The coup
| The coup | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) |
Alternative hip-hop , political rap |
| founding | 1991 |
| Website | thecoupmusic.net |
| Founding members | |
| Raymond "Boots" Riley | |
rapper |
E-Roc |
| Pam The Funkstress | |
| Current occupation | |
Rapper, producer |
Raymond "Boots" Riley |
| former members | |
rapper |
E-Roc |
rapper |
T-Kash |
DJane |
Pam The Funkstress † 2017 |
The Coup is an American hip-hop duo from Oakland , California , consisting of rapper Raymond "Boots" Riley and DJ Pam The Funkstress until her death on December 22, 2017 . His music often shows funk influences, Riley's song content can be assigned to political rap . He is a communist himself .
Musical career
After an EP two years earlier, The Coup's first album was released in 1993, then there were three of them with rapper E-Roc, Kill My Landlord . Due to the popularity of the gangsta rap genre at the time, it was a commercial flop, as was Genocide & Juice , released a year later , whereupon E-Roc left the group. After her record label Wild Pitch Records was taken over by EMI in 1996 , The Coup temporarily disbanded. Pam The Funkstress continued to work as a DJane, Boots Riley took on odd jobs and worked in politically active organizations, including the founding of the “Young Comrades” association.
In 1998, the two reunited and released their third album Steal This Album , named after the book Steal This Book by Abbie Hoffman . In 2001 the planned cover of the album Party Music caused a scandal because shortly before the attacks on September 11th it showed Boots Riley exploding the World Trade Center with the help of a tuner .
"The cover was a metaphor for the power of music to destroy capitalism "
Even if the original cover was withdrawn, The Coup received death threats and was subsequently more present in the media than ever before, including the cover in the Bild newspaper . Riley was accused of being linked to al-Qaeda and knowing about the attacks by an English newspaper .
The Coup's fifth album, Pick a Bigger Weapon, was only released on Epitaph Records in 2006 . It contains guest contributions by Tom Morello , Jello Biafra , Black Thought and Talib Kweli, among others , and is explicitly directed against US (foreign) policy . As with all of the group's other albums, it was mostly received very positively, but also didn't even hit the Billboard charts . In December of the same year, their tour bus crashed after a performance in San Diego , whereupon the rest of the tour had to be canceled.
Political sentiment
The Coup is known for its openly anti-capitalist attitude. Boots Riley is one of the few rappers who advocates a renewal of the political system beyond social change . He is for an abolition of class society and a fair distribution of capital . He accuses the US administration under George W. Bush of acting fascistically and of creating a climate of terror in the world.
"I am a communist. I have been a communist / socialist since I was 14 years old. I think that people should have democratic control over the profits that they produce. It is not real democracy until you have that. And the plain and simple definition of communism is the people having democratic control over the profits that they create. "
Discography
- 1993: Kill My Landlord
- 1994: Genocide & Juice
- 1998: Steal This Album ( re-released as Steal This Double Album in 2002 )
- 2001: Party Music
- 2006: Pick a Bigger Weapon
- 2012: Sorry To Bother You
Web links
- The Coup on Myspace
- The Coup at Allmusic (English)
- The Coup at Discogs (English)
- The coup at laut.de
swell
- ^ "The Life of Riley," April 26, 2006
- ↑ Pam the Funkstress, the Coup DJ, Dead at 51 - Rolling Stone
- ^ A b "Boots Riley on Communism, Capitalism and Patriotism" , October 25, 2001
- ↑ a b testcard # 13: Black Music , Ventil Verlag, Mainz 2004, ISBN 3-931555-12-7 , page 139; see also "It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back" ... ( Memento of the original from April 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ epitaph.com : “The Coup survives bus crash; cancels tour dates! ” , December 4, 2006
- ↑ Interview with Boots Riley on Black History Month , February 3, 2006
