MIGHTY RULERS – CHAT YU MOUTH 7” (limited edition of 500 singles) with sleeves designed and hand silkscreened in a numbered edition of 500 by artist Aaron Juarros of Big Toes HI FI
A bunch of years ago Selector JD and myself, Scratch Famous, were pulling records for a radio show. We had just got in a big collection of 80s tunes and rather blindly I grabbed a handful of tunes out of the boxes. Tunes that just gave off that vibe of being BIG! Well…big was kind of an under-statement as the tunes that I grabbed ended up being some of the toughest and rarest 80s tunes that we ever had in the shop. One tune in particular stood out though…Mighty Rulers – Chat Yu Mouth. The minute we dropped the 7” on the platter we were enveloped in a serious roll of bass over which plaintive vocals, rich with delicious harmonies, illustrated the necessity of staying positive under the barrage of negative back biters and pirates. The tune was such a murderous piece of music that as it finished, JD nodded at me and just said…”Damn, nice pull!”
Well for years and years that radio show echoed throughout the world of serious fans of 80s digital reggae. Probably a week did not pass without someone emailing us or calling us begging us to find a copy of CHAT YU MOUTH. And yu know what? We just could not find the damn tune. It eluded us. We would think we found it, only to be disappointed.
And it was not only collectors and DJs calling asking about the tune…In early 2012, Donald Marshall keyboardist and vocalist of the MIGHTY RULERS and THE DETERMINATIONS called us asking if we had a copy. He explained that The Determinations had formed in 1979 with him, Dervin Dawes (lead vocalist) and Anthony Hill in Kingston. As the Determinations they had put out a number of tunes in England, and in the mid 80s Dervin Dawes, wanting to showcase a different side to the trio, came up with the name MIGHTY RULERS and the three recorded CHAT YU MOUTH at TUFF GONG with Sticky the percussionist and other members of the High Times stable. Dervin Dawes was not only the lead vocalist for CHAT YU MOUTH, but wrote and arranged the tune as well as providing the art work and name for the original 7" on PLAY MUSIC. When the tune was finished, Donald guessed that only about 100 pieces were pressed up. Most were given to friends and people that played on the record. As the years went on the tune was forgotten, while The Determinations continued to make music. Eventually Donald starting hearing from collectors the world over about what a rare and great piece of music CHAT YU MOUTH had been. Unfortunately all the master tapes and stampers for the tune were destroyed and Donald himself was left without a copy.
Well…through some SERIOUS digging we here at Deadly Dragon finally located a copy and began to work in partnership with Donald, Dervin and the MIGHTY RULERS to create a reissue so that everyone could finally enjoy the tune. While we would have loved to have built stampers from the original tapes, or from the original stamper, we had to work with what we had and while the vinyl transfer was not pristine, we felt the greatness of CHAT YU MOUTH justified going forward with this ya reissue. We hope you all will agree.
MIGHTY RULERS - CHAT YU MOUTH VIDEO
and in honor of the CHAT YU MOUTH reissue we proudly present a Brand New Podcast Called CHAT YU MOUTH:
