World of Jamaican Music

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

Remembering Derrick Harriott (1939-2026), rocksteady singer and producer. Read his story →

Henry "Junjo" Lawes

Producer. Reggae, dancehall

Active
1979-1999
Sunrise
January 2, 1960, Kingston, Jamaica
Sunset
June 14, 1999, London, England (life taken violently)

Henry "Junjo" Lawes, born in West Kingston around 1960, assembled the personnel and the sound of early dancehall, and his life was taken before he was forty.

He sang first, in a group called Grooving Locks, without result, then worked as an assistant to Linval Thompson and put out his first productions on the Thompson Sound and Jah Life labels. In 1979 he took Barrington Levy into Channel One and cut "Collie Weed," "Shine Eye Gal," and the albums Bounty Hunter and Englishman. The combination he used there became the standard for the next five years: the Roots Radics playing the riddims, Scientist mixing at King Tubby's, Channel One for the tracks.

His own labels, Volcano, Jah Guidance, and Arrival, and the Volcano sound system carried the output, and Greensleeves handled Britain. The Rough Guide says his Volcano Hi-Power sound "enjoyed similar success" to the top sets from 1983, and Bradley has him moving the "formidable" system to New York to follow reggae's American audience. Yellowman was his biggest artist; Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt (1983) was cut with the Radics at Channel One and voiced and mixed by Sylvan Morris at Harry J's. The rest of the roster included Eek-A-Mouse ("Wa Do Dem"), Michigan and Smiley ("Diseases"), John Holt ("Police in Helicopter"), Johnny Osbourne ("Ice Cream Love"), the Wailing Souls ("Fire House Rock"), Cocoa Tea, Frankie Paul, Josey Wales, Nicodemus, Toyan, and Barry Brown.

How much of the sound was his is a fair question. Style Scott, who drummed on most of it, described him in a 2010 interview as an executive producer, the man who provided the money rather than arranged the music. What is not in question is the judgment about who to put in a room together. Howard Campbell put it flatly: "When it comes to style, however, no producer compares to Henry 'Junjo' Lawes."

He moved to New York in 1985, where a prison sentence kept him out of production, and re-emerged only briefly, in 1994, with albums by Ninjaman and Shaka Shamba. His life was taken in the street in Harlesden, north-west London, where he had been living for two years. The case has never been solved.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide says he came "from the ghetto around Olympic Way, West Kingston," and calls him "the most consistently successful" producer of the first half of the 1980s. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 266. Bradley says he and Don Mais "were near neighbours in Waterhouse." Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 494. Katz says he was "born and raised on Olympic Way," near Waterhouse, and was thirty-nine at his death. David Katz, "Henry 'Junjo' Lawes," Guardian, July 20, 1999, https://www.theguardian.com/news/1999/jul/20/guardianobituaries3.
  2. Katz says he began singing with the Grooving Locks trio in 1978 and, "reluctant to perform in public," switched to producing in 1979. Katz, "Henry 'Junjo' Lawes."
  3. The Rough Guide says he "had first ventured into production with Linval Thompson the previous year," before his 1979 Channel One sessions. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 266.
  4. The Rough Guide says the sessions with "the 15-year-old Barrington Levy" produced his first 45s and then Bounty Hunter, and that a Scientist dub set drew all its rhythms from the Englishman album. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 243, 266. Katz names "Shine Eye Gal," "Collie Weed," and "Shaolin Temple." Katz, "Henry 'Junjo' Lawes."
  5. The Rough Guide says Lawes never owned a studio, "usually using Channel One," and that Scientist was his "preferred engineer" both before Scientist left King Tubby's and after he moved to Channel One. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 240, 266.
  6. Bradley says that when Don Mais left for New York, "Lawes' Volcano label took over the same band," and that Lawes later moved "his formidable Volcano sound system to New York." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 494, 498. The Rough Guide notes the series of Lawes dub albums made for Greensleeves. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 243.
  7. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 248; Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 498.
  8. Bradley says Yellowman and "the Junjo Lawes dancehall sound" were "just past its combined peak" by the 1984 album King Yellowman. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 508.
  9. The Rough Guide covers Eek-A-Mouse's "Wa-Do-Dem," Michigan & Smiley's "Diseases," Barry Brown, Michael Prophet, John Holt, Johnny Osbourne, the Wailing Souls, and Frankie Paul among his artists. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 266-68. Katz adds Cocoa Tea, General Echo, Nicodemus, and Little John. Katz, "Henry 'Junjo' Lawes."
  10. In Bradley, Don Mais claims Lawes "used to ask him to recommend musicians," which Bradley suggests could explain "the lack of progression." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 494.
  11. Howard Campbell, "The Law According to Junjo," Jamaica Observer, November 1, 2012, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2012/11/01/the-law-according-to-junjo/.
  12. Katz says Lawes moved to New York in 1985, that a prison sentence then kept him out of production, and that he "briefly re-emerged" in 1994 with albums by Ninjaman and Shaka Shamba. Katz, "Henry 'Junjo' Lawes."
  13. Katz says he died in Harlesden, where he had been based for two years, "another victim of the escalating violence between drug dealers." Katz, "Henry 'Junjo' Lawes."

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