World of Jamaican Music

Discover artists and hear songs from everyone on the site! Log in to Spotify in this browser to hear full songs. SourcesYour Voice

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 →

Mikey Dread

Producer. Reggae, roots, dub

Active
1976-2008
Sunrise
June 4, 1954, Port Antonio, Portland, Jamaica
Sunset
March 15, 2008, Stamford, Connecticut, United States
Also recorded as
Dread at the Controls
Also known as
Michael Campbell, Michael George Campbell

Michael "Mikey Dread" Campbell was, in Lloyd Bradley's words, Jamaican radio's "first genuine roots deejay," and became a producer, a recording artist and the Clash's guide to dub.

Born in Port Antonio, he showed an early talent for electronics and was hired as an engineer at the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation, through the singer Edi Fitzroy, then an accountant there, in 1976. From 1977 his late-night show, Dread at the Controls, brought the sound of the lawn dance to the airwaves with jingles and effects he mixed himself (as an engineer he could not speak on air, so he let the recordings talk), and it became the station's most popular program; his constant playing of Althea and Donna's "Uptown Top Ranking" persuaded Joe Gibbs to release it. He quit in 1978 after clashing with the station's management.

He mixed his radio jingles at King Tubby's, from whom, he said, he learned a great deal, and when he started his DATC label its first release, "Love the Dread," reached number seven; "Natty Dread Inna Bull Bay" followed. His albums, from Dread at the Controls and African Anthem (both 1979) to World War III (1980), grew out of the program, and Fact credits his "somewhat nasal voice" with adding to the humor of his records; he produced Edi Fitzroy, Earl Sixteen, Rod Taylor, Sugar Minott and Junior Murvin, working with Carlton Patterson among others.

The Clash took him on tour to warm up their audiences; he produced their single "Bankrobber" and performed on Sandinista! (1980). He made dub tracks for UB40 and toured with them, and he narrated the Channel 4 series Deep Roots Music. He departed at his sister's home in Stamford, Connecticut, in 2008; the cause was a brain tumor.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 317.
  2. "Reggae Star Mikey Dread Dies of Brain Tumor," World Music Central, accessed October 21, 2026, https://worldmusiccentral.org/reggae-star-mikey-dread-dies-of-brain-tumor/. On the year: "Mikey Dread," Wikipedia, accessed October 21, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikey_Dread, citing Jon Lusk in the Independent (March 19, 2008) and Alan Clayson in the Guardian (March 25, 2008).
  3. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 317-18. "Reggae Star Mikey Dread Dies."
  4. "Mikey Dread."
  5. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 318, quoting him.
  6. "Mikey Dread: A Beginner's Guide," Fact, September 15, 2015, https://factmag.com/2015/09/15/mikey-dread-beginners-guide.
  7. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 317. "Mikey Dread." On Patterson: "Reggae Star Mikey Dread Dies."
  8. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 450. "Reggae Star Mikey Dread Dies."
  9. "Mikey Dread."
  10. "Reggae Star Mikey Dread Dies," which says the tumor was announced in October 2007. "Mikey Dread."

World of Jamaican Music: the whole map