Boomshots Reggae Mondays at SOBs Kicks Off Tomorrow With The Far East Rulerz
The reigning World Clash champion sound Mighty Crown, aka The Far East Rulerz, will rock SOBs in New York City on April 15, 2013 for the first edition of Boomshots Reggae Mondays. Mighty Crown will also appear on RadioLily.com for the #StrictlyBoomshots show. After 21 years in the music business Mighty Crown has distinguished themselves as one of the leading sound systems in reggae history. They have not only represented for Japanese dancehall culture but they have broken new ground as a business entity by signing joint ventures with corporate sponsors like Nike, Clarks, Stussy and New Era. Back in Japan, Mighty Crown has their business empire, including a clothing line, magazine, and they promote some of the biggest events including their Reggae Sai festival. In anticipation of their SOBs debut, Boomshots spoke with Sami T, who was driving through Jamaica’s countryside at the time, to speak about Mighty Crown’s legacy is the dancehall industry. Interview and Videos After The Jump….
Respect Sami, Thanks for taking a minute to talk.
No problem. Hopefully the phone don’t get cut off cause I’m driving in countryside in Jamaica.
No problem… [laughs] So let’s get right into it. What would you consider the most important clashes in the history of the sound?
The 1999 world clash that was kept in New York with Killamanjaro and Tony Matterhorn and Bass Odyssey was supposed to also come but because of the visa situation, they never come and then it was Mighty Crown. That was the first big clash that we won. That was the first international bust I should say.
How many other World Clash titles have you won?
I think we have 5, no 6, no 7 World Clash titles. We won two in Jamaica… I think it was the year 2007 and ‘08 and then we won twice in England, no three times… We got like 20 something trophies in office right now so I never really counted… We won a couple of UK Cup clash, which is huge. The first and the last one we won in the World Clash New York.
Of all those victories, which one was the sweetest for you?
I think it was the year 2008—‘07 or ‘08, I’m not really sure, but that was the last World Clash called Game Over with Bass Odyssey and Black Kat and I think Sentinel was in there. And Bass Odyssey and Mighty Crown went into tune-for-tune. And there’s a part where we a bust the crowd wicked with the Buju Banton song, in the third round.
Which Buju song did you use?
I customized the “Driver” song. And it’s totally different. Like I totally rewrote the song with the team. We wrote it like foundation. The lyrics start like, “Foundation— de japanese bring back dat.” You know? And I remember playing Hammermouth right after that. One of the big tunes on Taxi riddim from way back in the days.
Mighty Crown Killin Sound Local and Abroad
Going back to your earliest clash days, what was the first clash that really gave you the confidence to go up against some of the bigger sounds?
Confidence? When we first won World Clash, the next year when we came back it was one of the biggest challenge for me to go through the Reggae industry because everybody was like “Oh, the Japanese were lucky. They won the first time.” And they gave us the champion for the first year and then the next year was like “Ah man….” They think it was just like a gimmick. And when we came back out the whole world knew about one of the rounds when we destroyed it. Even Tropper was telling me—who was one of my opponents—he was like “Me nah lie, that’s one of the wickedest rounds me ever seen.” And that’s one of the rounds that we played Shabba and Buju combination and stuff like that.
Damn, that’s a big dub.
That was one of the huge talk. We lost that day but people were like, “Yo!” That the fire we put out during that round was so wicked. It was like everybody was just talking about that round actually.
That’s interesting that though you didn’t win, that was a big year for you.
Yeah, it was. And then people were like it’s not a one shot sound. So from there on, year to year, we start challenging and clashing everybody. Well we’re off the clashing scene right now. It’s not that we quit or nothing, but we kinda change gears.
This night that you’re doing at SOB’s next week, how are you going to approach Boomshots Reggae Monday? That’s more of a juggling night?
Yeah, it’s going to be a juggling night but you done know Mighty Crown, people come to hear certain tunes. We have our fans all over the world. Hopefully people will come out in New York to listen to Mighty crown music.
What are some of the Mighty Crown anthems that people always ask for?
Every night is a different juggling, but there’s songs like Jah Cure song called “Love is The Only Solution” which is one of our anthemes that people kinda know us for. And of course the “Far East” segment. We got like juggling songs on dubplate….. Even with the juggling, people by like, “Yo, every tune Mighty Crown inna the song” A lot of women start come to our dances now. It’s not like back in the clash days when it was pure man come ah dance. It used to be pure hardcore, rude boys came out. Now it’s different, it changed up a little bit. I mean there was women way back in the day but when we start juggling now a lot more women start come to our dances. So the party turn up!
Yeah, there’s nothing wrong with that! It’s all about the girls at the end of the day. I noticed that Drake came out to your dancesin Toronto the other day right?
MC: Yeah he came through when we did a play in one of the clubs in downtown Toronto. We were there the whole weekend and we had a like a really wicked dance the day before. Every sound bring like an artist for one of the rounds that we played—and it was amazing. It was a dance called “When Dub did nice” and we had a round where we played the actual dubplates on steel. And we brought Johnny Osbourne and Brigadier Jerry, and the vibes was really wicked. And I think Drake kinda loves the Reggae vibes so I think he heard about Mighty Crown in the town and he just swing through.
Did he come chat to you guys?
No, he was like in the corner and you know the man is so huge right now, there’s so much people probably surrounding him… Like when I was playing, and he was there I had to tell him. Cause we have some hip-hop specials—some 50 Cent and Nas and Young Joc and all these songs. And so I got on the microphone and said “Yooo—big up Drake. But me wan’ two tunes!” The vibe was irie. Nuff gal dem in deh same way. The party was real crazy.
We’re looking forward to some crazy vibes at SOBs for Boomshots Reggae Mondays.
You already know. Nuff respect to Boomshots every time.
Sami T Representing for Boomshots Reggae Mondays at SOBs
