"I'm here to laugh, love, fuck and drink liquor/ & help the damn revolution come quicker" — Boots Riley, from "Laugh/Love/Fuck"
I would hope you've heard more about The Coup than the mere pulling of their poorly timed Party Music cover (apparently late 2001 was a bad time to distribute an image of yourself blowing up the World Trade Center). They have been gradually releasing their brand of political funk party rap since 1993; Pick A Bigger Weapon is their fifth album in that time. You're not really to blame, though. The poor timing of the Bay area duo has plagued them since their conscious hip-hop debut met a misled market then and still enamored by thoughtless gangsta rap (hence the name of their sophomore album Genocide & Juice). While always backed by strong critical support, Boots Riley and disk junkie Pam The Funkstress' chance at a piece of the big pie becomes less and less likely in light of reality TV's astounding, demoralizing success based in the glorification of ignorance.
Despite their timing issues, The Coup have a decent core of loyal fans. Contributors to this album include Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave), Talib Kweli, Jello Biafra, and The Roots' Black Thought, among members of Parliament-Funkadelic and The Gap Band, so they ain't exactly nobodies. Pick A Bigger Weapon also sees release on Anti-/Epitaph, which is the biggest label yet to back The Coup. For this, their liquid funk/R&B/hip-hop hybrid has never been more refined, heavily shaped by multi-instrumentalist Michael Aaberg and key strings from Ben Barnes. As usual, much to the detriment of humanity, Boots' severely critical yet crucially empowering socio-political lyricism is assured to keep The Coup out of Wal-Marts worldwide. He's got Bush and Hussein giving each other blowjobs in "Head (Of State)" and an ode to the unsung heroes of theft with "I Love Boosters." Omnimart, I mean, Wal-Mart isn't going to sit through that to get to the loving essence of this Weapon. If they do, steal as many copies from them as you can sell.
1. Bullets And Love (Introduction)
2. We Are The Ones feat. IRS
3. Laugh/Love/Fuck feat. Silk E
4. My Favorite Mutiny feat. Black Thought & Talib Kweli
5. I Just Wanna Lay Around All Day In Bed With You
6. Head (Of State)
7. ShoYoAss
8. Yes 'Em To Death
9. Ass-Breath Killers
10. Get That Monkey Off Your Back
11. MindFuck (A New Equation)
12. Two Enthusiastic Thumbs Down feat. Jello Biafra
13. I Love Boosters!
14. Tiffany Hall
15. BabyLet'sHaveABabyBeforeBushDoSomethin'Crazy feat. D'Wayne Wiggins & Silk E
16. Captain Sterling's Little Problem feat. Tom Morello
17. The Stand