BIOGRAPHY
The Story
Lord Sassafrass is Michael Johnson of Maverley, Kingston. His career began before Black Scorpio became his defining sound-system home, with experience across Jamaican sounds and live dancehall during the 1970s.
Sassafrass named himself after the racehorse Sassafras. In 1978, while recording Green Bay Incident and Green Bay Inquest at Lee “Scratch” Perry’s Black Ark, Perry added the title “Lord,” completing the name Lord Sassafrass.
His friendship with Maurice “Jack Scorpio” Johnson made Black Scorpio a natural home. At the Black Scorpio yard at 30 Headley Avenue, Sassafrass developed the horse-racing lyrics and live performance identity that made him the Original Horseman.
When General Trees entered the camp, Trees became the Younger Horseman. Sassafrass and Trees developed a distinctive combination style in which one could deejay while the other added harmony or answered on a second microphone.
Sassafrass also recorded with Bunny Lee in the early 1980s, with sessions at King Tubby’s studio and Prince Jammy engineering. The Horse-Man Connection belongs to this wider pre-Poccomania recording period.
His major breakthrough came with Poccomania Jump, also widely called Poco Jump. The Black Scorpio recording became a major Jamaican hit in 1985 and is documented on the Mad Mad riddim with Maurice “Jack Scorpio” Johnson producing.
The Poccomania Jump album captures a remarkably concentrated Black Scorpio period. Its tracks connect Sassafrass to Answer, Real Rock, Heavenless/Peanut Man, General, Run Run/Shan-A-Shan and other foundational Jamaican rhythm families.
While Poco Jump was strong in Jamaica, Sassafrass also spent substantial time in New York. He worked sounds including GT High Power and Third World Sound and clashed repeatedly with Johnny Ringo, extending the Horseman identity into the overseas dancehall circuit.
His later catalog includes combinations with General Trees and Barrington Levy, along with continued recording and touring. The importance of Sassafrass, however, remains rooted in the live dance: Black Scorpio, the Original Horseman identity and the performance culture that helped prepare the ground for General Trees.
