World of Jamaican Music

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An illustrated map of the creators of Jamaican music and how they are connected.

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Gussie Clarke

Producer. Reggae, dancehall

Active
1973-present
Sunrise
Clermont, St. Mary, Jamaica
Also known as
Augustus Clarke

Augustus "Gussie" Clarke, born in St. Mary in 1953 or 1954 and raised in Kingston, produced two of the best deejay albums ever made before he was twenty-one and then, fifteen years later, built the studio that set the sound of crossover dancehall.

He started by cutting dub plates and running a sound system, King Gussie Hi-Fi, and made his first production in 1972 with U-Roy's "The Higher the Mountain." Big Youth's Screaming Target followed, cut across Randy's, Dynamic, and Harry J's and issued in Britain by Trojan; I-Roy's "Presenting I Roy" came out the same year. Both are among the records that established the deejay album as a form rather than a novelty. Through the 1970s he worked with Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs, Augustus Pablo, and Leroy Smart, releasing on his own Gussie and Puppy labels, and in 1981 produced the Mighty Diamonds' "Pass the Kouchie," the source of Musical Youth's "Pass the Dutchie."

The digital transition began for him with the Mighty Diamonds' The Real Enemy in 1987, the year he opened Music Works. Gregory Isaacs's "Rumours," cut there in 1988, was the biggest record in Jamaica that summer, and its riddim carried J.C. Lodge's "Telephone Love," the biggest reggae record in the United States that year. The same riddim and its successors produced "Pirate's Anthem" with Home T, Cocoa Tea, and Shabba Ranks, "Twice My Age" with Shabba Ranks and Krystal, and "Mr. Loverman," which reworked Deborahe Glasgow's "Champion Lover."

The Rough Guide credits him with "a gift for assembling superior performers, writers and engineers into hitmaking teams," and the Music Works team drew on Steely and Clevie, Danny and Dalton Browne, Robbie Lyn, and Dean Fraser's horns, mixed largely by Steven Stanley. His rule of thumb put the material first: "The song makes a singer, not the singer makes a song." Clarke also ran his business differently from most of his contemporaries: he issued royalty statements and set up a publishing company, Dub Plate Music, at a time when neither was standard practice in Kingston; after the dispute over "Pass the Dutchie" he resolved to keep "controlling interests in respect of the copyright." He continues to operate as a producer and publisher.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide says Clarke "first established his reputation in his late teens" and calls him "a great organizer with a gift for assembling superior performers, writers and engineers into hitmaking teams." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 307. Wikipedia gives his birth year as 1954 in its text and 1953 in its categories. "Gussie Clarke," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gussie_Clarke. Clarke told Angus Taylor he was born in Clermont, St. Mary, and came to downtown Kingston early; John Masouri gives 1953, the Gleaner and VP Records March 26, 1954. Angus Taylor, "Interview: Augustus 'Gussie' Clarke," United Reggae, August 6, 2014, https://unitedreggae.com/articles/n1586/080614/interview-gussie-clarke. "Gussie Clarke Hits High Note with Studio for Edna Manley," Jamaica Gleaner, June 29, 2025, https://web5.jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20250629/gussie-clarke-hits-high-note-studio-edna-manley.
  2. The Rough Guide says he moved from running "his own small sound" through "the record export business" before "venturing into production in 1972." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 307. Wikipedia says he started by cutting dub plates and names "The Higher the Mountain" as his first production. "Gussie Clarke."
  3. The Rough Guide lists Screaming Target on Gussie in Jamaica and Trojan in Britain, and says Clarke "was then barely 20." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 126.
  4. The Rough Guide says I-Roy's debut set for Clarke "appeared the same year as Big Youth's." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 127.
  5. The Rough Guide calls Screaming Target "the most important deejay set after U-Roy's debut" and Presenting I-Roy "comparable in terms of its mould-shattering quality." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 126-27.
  6. Wikipedia says much of his output came out on his own Gussy and Puppy labels. "Gussie Clarke."
  7. The Rough Guide says "Pass the Kouchie" brought the "Full Up" rhythm back in 1981, recorded while Clarke was still using Channel One, and that Musical Youth "cleaned up on the global market with a weaker cut of the rhythm and a bowdlerized take on the lyric." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 285.
  8. The Rough Guide says Clarke opened Music Works "by 1987," and describes The Real Enemy and Get Ready as the Mighty Diamonds albums he released "before and after the breakthrough of 'Rumours.'" Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 285, 307, 308. Wikipedia dates the studio's launch to 1988. "Gussie Clarke."
  9. The Rough Guide calls "Rumours" "ground-breaking" and "Telephone Love" "an even bigger club hit in the United States." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 307, 308. Wikipedia calls "Rumours" "the biggest hit on the island during the summer of 1988" and "Telephone Love" "the biggest reggae hit of the same year in the United States." "Gussie Clarke."
  10. The 1989 Greensleeves single credits Krystal and Shabba Ranks, with Clarke as producer. Krystal and Shabba Ranks, "Twice My Age," Greensleeves, Discogs, accessed October 1, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/613177. The Rough Guide notes Clarke's "popular pairing of Shabba ... with women singers like Krystal and J.C. Lodge." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 307.
  11. Riddimguide lists Glasgow's "Champion Lover" and her duet with Shabba Ranks, "Mr. Lover Man," on the Champion Lover riddim, both 1990 Music Works releases. "Champion Lover Riddim," Riddimguide, accessed October 1, 2026, https://www.riddimguide.com/tunedb/riddim_Champion%20Lover/.
  12. The Rough Guide names the songwriters Mikey Bennett, Hopeton Lindo, and Dennis Creary as part of the Music Works team, with Bennett providing "most of the vocal arrangements." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 307.
  13. Taylor, "Interview: Augustus ''Gussie'' Clarke."
  14. The Rough Guide says Clarke "had ambitions to run Jamaica's answer to Motown, envisaging a totally professional operation with its own studio, in-house songwriters and business practices in line with international copyright law." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 285. Taylor, "Interview: Augustus ''Gussie'' Clarke."

World of Jamaican Music: the whole map