Early work Perry's musical career began in the late 1950s as a record seller for
Clement Coxsone Dodd's
sound system. As his sometimes turbulent relationship with Dodd developed, he found himself performing a variety of important tasks at Dodd's
Studio One hit factory, going on to record nearly thirty songs for the label. His first major single "People Funny Boy", which was an insult directed at Gibbs, did well with 60,000 copies sold in Jamaica alone. With his own studio at his disposal, Perry's productions became more lavish, as the energetic producer was able to spend as much time as he wanted on the music he produced. Virtually everything Perry recorded in The Black Ark was done using basic recording equipment; through sonic sleight-of-hand, Perry made it sound unique.
Paul Douglas mentions: "Scratch had a particular sound and everybody was fascinated by his sound. He had this way of putting things together; it was just his sound and it influenced a lot of people. I've even gone to the Black Ark with
Eric Gale for that
Negril album; I remember myself and Val Douglas, we laid some tracks there, Eric Gale overdubbed stuff on there, but I honestly don't remember what happened to it." Perry remained behind the mixing desk for many years, producing songs and albums that stand out as a high point in reggae history. He was known to remain in the studio for days at a time when mixing, taking no visitors or calls, and very little food or drink. By 1978, stress and unwanted outside influences began to take their toll: both Perry and the Black Ark quickly fell into a state of disrepair. Eventually, the studio burned to the ground. Perry has constantly insisted that he burned the Black Ark himself in a fit of rage.
After the Black Ark (1980s and 1990s) After the demise of the Black Ark in the early 1980s, Perry spent time in England and the United States, performing live and making erratic records with a variety of collaborators. Perry stated in an interview that he wanted to see if "it was the smoke making the music or Lee Perry making the music. I found out it was me and that I don't need to smoke." In 1998, Perry reached a wider global audience as vocalist on the track "Dr. Lee, PhD" from the
Beastie Boys' album
Hello Nasty.
Later career In 2003, Perry won a
Grammy for Best Reggae Album with the album
Jamaican E.T. In 2004,
Rolling Stone ranked Perry number 100 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. He teamed up with a group of Swiss musicians and performed under the name Lee Perry and the White Belly Rats, and toured the United States in 2006 and 2007 using the New York City-based group Dub Is a Weapon as his backing band. After meeting
Andrew W.K. at
SXSW in 2006, Perry invited him to co-produce his album
Repentance. The album, released on 19 August 2008 through
Narnack Records, featured several guest artists including
Moby,
Ari Up, producer
Don Fleming, drummer
Brian Chippendale, and bassist
Josh Werner. In 2007, Perry's song "Enter the Dragon" was sampled on the track "
Carrots" by
Panda Bear of
Animal Collective. As well, Perry was selected by Animal Collective in 2011 to perform at
All Tomorrow's Parties, which the band curated in May 2011. That same year, he recorded
Rise Again with bassist and producer
Bill Laswell; the album featured contributions from
Tunde Adebimpe,
Sly Dunbar, and
Bernie Worrell, and was released on Laswell's
M.O.D. Technologies label. In 2008, Perry reunited with
Adrian Sherwood on
The Mighty Upsetter. Between 2007 and 2010, Perry recorded three albums with British producer Steve Marshall who he met at
Pyramid Arts Development in
Hackney. The albums featured performances by
Keith Richards and
George Clinton. Two of these albums,
End of an American Dream (2008) and
Revelation (2010), received Grammy nominations in the category Best Reggae Album. In 2009, Perry collaborated with Dubblestandart on their
Return from Planet Dub double album, revisiting some of his material from the 1970s and 1980s, as well as collaborating on new material with Dubblestandart, some of which also included
Ari Up of
the Slits. In 2008, leading up to this release, Perry's first foray into the
dubstep genre was released on
12" vinyl, a collaboration with Dubblestandart and New York City's
Subatomic Sound System called "Iron Devil". That record was followed by several more reggae-oriented dubstep collaborations with Dubblestandart and Subatomic Sound System on digital and vinyl, first
Blackboard Jungle volumes 1 and 2 (2009), featuring
dancehall vocalist Jahdan Blakkamoore, then
Chrome Optimism (2010), which also featured American filmmaker
David Lynch. Following that, in 2010, Perry and
Ari Up of
the Slits collaborated on a limited-edition
Subatomic Sound System 7" called "Hello, Hell Is Very Low", a rootical
dubstep release that would turn out to be one of Ari Up's last recordings and the final release during her lifetime. In 2010, Perry had his first ever solo art exhibition at Dem Passwords art gallery in
Los Angeles, California. The show, titled "Secret Education", featured works on canvas, paper, and a video installation. In 2011,
The Upsetter, a documentary film about Perry, narrated by
Benicio Del Toro, was released worldwide in theaters after its premiere at the 2008
SXSW Film Festival. The film was directed and produced by American film makers
Ethan Higbee and
Adam Bhala Lough, and opened in Los Angeles in March 2011. It continued to screen worldwide into 2012, with the DVD,
iTunes, and
Video on Demand following soon thereafter. In 2012, Perry teamed with
the Orb to produce
The Orbserver in the Star House, which was recorded in
Berlin over a period of several months. The album earned critical acclaim, and featured the single "Golden Clouds", named after the
historic property located near Perry's hometown in Jamaica. The recording sessions were filmed by Volker Schaner and were part of the documentary ''Lee Scratch Perry's Vision of Paradise''. In August 2012, it was announced that Perry would receive Jamaica's sixth highest honour, the
Order of Distinction, Commander class. In 2013, Perry performed at the first Dub Champions Festival in
Vienna, a sold-out performance, backed by Dubblestandart with
Adrian Sherwood handling the dub mix. Perry also performed at the first two Dub Champions Festivals in New York City in 2011 and 2012, backed by
Subatomic Sound System. Perry performed at the 2013
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in
Indio, California. Perry is featured as the DJ on the dub and reggae radio station "
The Blue Ark" in
Grand Theft Auto V. The station includes a number of dubs by Perry and the Upsetters including "Disco Devil" and "Grumblin' Dub". In October 2013, it was announced that Perry will be awarded a Gold
Musgrave Medal later that month by the
Institute of Jamaica. Perry recorded an album with Daniel Boyle in London, released in May 2014 as
Lee "Scratch" Perry – Back on the Controls. The album received a
Grammy nomination later that year. Perry remixed the "Thor's Stone" single by UK producer
Forest Swords in November 2013. , Russia, in August 2015 In 2015, the documentary ''Lee Scratch Perry's Vision of Paradise'' had a worldwide release in cinemas as well as on DVD and VOD after premiering at the
East End Film Festival in London. The film followed Perry for 15 years through his home in Switzerland and travels abroad. in 2015.In September 2015, Perry and
Subatomic Sound System launched a 40th anniversary tour for Perry's 1976 album
Super Ape. The tour began as part of Dub Champions Festival and continued over the next two years with more than 50 dates in North America and some isolated dates in Europe. Nearly every show was sold out on the 2015 and 2016 tours. It culminated with the release of the
Super Ape Returns to Conquer album in September 2017 which debuted at number 2 on
iTunes US reggae chart behind
Bob Marley's remastered
Legend album, and on number 3 on the
Billboard reggae chart.
Larry McDonald performed as part of the band and on the recorded album. A
Kickstarter campaign was organized in 2015 by Emch of Subatomic Sound System to raise funds to build a custom 15-foot-tall gorilla similar to the one on the original album cover art. The Kickstarter campaign reached its goal and the gorilla appeared on stage during 2015 and 2016 tour dates. In October 2018, Perry and
Subatomic Sound System launched a 45th anniversary tour for the 1973 album
Blackboard Jungle Dub, produced by Perry. The tour began in North America and tour posters includes the tag line "World's 1st dub album, Live for the first time".
Rolling Stone published a preview of the tour. 2019 saw the release of
The Revelation of Lee "Scratch" Perry, a film about the making of his 2010 album
Revelation, directed by Steve Marshall for State of Emergency. The film features intimate behind the scenes footage of Perry at work in his home studio in the
Swiss Alps and an in depth interview with him. In April 2019, hip-hop producer
Mr. Green announced that he would be doing a record made out of Perry's famous audio stems. In July 2019, Perry announced that the record is entitled
Super Ape vs. 緑: Open Door and that it would release through Tuff Kong Records on 19 August 2019. The record combined over 20 different genres of music. Hypebeast said it was "Perry's best work in years" and that it "pushes boundaries of various genres. The record reached the Top 10 on the iTunes reggae chart and the Top 100 on the
Billboard reggae chart. A couple of weeks prior to his death, Perry released his last song, "No Bloody Friends". The song was a collaboration with Ral Ston, and it was released on 13 August 2021. Perry's final album was with New Age Doom, titled ''Lee "Scratch" Perry's Guide to the Universe'' (2021). Perry's final dub production was for Sly & Robbie vs. Roots Radics,
The Dub Battle (2021). The song was "The Gates of Dub" with Max Romeo and the Roots Radics band produced by Hernan "Don Camel" Sforzini. In February 2025 vocals recorded by Perry in 2015-2017 were featured on the album
Mercy attributed to Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Peter Harris & Fritz Catlin. ==Personal life==