Lee “Scratch” Perry

Name & Pronunciation: Lee “Scratch” Perry (Rainford Hugh Perry) - pronounced Lee “Scratch” PEH-ree.

  • Years Active & Status: 1958 to 2021 (deceased; legacy managed by estate)

  • Origin & Heritage: Kendal, Hanover, Jamaica to Kingston; Afro Jamaican, with strong Yoruba spiritual influence via his mother

  • Hook: The sound system scientist who turned the studio itself into an instrument, Lee “Scratch” Perry forged dub’s cosmic vocabulary: bass, echo, and atmosphere, then broadcast it to the world. His alchemy at Black Ark reshaped reggae and seeded the DNA of modern electronic music, bass culture, and ReggaeEDM.

  • Motto/Tagline: “Music is magic.”

BIOGRAPHY

Lee “Scratch” Perry, born Rainford Hugh Perry on March 20, 1936, grew up in rural Hanover Parish before migrating to Kingston, Jamaica, where the island’s sound system culture became his laboratory. After early work with Clement “Coxsone” Dodd at Studio One and producer Joe Gibbs, Perry broke away to launch Upsetter Records in 1968. His single “People Funny Boy,” with its infamous crying baby sample, announced a new era of rhythmic daring and sonic attitude that pointed directly toward reggae’s modern identity.

In the early 1970s, Perry built Black Ark, a modest, densely wired studio in the Washington Gardens area of Kingston that became one of popular music’s most mythic rooms. There, with The Upsetters and a constellation of singers including Bob Marley & The Wailers, Junior Murvin, Max Romeo, The Heptones, and The Congos, he sculpted psychedelic dub textures using spring reverbs, tape delays, varispeed tricks, and found sound collage. Rather than pursuing fidelity, he sought feeling and frequency, driving basslines forward while flooding the mix with echoes, ghosts, and sudden dropouts. Albums like Super Ape and productions like Police & Thieves defined a sound in which space itself was musical, anticipating the aesthetic logic of remix culture and electronic dance music.

The Black Ark era ended dramatically in the late 1970s amid personal and spiritual turmoil, after which Perry spent decades roaming between the U.K., continental Europe, the U.S., and later Switzerland, collaborating across genres and generations. He linked with Adrian Sherwood (On U Sound), Mad Professor, Bill Laswell, The Orb, and even the Beastie Boys, who championed his mischief and genius. Far from a museum piece, Perry’s late career surged: he won a Grammy for Jamaican E.T. (2003), issued experimental sets like The Black Album (2018) and Rainford (2019) with dub companion Heavy Rain, and continued to tour in flamboyant, talisman-laden outfits that turned every stage into a ritual space.

Perry died on August 29, 2021, in Lucea, Jamaica, at 85. His legacy lives through an immense discography and an even larger set of techniques, including versioning, remixing, sampling, and producer as auteur, that animate today’s EDM, hip hop, ambient, and bass music. For ReggaeEDM specifically, Perry provided both the spiritual blueprint (music as transformation) and the technical toolkit (the studio as an instrument), making him not only a pioneer but an ongoing force in how global dance music thinks about space, bass, and imagination.

REGGAE EDM ANALYSIS

Reggae Roots

  • Rhythm: One drop and steppers grooves; militant skank guitar; drum and bass as the narrative center.

  • Bass: Sub heavy, tactile lines mixed “felt as much as heard,” often side-chained against echo tails.

  • Vocals/Message: Rasta cosmology, satire, sound clash swagger; toasts, chants, and spoken word mantras.

Electronic/EDM Techniques

  • Studio as Instrument: Live dubbing on the desk; feedback loop “playing” of spring reverbs and tape delays; varispeed, reverse tape, and found sound sampling.

  • Arrangement: Version culture, stripping vocals, extending drum and bass, building tension with drop-outs and re-entries that prefigure EDM “drops.”

  • Sound Design: Saturated tape, over-biased drums, filtered hi hats, and environmental Foley to create cinematic “rooms.”

Essential Works & What to Listen For

  • “People Funny Boy” (1968): Early sample use; proto reggae cadence; social bite.

  • The Upsetters - Super Ape (1976): Cathedral deep bass; swirling high-end echoes; archetype of dub space.

  • Junior Murvin - Police & Thieves (1976, prod. Perry): Ghostly chorus over militant rhythm, blueprint for reggae’s global crossover.

  • Lee “Scratch” Perry - Rainford (2019) to Heavy Rain (2019): Late career sage; dub companion recasts songs with widescreen atmospherics and Brian Eno’s synth interventions (“Here Come the Warm Dreads”).

Influence on ReggaeEDM

  • Innovations: Sampling as narrative, remix as authorship, bass priority, “drop” psychology via mute/unmute and FX swells.

  • Impact: Foundations for dubstep, UK bass, ambient dub, and live dub techno; direct lines to modern producers who “play the mixer.”

RECOMENDED ALBUMS

  1. The Upsetters - Super Ape (1976)
    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1SSb5sUrXz5jeUy9Zul2no
    Key tracks: “Zion’s Blood,” “Croaking Lizard,” “Super Ape”
    Notes: Definitive Black Ark dub statement; countless reissues/remasters.

  2. Lee “Scratch” Perry - Return of the Super Ape (1978)
    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/6IS8cjJdWUok4q2snRhZwI
    Key tracks: “Dyon Anaswa,” “Return of the Super Ape”
    Notes: Darker, denser cousin to Super Ape; multiple remasters available.

  3. Junior Murvin - Police & Thieves (1977, produced by Perry)
    Spotify: (search recommended, various editions)
    Key tracks: “Police & Thieves,” “Roots Train”
    Notes: Perry’s production classic; vital to include in any profile.

  4. Max Romeo - War Ina Babylon (1976, produced by Perry)
    Spotify: (search recommended, various editions)
    Key tracks: “Chase the Devil,” “War Ina Babylon”
    Notes: Origin of the “Chase the Devil” hook sampled across EDM and hip hop.

  5. Lee “Scratch” Perry - Rainford (2019)
    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1iSKw8k0iBbJ0RSwqYrfpw
    Key tracks: “Let It Rain,” “Cricket on the Moon”
    Notes: Reflective late period set with Adrian Sherwood (On U Sound).

  6. Lee “Scratch” Perry - Heavy Rain (2019)
    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2EoL5dLdLOk4SfarXXc9Xu
    Key tracks: “Here Come the Warm Dreads” (with Brian Eno), “Heavy Rainford”
    Notes: Dub companion to Rainford; widescreen late career dub masterclass.

  7. Lee “Scratch” Perry - Super Ape Returns to Conquer (2017)
    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2JeToft1tZwxHm840BjYSM
    Key tracks: “Underground Roots,” “Zion’s Blood (feat. Subatomic Sound System)”
    Notes: Live/modern re imagining with Subatomic; connects to contemporary bass audiences.

Lee “Scratch” Perry Links