Reasoning with Luciano and Mikey General —Two Years Later

Luci: My response to that is that power comes with responsibility. My singing gathers people so I have to have the right demeanor and the right composure to deal with people accordingly. I could be singing about love, [singing] "It’s your world and mine," and then live a secluded life, segregated from people. I couldn’t do that! Jah would have locked my jaw a long time ago!

We try to share whatever knowledge and talent God has given us with humanity. The more you share, the more you help people and see the results. Many people come up to us and say, "Singer, thank you. Keep singing positive music." These are the things that encourage me. I love people so I take time out to write my autographs for my people. I see myself as a shepherd and the people (my fans and my family) as the sheep. So when I gather them, I have to know how to feed them and give them the water.

LG: It’s an interesting analogy.

Luci, M.G. [laughing]: Nurture them, man!

MG: Temptation may come but to the one that heeds to it. We try not to heed to it and we try to see our fans as part of an extended family.

Luci: It’s a ministry!

MG: We don’t want to disrespect or lose that love the we have gotten. Sometimes we see people who have come with some negative vibes, but we try to show them love and send them along their way still. Leave them with a strong, positive vibe, advice or words of encouragement.

Sometimes we might encounter some nice women out along the street, and we are there to help them and strengthen them because some of them are going through all kinds of trouble, emotional and all that. We see them as part of an extended family so we try to keep it that way–family.

LG: An interesting article has published on the website about the fire burn controversy, with all the Boboshanti chanting…

Luci: Bun Rome…

LG: Exactly. Neither one of you has come out strongly against the battyman or against Europeans. What is your whole take on the situation?

Luci (to MG): Me a go on ahead with that one, sir!

(to LG): I come on earth to glorify my God, to glorify my maker and my Father. I use positiveness and trample Babylon. I use positiveness and conquer negativeness. This is how I see it: some people have negative vibes and we have to just keep giving them positive vibes–tell him about righteousness, tell him about a Psalm in the Bible or a passage that will help him focus… When you’re driving on the road, you don’t go hunting for potholes to prove to yourself that you’re skillful at driving. You seek for good road! You try to preserve your engine, preserve your vehicle and your meditation. You get a good drive; you stay away from the potholes. So I stay away from the evil folks and for people who don’t have any love for the Almighty. Right now, I sing songs like [singing], "Word, power and sound, I-man come to shake wicked Babylon down …" How I see it, Empress, is that all the people who are talking about faggots and making battyman music, it’s like they are bigging up battyman! You understand?

Battyman deserves no space on my album! When I say, "Babylon" or "corruption"–a dem that, mother of all that! A dem that, you understand?

I have no problem when some of the Rastafarian brothers just burn out some corruption, but then they get caught up when they want to burn the Bible, or burn Christ. I really get away then because I don’t believe we should go around and burn the Father. His Majesty himself came and told us that if we read the Bible with a clear conscience, we can find truth in it. The words mean one and the same–it transcends all boundaries of empires.

We burn with care and caution. If you’re burning rubbish in the home, you can’t burn it right outside your house–it might catch and burn down your house. You have to know what you’re doing with wisdom. And we educate the people, which is the best way to burn out Rome. When you educate the people and they rise up to know themselves, then Babylon will get weaker because they will have less people to fuel them.

MG: I agree with the burning of the homosexual still but some of them are taking it to an extreme. Luci rightly says we don’t need to mention that. The Bible done states already that people like that deserve this.

Luci: It says Sodom go down.

MG: When we say Sodom and Gomorrah we’re talking about them as well as the system that upholds them and allows two man fi get married.

Luci: We just want to keep it pure and positive.

MG: Even with the concept of burning Europeans, I’n’I couldn’t do that still because we say all people are one. His Majesty tells us that. We shouldn’t practice racial discrimination. The color of a person doesn’t matter, just their concept and their mind. We have wicked black people the same way. You have wicked in every nation. It’s the system that we burn out.

It so happens that most of the system that has come ‘pon I’n’I has been a European system, so more time when you hear them say, "Burn Babylon," they’re really trying to burn out that system. You will find European people who love you and fight for your cause more than some of your own people. So you have to be careful about what you’re doing. We try to spend our energy uniting all races, all people, all concepts…

Luci: Especially Jah children who have a clean heart and good intentions. Right now we just have to strengthen them. We know we can’t save the whole world still. Right now while we are here speaking, there are some governments who want to legalize Sodomism and that is not right, because God created the woman for the man and the man for the woman. So how do they want to mix up man to man and woman to woman? These are the things that cause so much chaos ‘pon the world today–judgment, destruction, starvation.

I tell you the truth–when we’re talking and someone ask me my view, I am going to tell them!

LG: I appreciate that. I recently asked an artist why there weren’t more conscious female artists in Reggae. There are a few, but not that many…

MG: To tell you the truth, you hardly find women in Jamaica–we have Sister Carol and Angie Angel and people like that who are carrying the message, but you hardly find women in Jamaica…

Luci: In the world…

MG: Yes, in the world, who have the mind to do the work of the Almighty, really and truly. You find that most of them are more vanity-centered. We’re trying our best to bring out the royal empresses.

Luci: As you mentioned, the fraternity is a rigorous one. Choosing Jah road is a rigorous one–you get temptation and all different things. How I see it is that this musical thing is a spiritual thing. It takes faith and endurance; it takes will power to really make it. Women will pick up a big company, a manufacturing company or an airline, and run it good. She’ll run it and master it, but I think she’s more inclined to the material side than the spiritual side when it comes to music.

You have a couple of female artists down in Jamaica now, but most of them want to sing about "love you down," and all of those things things: body, body smashing, how they love the man, how fit the men are. I’m saying that it is very evident that few women really stand up in history and say, "Boy, me a go Jah way. Me a sing fi Jah." You can’t blame us for realizing the reality. The truth is that the empresses are not as spiritually reinforced. And I also think that how the brothers treat the sisters is very dangerous! So the empresses get coward too. Also some of the females love to sing and use their body as a sex symbols...

MG: That’s how most producers try to portray female artists…

Luci: There are a couple of female singers who really try to come and make it but they find out that the music, the fraternity, has become so contaminated with people who are coming to look for big names and money.

LG: It’s true that women aren’t applauded or acknowledged for being spiritual.

Luci: No. When you see a female come out on top and she sing conscious songs, God sent her. Remember me a tell you that [laughs]. God sent her.