Henry “Junjo” Lawes (born circa 1960) was one of the most essential Jamaican reggae/dancehall producers during the 1980s.

Despite being only semi-literate and having no musical education whatsoever, Lawes possessed an extraordinary talent in songwriting and new talent scouting. He was the one to discover seminal dancehall artists like Eek-A-Mouse and Yellowman.

Employing the dry and heavy sound of the Channel One backing band Roots Radics, Lawes created the typical dancehall sound of the first half of the 1980s, which he managed to market very successfully around the world through a stable cooperation with Greensleeves Records, who released nearly all of his material for the European market.

Junjo was born in the Tower Hill ghetto in Kingston and he began working as a producer in the late 1970s. He worked with many different artists, producers and engineers such as Linval Thompson, Scientist, Toyan,
Barrington Levy, Don Carlos, Eek-A-Mouse, Johnny Osbourne and Yellowman, all for his record label Volcano. He used the Roots Radics as his regular studio band.

By the mid 1980s Junjo’s sound system was among Jamaica’s most popular, but his questionable business practices were leading to problems for him in Kingston. In 1985 he moved to New York but he ran into problems with the law and he spent six years in Riker’s Island prison on drug charges.

In 1991 Junjo got out of prison and returned to Jamaica but by then the music business had changed and he did not work in the music industry as much. It is unknown what Junjo was doing in the 1990s but he was very likely involved in the drug business.

On June 14, 1999, during a visit to London, Junjo Lawes was shot dead in St. Mary’s Road, Harlesden.