On a recent Thursday morning, Jerry Turner, wearing a red jalapeno costume, crouches over his laptop at the playground at McKinley Park in Sacramento. He searches for a song to perform for the children at the park.
He places kid-sized drums and tambourines in front of him so the children in the area can prepare to play along and dance with him. He then tells the audience that a saxophone player will accompany them.
When he settles on a song, he starts to perform. A handful of children gather around to watch and sing along. One of the songs he performed involved counting to 100.
The children danced and beat on the drums as they counted with him.
“I'm going to provide everything educational because that's what the parents would like for their child, and it's fun,” Turner says. “It's not something they have to sit at home for. They could be at the park like we are now and dance and play music, but then count in a way that's not just having them sit in a chair all day.”
Jahri’s World performs songs while children play the drums at McKinley Park in Sacramento Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025.Keyshawn Davis/CapRadio
When Turner was in middle school, he always blended his education with his love for hip-hop. His admiration of the genre made it more exciting to be in school.
If there was a presentation that he had to do in front of the class, he would often make a rap or a dance out of it to make it more fun, funny and educational.
That deep love for hip-hop culture and education stayed with him into adulthood. He’s now known as Jahri’s World, an artist making educational, kid-friendly music, including remixes of popular nursery rhymes.
Jahri’s World provides free performances to children in the community. He performs for birthday parties, foster care homes, children with autism, group homes, women's shelters, and families in hard times.
Before Turner became Jahri’s World, he taught in schools in 2019, reading Dr. Suess's books and making rap songs out of them to get children interested in reading and building rapport.
It wasn’t until 2022 that he started making music videos to go with the music he was making. He created his own educational channel that now has over 500 videos.
From there, his brand evolved from performing in a classroom to performing at parks, community centers, and other events. He posts most of his live shows on social media, and one of his Instagram videos of him performing for kids with autism went viral, with almost 1 million likes.
Turner said he has turned Jahri’s World into a nonprofit organization that gives back to the community through music, art and education.
The organization has a birthday party service that will provide food, cake, artwork, design, balloons, music, and a bounce house, free of charge so that these children get to experience the joy, according to Turner.
Music and performances
When he does his educational hip-hop shows, Turner's known to wear a red jalapeno costume.
He started wearing it because of the first song he created, Hot Jalapeno, a nursery rhyme about feelings.
“It was easy for children to remember, ‘Hey, it's the jalapeno guy,’” he said. “Out of all the costumes, it was super quick to put on, and the children gravitated to it quickly.”
A saxophone player named Dr. Paul Morehouse, also known as Dr. Paul D’ Blue, often accompanies Turner. Morehouse said Turner is incredibly prolific not only as an artist but an educator as well.
Turner remixes and puts his spin on old nursery rhymes, but in an educational way. Some songs he’s most notably remixed include Apples and Bananas, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Wheels on the Bus.
“He is a man for the people, for the children, for the community,” Morehouse said. “He does the music and the graphics; he's creating multimedia, plus he is focused on education. So this guy, man, is next level.”
Morehouse said there are not a lot of artists that are coming forward with the skills to focus on the community and children.
“It's recreational because it's fun, but there's an educational base there. That's why I like to get on my soapbox about that; there's the artistry in Black American music that has not gone unrecognized,” Morehosue said. “There's other reasons to bring music into the children's lives. This joy element, the rhythm, the language, the ability for kids to join in. The call and response, I mean, it's amazing.”
Jahri’s end goal
Turner works with Morehouse because he keeps him on track, which he loves.
“He'll say, oh, that was grammatically not the right way and I need that… those are the people I need to work with because everybody else is just doing fun,” Turner said. “It's tough to make education fun, but that's all I've ever done.”
In his early years as an educator, Turner frequently worked with the autism community, stating that that was where his love and heart were.
“I provide the opportunity for a gathering for parents that have a child on the spectrum to come do music, express themselves in a judgmental-free zone,” he said.
Turner said he loves what he does and does it to see lives change. He said his interactions with parents are always positive because their children will make friends at his shows.
“Some of them are really emotional because we're providing something for their children. They get to see their children develop and grow and become their own person,” Turner said. “Overall, just the peace that you feel when you're out here, it's kind of what you want the world to feel like every day, all day.”
Jahri’s World performs at McKinley Park in Sacramento on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025.Keyshawn Davis/CapRadio
Turner said his next goal is always the end goal, but it's always going to be continuous acts of service.
“I want Sacramento to be known as children-friendly, but autism-friendly as well, something to develop children, because we're known as the City of Sacramento, the City of Trees,” he said. “I'm trying to change that to the city that uplifts children. So my next move is just finding another way to serve the children in the community.”
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