The Coup: Boots Riley on vocals; Pam the Funkstress on turntables; and, various friends with things that make noise.
The Coup's fifth effort, Pick a Bigger Weapon, is, much like their previous records, a relentlessly funky, politically astute affair.
Naturally, a Coup record wouldn't be a Coup record if it weren't for the sense of humour. Pick a Bigger Weapon, despite the — as suggested by the title — urgency, feels like more of a lyrical return to Steal This Album; "Ass-Breath Killers," a song about speaking one's mind, being the most obvious example. "I Love Boosters!" for its part, is an ode to the women risking jail time making a living ripping off designer gear. The jokes are, as always, transmitting one idea or another: in between the silly, funny chorus in "Head (of State)" Boots drops some pretty impressive truth about a pretty fucked up situation.
There's also quite a bit of sex on this record — however, it doesn't sound as sleazy, as do certain parts of Lif's Mo' Mega. "Ijuswannalayarounalldayinbedwithyou," a song in which Boots raps about preferring to stay in bed giving his wife head as opposed to going to work manages to gently portray the resentment towards those obligations that unfairly steal one's time, especially when there are potentially more life-affirming activities at hand. "BabyLet'sHaveaBabyBeforeBushDoSomethin'Crazy," for its part, is a pretty ballad sung by Silk E, which, as the title suggests, is about trying to drag together some semblance of a life before everything goes to fucking hell.
The guests are few and far between, which works pretty well as Boots can easily carry a record. Of course, one doesn't complain when Black Thought and Talib Kweli decide to drop a rhyme, as they do on "My Favorite Mutiny," probably one of the best songs on the record. The only other "featured" guest is the aforementioned Silk E. In a less overt capacity, Jello Biafra shows up for one of the two skits and Tom Morello plays some guitar.
The music around which the rhymes are draped is, as I mentioned earlier, a relentlessly funky affair. The Coup website compares the funk to Dirty Mind-era Prince, late-80s Too Short, and the trunk rattling hiphy sonic of the New Bay movement. I don't actually know what any of that means so I'm going to assume it just means fat, funky bass lines. Pick a Bigger Weapon, much like The Coup's other records, is extremely organic sounding, constructed, as it is, from mostly live instrumentation - guitars, harps, all manner of percussion, clapping, boatloads of background singers, etc. This is all glued together quite nicely by DJ Pam the Funkstress' excellent turntable work.
Boots' rhymes are some of his best; his subdued rapping on "MindFuck (a New Equation)" is really quite affecting, easily matching his work on "Underdogs" from a few years ago. And whilst there isn't anything like the extended narrative of Steal This Album's "Me and Jesus the Pimp in a '79 Granada Last Night," Boots continues his practice of constructing stories around real people that have entered and left his life. With Pick a Bigger Weapon Boots cements his place as one of the world's best rappers.
The record could, possibly, do with a little trim — 65-minute records are, after all, always a bit of a stretch. However, being that the last Coup record was released five years ago I suppose we shouldn't really complain...
Not too many people are making music like The Coup, and it's encouraging to see Boots and Pam still making music that's brave enough to suggest suggestions and offer ideas. If, however, politics, humorous or otherwise, aren't quite your thing I'd still suggest that Pick a Bigger Weapon is worth picking up — it makes for a pretty good sex record.
what time is it?
Reviewed on Thursday, 11 January 2007