Mad Professor

Born in Guyana around 1955 under the name Neal Fraser (also spelled Neil Fraser), the future producer earned his nickname during childhood through an obsessive fascination with electronics that even led him to construct his own radio receiver. At thirteen his family relocated to London, and by his early twenties he had begun acquiring reel-to-reel decks along with echo and reverb units. In 1979 he constructed a custom mixing console and launched a modest four-track facility inside his Thornton Heath living room, christening the operation Ariwa after a Nigerian term denoting sound or communication. There he captured performances by lovers-rock and roots-oriented artists including Deborahe Glasgow, Aquizim, Sergeant Pepper, Tony Benjamin, Davina Stone, and Ranking Ann. Neighbor complaints soon prompted a move to a dedicated space in Peckham.

A protégé of Lee “Scratch” Perry, Mad Professor emerged as a central figure among dub reggae’s second-wave producers. The early volumes of his Dub Me Crazy series documented dub’s adaptation to the digital era, harnessing new electronic tools to stretch the genre’s textural vocabulary with denser layers and futuristic atmospheres. By the middle of the 1990s he shifted toward a more classic approach on the Black Liberation Dub sequence. Throughout these years Ariwa operated as both studio and imprint, nurturing a roster heavy on lovers-rock and conscious roots material while issuing high-caliber British reggae recordings. Growing acclaim positioned him as a favored remixer for forward-thinking rock and electronic acts; his most prominent assignment was the wholesale reinterpretation of Massive Attack’s Protection album, issued in 1995 as No Protection.

Productivity never waned. Subsequent credits encompassed work for Sade, the Orb, Perry Farrell, and numerous others, while solo projects included the 2009 release Audio Illusions of Dub and later team-ups such as 2019’s Mad Professor meets Gaudi and the 2023 clash-style set Mad Professor Meets Channel One Sound System Round Two. After relocating the facility to West Norwood in the mid-eighties and expanding to twenty-four tracks—thereby creating the largest Black-owned studio in Britain—he scored major singles with Pato Banton and Sandra Cross and oversaw Macka B’s breakthrough 1986 album Sign of the Times. As ragga dominated the landscape, his own dub grew increasingly expansive and abstract, reaching peak experimentation in the later Dub Me Crazy installments before the series concluded in 1993 with Dub Maniacs on the Rampage.

Ariwa maintained commercial momentum through further successes by Macka B, Pato Banton, Sandra Cross, Kofi, Intense, Jah Shaka, John McLean, the Robotics, Sister Audrey, Peter Culture, and Johnny Clark. Key partnerships with Perry yielded the 1989 album Mystic Warrior, while 1991 brought the acclaimed True Born African for U-Roy; additional sessions followed with Yabby You and Bob Andy. In 1992 Mad Professor turned his attention to live performance and soon thereafter celebrated Ariwa’s hundredth release. Broader recognition outside reggae circles generated remix assignments for the Orb, the KLF, the Beastie Boys, Jamiroquai, Rancid, Depeche Mode, and others. The mid-nineties Black Liberation Dub volumes blended electronics with organic, early-dub influences. Anniversary activities in 2005 included a British tour alongside Perry and the retrospective Method to the Madness. Two further 2009 projects appeared under the names Mad Professor vs. Joint Chiefs and Audio Illusion of Dub. Releases remained plentiful through the following decade, several realized with his son Joe Ariwa. Recent titles encompass 2017’s In the Midst of the Storm, 2018’s Electro Clubdubbing!!, 2020’s Tranquilo Dubs the Alternate Takes with Marcelinho da Lua, 2021’s Clarion Call alongside Xan Tyler, and 2022’s Covidub Illusion - Dub You Crazy 20-22.