Meet the Scientist behind the evolution of Dub Reggae

Born Hopeton Overton Brown, Scientist is a talented recording engineer and producer. He was one of the leading dub artists of the 1980s, famous for his extravagant mixing style, his wild album titles and distinctive cover artwork.

Scientist was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1960. He learned basic electronics from his father, and when he was a teenager he applied his skills to fix the sound systems of mobile DJs.

young scientist reggae with king tubby Courtesy of Dubby Doo — *A young Scientist with King Tubby [Courtesy of Dubby Doo on facebook]*

In the mid-1970s he started building sound system audio amplifiers. One day he ended up at King Tubby’s, looking for a particular type of transformer that he needed to build his equipment. The legendary King Tubby, one of the originators of dub music, was immediately impressed by the engineering skills of Hopeton Overton Brown and employed him shortly after. In an interview with Mike Pawka of Nice Up Enterprises / Jammin Reggae Archive, Hopeton Overton Brown recalled:

“I told King Tubby I wanted to build a mixing console with moving faders and automation. He made a joke to Bunny Lee and said, “Damn, this little boy must be a Scientist”

… and this is how he got his stage name.

Scientist became Tubby’s apprentice and started his dub experimentations. This is where he developed his eccentric dub style, loaded with echo explosions and blasts of feedback. It was a playful and very psychedelic style. At the age of 18, Scientist cut some great dub sides for the Roots Tradition label, supervised by Errol “Don” Mais.

young scientist reggae engineer via reggae roast — *A young Scientist at the controls [courtesy of Reggae Roast on facebook]*

By the late 1970s, Scientist joined Studio One while still collaborating with King Tubby, something that Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd did not like. This caused Scientist’s experience at Studio One to be short lived. Yet his crisp, experimental mixing left an imprint in some great records by Sugar Minott, Freddie McGregor, Johnny Osbourne, and the deejay duo Michigan and Smiley.

By the early 1980s, Scientist was also known as “The Dub Chemist”. His fame kept growing as he worked with engineer Henry “Junjo” Lawes, for whom Scientist mixed several albums featuring the Roots Radics at Channel One. Many albums had titles about Scientist’s fictional achievements in fighting Space Invaders and about winning the World Cup. Scientist presided over Junjo’s popular work with Barrington Levy, Michael Prophet and the Wailing Souls.

In 1983 Scientist left his role as main engineer at Channel One to work at Tuff Gong studio, where he engineered hits by the likes of Junior Reid and Tristan Palmer, among others. Two years later he moved to the USA to work as a recording engineer and electronics designer.

Scientist has continued to record and release new dub material throughout the years. His latest albums were released in 2017 (as of August 2021). In the past decade, Scientist has tried to defend his rights as a recording artist and to receive royalty payments for his work. He filed suit against Greensleeves Records for reissuing his music without permission or payment, and against the creators of the Grand Theft Auto video game for using some of his tracks without asking his consent.

As factmag.com puts it:

Scientist was all over the place as the 70s gave way to the 80s, shaping significant vocal and dub works at Studio One, Channel One and Tuff Gong at a time in which reggae was undergoing dramatic changes. Yet the fact that he never really made the shift to becoming a self-sufficient record producer in his own right, unlike Jammy and Tubby, is part of what has kept him from gaining rightful recognition for his full contribution.