Black Scorpio is a Jamaican Sound System and record label which is run by Maurice ‘Black Scorpio’ Johnson. It was run as a single turntable and speaker sound system in 1968 and in 1972. Johnson started the Special I Sound System. It was known as ‘The Horseman Sound’ and it rose to be one of the top sound systems in Jamaica.
Some of the DJs working on the system were Culture Lee, Shukashine, Barry Buk and Lady G. Black Scorpio expanded into becoming a record label in the early 1980s with a studio on Molynes Road in the Drewsland area in Kingston. In 1982, Johnson produced his first hit ‘Pink Eye’ by DJ Sassafrass then another hit in 1985 titles ‘Pocomania Jump’. Black Scorpio became one of the top labels in the early reggae era.
The label recorded for Bunny Rugs, Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown, Frankie Paul, Beenie Man, Marrington Levy, Luciano, and many other famous artists in Jamaica. It then had two branch labels coming from it and these were Headley Avenue and Junior Scorpio. In 2010, Maurice Johnson was inducted into the International Reggae and World Music Awards (IRAWMA) Hall of Fame.
