If you look hard enough at the cover of Pick a Bigger Weapon, you can see dangling legs through a hole in the wall of a ransacked Omnimart corporate office. DJ Pam "The Funkstress"' holds a bat, Boots Riley holds a pen, and bottles of a product called Ass-Breath Killer are on a desk and the ground. It's evident that this cover isn't likely to put them in hot water, like the original cover of Party Music did almost five years prior, unless someone prominent and silly finds the legs shocking. The Coup's long-standing balance between humor and righteous anger remains on this, their fifth album, and they still deliver the laughs and rants over juiced synth-funk. This time out, they use the band format more than before, with the likes of Audioslave's Tom Morello, Tony! Toni! Toné!'s D'Wayne Wiggins, and a few funk vets chipping in on occasion. The album's press sheet draws comparisons to Prince's Dirty Mind and Too Short, and while that's not inaccurate, the references could just as easily be Digital Underground, Paris, Above the Law, E-40, late-'70s Parliament/Funkadelic, any previous Coup album, or just about any other funk-steeped ap album that has come from the West Coast. Nursery rhyme-style choruses like "Bush and Hussein together in bed, giving H-E-A-D head/Y'all muthaf*ckas heard what we said/Billions made and millions dead" will get some attention, while complex verses that are not as easy to digest (or quote) will not. Boots is as lyrically pointed as ever, dropping dozens of resonant rhymes that rail and educate, and he's even better when he punctuates his messages with humor, as he does in a faux-uppity voice on "We Are the Ones": "The one university I knew was Yale, so I cooked it, bagged it, put it on sale/Now, philosophically, you'd be opposed to one inhaling coke by the mouth or nose/But, economically, I would propose that you go eat a dick as employment had froze." Even "Ass-Breath Killers" has a much deeper meaning than the title indicates -- ass breath comes from kissing ass, and if you use the product, you'll grow a spine and maybe die for speaking your mind. Some fans might hastily skip past the sleazy romantic interludes ("Ijuswannalay..." seems to exist only to segue smoothly into "Head"), but the album is perfectly capable of rattling trunks and energizing activists.
Couple days ago The Coup did a free show here in Eugene and I just gotta say that if you ever get the chance definitely check The Coup out live. Pam the Funkstress wasn't there but he had a live band with him and did so many of his greatest tracks. Definitely check out The Coup if you haven't heard of it, politically charged good hip-hop is always worth checking out.A little about Boots Riley,...
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Couple days ago The Coup did a free show here in Eugene and I just gotta say that if you ever get the chance definitely check The Coup out live. Pam the Funkstress wasn't there but he had a live band with him and did so many of his greatest tracks. Definitely check out The Coup if you haven't heard of it, politically charged good hip-hop is always worth checking out.A little about Boots Riley,...
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Right now I am listening to "the Coup" As usaul, my posts are a year late. Keep in mind I've had this lp for about a year, well I know I purchased "Pick a Bigger Weapon"last year. Just had to say, this cd is great. The tragedy that is todays hiphop/rap frequently featured on the radio(coporate money taker)is missing this. Yet they have little recognition?It maybe the case that, radio really doe...
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*The Coup Calls Up MySpace Friends To Encourage G.I. Rebellion*Boots Riley, frontman of The Coup is calling on fans to download an anti-war song from their last album "Pick A Bigger Weapon" and send it via e-mail or cd to their friends and loved ones in the military. The song is called “Captain Sterling’s Little Problem” and features guitar by Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello.The purpo
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Heading to see The Coup at the Independent in San Francisco the 12 of August. Just picked up Pick A Bigger Weapon, great snatch and such.
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 "Pick a Bigger Weapon")
