LY R I C S
115 L 3 M AG A Z I N E .CO M | J U LY 2 0 1 3
Canada’s King Turbo is a self-inflicted lock off sound. To be clear, and to emphasize a point, another sound did not lock off King Turbo, though their past few performances have left fans shaking their heads. When competing against Silverhawk at their selfproduced event Real Steel (January, 2013) fans pelted them with boo’s, and more recently, at When Dubs Did Nice (March, 2013), utter disappointment. To be fair, the round where they brought Freddie McGregor on stage was a saving grace. No matter how King Turbo tries, they just can’t seem to get it together. The chemistry between King Sharp (micsman) and Spex (Selector) is not working. Do they need more time to gel? Looking deeper into their roster, Slingshot provides counsel / guidance and performs at select dates. Jahmin is administration and Ricky … well Ricky is a rogue agent who performs under the name King Turbo, but not with the crew. I would hazard a guess that his disgusting attitude and inability to listen or reason keeps him on the outside. The irony is out of all the crew (outside and inside), Ricky has the most fight and is most ready for war. The Gods blessed and cursed Ricky with the same hand. The last time Capleton (one of King Turbo’s managers) spoke publicly about the sound, he said they are taking time to regroup to strengthen the sound. This problem is deeper than ‘regrouping.’ If it wasn’t for radio (Spex playing on G 98.7 FM and Slingshot playing on CIUT 89.5 FM) in Toronto, we would hazard a guess that King Turbo would not be getting dates beyond Weddings, Anniversaries and special occasions organized by fans who grew up listening to them, and who still hold them to a high esteem which greatly differs from the core Sound System listening audience. King Turbo’s problem is King Turbo. King Turbo is a lock off sound because of King Turbo and not because any sound definitively killed them in a clash … that’s the positive. Just as the days of old, when a sound gets lock off, another sound reigns supreme. In the case of Canada, the new reigning sound would be Super Fresh, who, observing carefully the movements of King Turbo, knows exactly what to do to make sure they don’t get lock off! And by the way, why do we care so much about King Turbo? We care because they were one of Canada’s mightiest sounds who should be in their prime. Instead they are a sound searching for keys.