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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Jack Scorpio

Producer. Dancehall, reggae

Active
1968-present
Also known as
Big Jack Scorpio, Maurice Johnson, Black Scorpio, Morris Johnson

Jack Scorpio (Maurice Johnson) is the soundman behind Black Scorpio, one of the leading sounds of the dancehall era, who in the old tradition turned soundman into producer.

He started in 1968 with a one-turntable, one-speaker set in Drewsland, Kingston, playing friends' parties and street dances; he remembers the work of "stringing up" a sound before plug-and-play, and dances where patrons fired shots for a good tune, most of them, he says, from the police. By the late 1970s the deejay Lord Sassafrass was carrying Black Scorpio, and then General Trees, the "younger horseman": Johnson bred racehorses and both deejays had links with the track, so it became known as the Horseman sound. Half Pint and Michael Palmer sang on it, and Lady G started there. In the sound wars of the early 1980s Black Scorpio was King Jammy's rival, and it was the other sound at the Waltham Park Road clash of February 23, 1985, where Jammy first played "Sleng Teng"; the record's success sidelined him for a time.

He opened his own studio in his home area of Maverley, below Washington Boulevard, in the mid-1980s, and it became one of the leading studios in Kingston. Black Scorpio's hits included Sassafrass's "Pocomania Jump," General Trees's "Heart, Mind and Soul," Michael Palmer's "My Region," Echo Minott's "Lazy Body" and Barrington Levy's "She's Mine," and later Garnett Silk's "Seen Zion," Everton Blender's "Blend Them" and Capleton's "Blow Dem"; Frankie Paul, Chaka Demus, Papa San and Beenie Man also recorded for him. He still takes the sound abroad as a foundation sound, sometimes clashing with Jammy.

Last updated October 7, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 284; Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 503. Bradley calls him Morris "Black Scorpio" Johnson.
  2. "String the Sound: The Evolution of J'can Sound System Culture," Jamaica Gleaner, February 3, 2019, https://past.jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20190203/string-sound-evolution-jcan-sound-system-culture.
  3. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 5, 271, 274, 284. Lady G's start is from "Nuff Respect for Lady G!," Jamaica Observer, September 17, 2022, https://jamaicaobserver.com/2022/09/16/nuff-respect-for-lady-g. "Black Scorpio," Who Cork the Dance?, accessed October 7, 2026, https://whocorkthedance.com/Blackscorpio.html.
  4. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 295, 302.
  5. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 284. The Gleaner places the studio in Drewsland; a fan history of the sound gives its address as 30 Headley Avenue, Drewsland, and dates the label to 1984. "Black Scorpio."
  6. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 263, 274, 284, 287-88, 319, 323, 336, 338, 340, 361, 373.
  7. "Black Scorpio."

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