Career
Jerome Brailey started performing around 1968 with the R&B groups the Unifics, Five Stairsteps, and the Chambers Brothers. George Clinton saw him performing with the Chambers Brothers and invited him to join the P-Funk collective. Brailey joined P-Funk in 1975 and co-wrote one of Parliament's biggest hits, “Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)" with Clinton and Bootsy Collins. He also played on many of the most popular recordings by both Parliament and Funkadelic during this period.
Brailey left the P-Funk organization in 1978 due to disagreement with Clinton's management, and began working closely with Glenn Goins, who had also left P-Funk that year. Goins had formed the funk band Quazar, abd began recording a debut album for Arista Records, but died at age 24 before its completion. Brailey helped the band complete the album, which was released in late 1978. Based on another idea that he had shared with Goins, Brailey then formed the funk band Mutiny and signed it to Columbia Records. The album Mutiny on the Mamaship was released in 1979, followed by Funk Plus the One later the same year.
Brailey was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Parliament-Funkadelic in 1997. That organization later ranked him as one of the 50 best drummers that have been inducted into the Hall. In 2016, Rolling Stone ranked Brailey at #68 in its list of “The 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time,” citing his "steady kick drum, shifty hi-hat action and intricately unpredictable snare pattern." In 2018, Brailey was included in a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award presented to Parliament-Funkadelic.
