George Clinton's funk empire was not without its disagreements over money and control, and drummer Jerome "Bigfoot" Brailey's Mutiny project was a direct result of just such a disagreement, as well as one of the more notable offshoots of the P-Funk axis. Brailey had come to P-Funk from gigs with the Five Stairsteps and the Chambers Brothers, joining in 1975 and playing on classic albums like Mothership Connection and One Nation Under a Groove. In 1977, he and guitarist Glen Goins abruptly left P-Funk after a dispute over money; Goins re-formed his previous group, Quazar, and invited Brailey to help out. Unfortunately, Goins passed away while the group was recording its debut album, and after it was completed and released in 1978, Brailey concentrated on his own group, Mutiny.
Besides Brailey on drums and, usually, lead vocals, Mutiny also featured guitarists Lenny Holmes and Skitch Lovett, bassist Raymond "Bro" Carter, keyboardist Nat Lee, onetime P-Funk saxophonist Darryl Dixon, and hornmen Melvin El and Marvin Daniels (attempts to lure other P-Funk sidemen, especially Bernie Worrell, were unsuccessful). Mutiny's debut album, Mutiny on the Mamaship, was released by CBS in 1979 and featured several pointed satires of Clinton, even as the music mostly replicated his style (though it did so quite effectively). After a bit of personnel turnover, Funk Plus the One followed in 1980, but failed to provide a commercial breakthrough, and Mutiny found itself without a contract not long after.
Brailey formed his own J. Romeo imprint and recorded a mostly instrumental album, Black Hat Daddy & the Silver Comb Gang, but scrapped it in favor of A Night Out With the Boys, another mostly instrumental effort released in 1983. Brailey subsequently became a session drummer, working with the likes of Keith Richards, Buddy Miles, Herbie Hancock, and Buckethead. He moved back home to Richmond, VA, in 1990, and in 1993, he briefly rejoined Clinton's P-Funk All-Stars for a tour. Brailey next formed a new version of Mutiny and issued the comeback album Aftershock 2005 in 1995 (the U.S. release was on Rykodisc). In 1999, Brailey finally released the Black Hat Daddy album on his own Rome Dog label.
