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WEST INDIAN TIMES EXCLUSIVE
Dub Engineer ‘The
Scientist’ Fears For His Life As He And Record
Label/Producer Jah Life Receive Death Threat From
King Jammys Henchman
On Saturday, March 25th, 2006 West Indian Times
was alerted by veteran artists and producers in
the Reggae industry to the existence of 2 separate
recordings of conversations which included death
threats towards Dub Engineer Hopeton Overton ‘The
Scientist’ Browne and Producer/Label owner Hyman
‘Jah life’ Wright as well as admission of
perjury in a US court by King Jammys. One of the
recordings is a conversation between King Jammys
(a record label/producer based in Jamaica) and Dub
Engineer Scientist who is based in America and the
other recording is of a conversation between The
Scientist and a man who stated that King Jammys
was his boss.
After listening to the recordings West Indian
Times spoke to Browne and Jah Life to find out
what led to the death threats. We were given
history that spanned over 30 years in the music
industry; history, secrets, facts that only a few
are privy to. For now, we will share with you our
readers the information we were given as to what
directly led up to the death threats against
Scientist and Jah Life.
In 2003 The Scientist filed a law suit in the
United States Federal Court against Greensleeves
record label (based in England) and the company
RockStar the makers of the game ‘Grand Theft
Auto’ for copyright infringement. The Scientist
had challenged Greensleeves for the recording and
composition copyrights of five tracks which they
used on the video game, Grand Theft Auto 3. The
music was originally from one of The Scientist's
albums that was released in the 80's entitiled
'Scientist Rids The World Of The Evil Vampires.'
The Scientist’s music was included in the
violent video game without his knowledge or
consent. Greensleeves had made a deal with
RockStar for the company to use the music by The
Scientist and when Greensleeves was asked by
RockStar if they had the rights to the music they
said they did. Greensleeves indemnified Rockstar
meaning they would be responsible for any costs
incurred if there was a claim by any person
stating that they had rights to the music.
In the US court Greensleeves had to produce the
documents that were signed with RockStar for Grand
Theft Auto, they had to produce the shipping bill
and all the information regarding pressing.
Greensleeves also produced a document which was
alleged to have been signed by a producer and
marketing rep who represented both Jah Life (US)
and The Scientist (Jamaica) overseas. This
producer/marketing rep. was Henry ‘Junju’
Lawes. The document was signed in approximately
1978 and showed where Greensleeves paid Junju for
music. They also produced a second document which
was allegedly signed by Lawes around 1994 before
he died. The second document signed by Lawes
basically gave ownership and copyright of music by
over 30 artists to Greensleeves. However, nowhere
on the contract did it mention an amount that was
paid for the copyright ownership. There was also a
question in court as to the validity of the
documents signed by Junju Lawes as he was
illiterate and Greensleeves knew this, in fact
both Jah Life and Scientist say that Greensleeves
would not work with them, only through Jun Ju as
they could get away with fooling him as he could
not read or write. Scientist and Jah Life claim
that this is why Junju was named as producer on
over 30 + albums that he took to Greensleeves
instead of them. Also, it was noted that both
contracts had identical signatures, no deviation
and even had the same smudge marks as though the
second signature was cut and paste from the first
contract.
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