'm gonna… fire burn him, and wey wey…."  
We know rastafari, we know love but sometimes in life, some things come across and then you have to struggle to fight the temptation.
Dancehall is another vehicle to transport the message.  In Jamaica, music's going up and down.  Sometimes dancehall run the place, sometimes it's one-drop.  I want to be at every riddim.  Even is sould or R'n'B comes out and I see I can put rastafari in it, it will do.

What do you think of the actual bad man craze, everyone wants to be a badman?

Anything bad fi dash wey.  We don't deal with any badness at all because badness can't take you anywhere.  We burn badness flat
We rather say we are warriors.  And warriors fight for equal rights and justice, we don't fight for foolishness.  Marcus Garvey said that you have to fight for everything, you can't fight for nothing.
You can't get up everyday day and shoot someone innocent, that's badness.  But if you wake up and fight up somebody for raping your sister, or taking away a life or taking away your pride, then it's a warrior attitude.  Turbulence is a warrior, a rebel.  Warrior without a cause will be put pon pause.  Warrior with a cause will stand firm in the future.

Have you ever been to Africa?

Yes I've been to Nairobi in Kenya, where I pulled out a massive crowd of thousands of people.  And I did perform for five hours.  It's not like in Europe where I perform for one hour or one hour and a half.  When you go the Motherland, you have to perform longer.  If you want to perform for just a little while, they will come and tell you "What you doing Turbulence, you can't perform that little bit! Come back!".  So I played until around 6 in the morning.  It was a tremendous feeling!  Repatriation is a must.