Clive Hunt, born Maurice Hunt, describes himself as a “Reggae Man” because he has lived a life steeped in the rich and turbulent history of reggae music since the 1960s. His journey, marked by both triumphs and hardships, has seen him survive multiple attempts on his life and numerous threats. Through it all, Hunt has remained steadfast in his mission to spread reggae to the world.
In an exclusive interview with World Music Views, Hunt shared a particularly harrowing tale about a time when his life was threatened. “Jacob Miller tell me about a famous gunman, weh dem write all movie bout seh him a look fi me fi kill me,” he recalled. “You know Rockaz movie, them typa man deh dem yea time, I don’t want to call him name, but Jacob Miller told me that man was looking for me because them a tell me seh me pirate Abisynians album.”
It was during these tumultuous years that Hunt made a pivotal decision that would change the course of his life. “I was married and I had a young baby, and me just tell my lady seh babes we aguh fly out, so me just buy tie ticket and paid up some furniture and fly out,” Hunt shared. His journey took him to the United States, where he arrived in New York with only $74 to his name and no connections. Despite the uncertainty, he knew his passion for music would guide him. “But I could go anywhere in the world and tell them I make Clive Hunt,” he said, speaking to the confidence that carried him through his early days in a new country.
Upon arriving in New York, Hunt ventured to Time Square and rode the longest train from the Bronx. “I walked up to Time Square and took the longest train from the Bronx,” he explained. In the Bronx, Hunt looked for fellow Jamaicans, and before long, he was directed to a record store, where he discovered a community of musicians, including members of the reggae group Chalice.
It was there, in a modest music store in White Plains, New York, that Hunt had a memorable conversation with the store’s owner, who was a professor at Indiana University. Hunt, ever the seeker of musical knowledge, asked, “Do you have the conductor score for The Planets?” His curiosity about music on a deep, almost cellular level led him to explore not only reggae but the broader scope of musical compositions. As he explained to WMV, The Planets was composed by Gustav Holst, and Hunt offered an insightful explanation of the work’s historical and musical significance. “It was written by a German guy named Gustav Holst,” Hunt said, before correcting himself, “Holst was British but Hunt adds that the composition was the first time they had an orchestra with over a hundred musicians playing a series of music. Many different movements. This man watched the planets for many years and just write what he feels.”
In his interview, Hunt also shed light on an interesting connection between reggae and classical music. He explained that the Jamaican national school song, I Pledge My Heart, was inspired by The Planets. “It has nothing to do with Jamaica and England sing it too,” he remarked. He elaborated, explaining that the song’s melody was actually drawn from I Vow To Thee, My Country, a British patriotic hymn composed by Gustav Holst. “Someone wrote lyrics to it and make it Jamaica’s National song,” Hunt said, referencing the work of Hon. Victor Stafford Reid, OJ, who adapted the music into the beloved Jamaican anthem.
A pivotal figure in reggae’s shift toward electronic dancehall, he was working at a Manhattan record store when he introduced Sly and Robbie to the SynDrums—a groundbreaking invention by Los Angeles musician Joe Pollard in 1976 that transformed the trajectory of reggae music.
First made commercially available in the late 1970s and early 1980s, SynDrums played a significant role in shaping the sound of the era. However, Hunt asserts that simply knowing how to use this technology does not define a true musician.
“To be an arranger you have to know all the instruments in the orchestra plus, so I studied that as a little boy. To be a producer you don’t have to know music, you just have to like music and have money. But what do why my work is outstanding me know how fi make arrangement and draw you away from a conversation,” he said.
Despite his deep knowledge of music, Hunt, 72, also classifies himself as “a wild man” and does not consider himself a highly educated person, as his early schooling included only “a little math and a little English.” This lack of formal education, he admits, allowed more educated individuals to take advantage of him, robbing him of his royalties. As a result, he found himself keeping company with criminals in his community.
“Me is a in the streets person,” he says. “That’s how I got shot.” He then explained a situation where he was being extorted. “I was being extorted, I didn’t even recognize it and knew what it was.
Clive Hunt shared with World Music Views a harrowing story of survival—an encounter with a notorious figure that escalated into an assassination attempt.
“One morning, a man called me while I was at Mixing Lab and asked, ‘Fada, where you deh?’ Soon after, he showed up at my workplace. Someone reacted and said he was one of the notorious ones. I left and went to Tuff Gong to work. About three hours later, security called to say someone was outside asking for me. I told them, ‘Let him know I can’t come out right now.’”
It was Election Day in the U.S., 2004—Bush versus Kerry. Hunt remembers leaving the studio and driving into the hills to get home, only to find the same man waiting for him in his Linstead community, begging for “a ting.” He agreed to meet up, but what followed was a barrage of gunfire. Hunt was hit. The next thing he recalls is someone dressed in white calling out to him.
As if being shot wasn’t enough, Hunt and the man who came to his rescue fell from a building.
“Me decide seh me nah dead behind nuh building, so me run. A man threw me into his car and took me to the hospital,” he recalled. The next day, Hunt learned that someone else in the vicinity had not survived the shooting.
Through it all, Hunt’s life and career embody the resilience and soul of reggae music. His latest album, Fields of Gold: A Reggae Tribute to Sting, reached No. 10 on the U.S. Reggae iTunes chart.
“Catalog is important,” he reflects. “And I don’t own any of the music I produced.”
