Lee “Scratch” Perry was born in Kendal, Jamaica in 1936 and has been one of the most influential figures in the development and acceptance of reggae and dub music, both in Jamaica and internationally.

Perry’s music career began when he collaborated with Clement Coxsone Dodd, recording for his Studio One label in the late 1950s, before going onto work with Joe Gibb’s Amalgamated Records.

However, after seeing his relationships with both these producers breakdown due to personal and financial conflicts, Perry struck out on his own and set up the Upsetter label in 1968. His first single ‘Funny Boy’, sold an impressive 60,000 copies and was notable for its innovative use of a crying baby sample, as well as a fast chugging beat, which would soon become the sound identified as ‘reggae’. For the next four years he worked with his studio band, The Upsetters before going onto to spend the seventies, releasing numerous recordings on a variety of labels, becoming especially well known for the innovative production techniques he established at his own back yard studio, The Black Ark.

It was here, that his mixing board experiments resulted in the creation of dub, as he produced a host of recognizable musicians, including Bob Marley & The Wailers, Junior Murvin, The Heptones, The Congos and Max Romeo; though using basic recording equipment, through sonic sleight-of-hand, Perry made it sound unique. Perry remained behind the mixing desk for many years, producing songs and albums that stand out as high points in reggae history.

By the end of the seventies, due to various factors the Black Ark fell into a state of disrepair, eventually burning to the ground, Perry claiming he was the one responsible after a fit of rage. During much of the eighties he performed live and recorded erratically; it was not until late in the decade, when he began working with British producers, Adrian Sherwood and The Mad Professor that his career began to get back on solid ground again, with Perry also attributing this to his quitting of alcohol and cannabis smoking.

He continues to record and play live to enthusiastic audiences; over the last ten years he has collaborated with numerous artists and producers including Andrew W.K., Ari Up of The Slits, Keith Richards, George Clinton as a well as a group of Swiss musicians whom he performed with under the name Lee Perry and the White Belly Rats, to name but a few. He won a Grammy for his ‘Jamaican E.T’ album in 2003 and the following year he was ranked #100 in Rolling Stone Magazine’s list of the ‘100 Greatest Artists of All Time’.

Between 2008 and 2010, Perry also dabbled in the production of dubstep, working with the Vienna-based, Dubblestandart and New York’s Subatomic Soundystem on a number of releases. Earlier this year, he teamed up with the Orb for the critically-acclaimed album, ‘Observer In The Star House’, while more recently he has worked with two French producers, who go under the moniker, Easy Riddim Maker, adding his vocals to their own Perry-inspired dub material; their ‘Humanacity’ album came out this month.

In August 2012 it was announced that Perry would received Jamaica's sixth highest honour, the Order of Distinction, Commander Class.