Brown grew up in Bond Street in Kingston, living two doors away from Duke Reid's Treasure Isle studio.Heavily influenced by U-Roy, but also citing Big Youth, Dennis Alcapone, Prince Jazzbo and I-Roy as influences, Brown began his career on the Silver Bullet sound system in the early 1970s, moving on to Sound of Music and replacing U-Roy on the King Tubby's Hi-Fi system in 1975.