We like free speech but we love free cable ...

Let me first say that I have been fully prepared to shill for The Coup's new album for weeks, if not months, as soon as I heard My Favorite Mutiny with Black Thought and Talib Kweli. Being the honest dude that I am, however, I waited until I actually bought and listened to the album to post about it.

With new ch'rens joining the 'Vo household and whatnot, funds have been a little tight, so I just got around to purchasing Pick a Bigger Weapon and Ghostface's Fishscales on Thursday. While the latter is still in the original plastic, after 1 1/2 listens to Boots & Pam's new opus, I'm pleased to say realizing how fucked up shit is never sounded so good.

Before my computer decided to go DEFCON-5 on a brother, I had the final posse cuts post and some other stuff in the hopper. Although I was able to recover all my data, I was afraid to turn this P.O.S. off for about two weeks, until it ground to a screeching halt, I burned what I could and rebooted. Luckily, everything's functional and I didn’t lose that mp3 of Prime Time with Phil Da Agony, Xzibit and Tha Liks that I’d finally found after wading through 40 downloads of the snippet on the Funkmaster Flex album. I do have to re-install every program I ever used, which is a bitch, so that's my excuse for not posting lately. That and Mrs. Vo bringing a daughter into the world.

I'm officially swearing off any new promises about posting a couple times a week, although I think we can definitely do it even though we’ve averaged about once or twice a month each since the revival. So lower your frickin’ expectations, and you got gold right here.

A few impressions on the new album and some links to reviews await. But if you need a primer on just who the hell The Coup is, like my man J-Yo did recently, don’t feel bad. We’ve got you covered:

(All you need to know is that J-Yo -- my stupid nickname for him, not his -- works for an international television network and loves hip-hop, but managed to have The Coup fly under the radar)

J-Yo: Are you guys familiar with this group The Coup? Because I really am not.

Internal memo that I probably shouldn’t be posting: After talking with the organizers of the festival, the group “the Coup” seems to be the most interesting as a profile/story. These guys have been around for 15 years and, while definitely an underground phenomenon, supposedly have an international following. I have not heard their music, but they are supposedly left wing, political, black nationalist types – and they have a new album (see write up below). Just before 9-11 they had an album cover that showed the twin towers burning – needless to say it was recalled by the record company. If we are interested in a story we can shoot the show and possibly arrange interview with the band. The organizers can also put me in touch with an author/journalist who has written a lot on the subject of hip hop. This would involve shooting on a Saturday night, however, so I need to check and see if (name withheld) is available. Thoughts?

The Coup: Saturday, April 15 at 10:00P.M.
The Coup's new album, Pick A Bigger Weapon, kicks off with a classic Boots Riley line "I'm a walking contradiction/Like bullets and love mixin'..." and then it just gets better. The Coup's newest songs capture the collisions between economics and everyday life, the political and the personal. After a 14-year career that has defined the word "uncompromising," the Coup return armed with bigger funk and taller tales.

Ox: Word..the Coup is definitely one of the illest groups
out there...check this story out: hiphop-elements.com

Brother B: Been bumping them in the stereo since Kill My Landlord.

Boots Riley is one of the illest story tellers ever to grace the mic.

Zak: one of the only hip hop groups to have a female dj: Pam the Funkstress.

TiVo: Subject: Re: hip hop fest (ringing endorsement for The Coup)
Date: Monday, April 10, 2006

JYo,
Just to back up what my boys have been saying ... The Coup is f***in' phenomenal. It's like dead prez, except with good music and a sense of humor.

In short, Boots Riley is a very dope Bay Area MC with strong political views and hope for the poor and disenfranchised. Between him and Pam the Funk (B can tell you about E-Rocc, I think, the lost member of the group from the early albums), they mix humor and political sensibility with 70s-band, pimp-in-a-Cadillac funk.

I've heard one of the new cuts, My Favorite Mutiny which features Kweli and Black Thought, and is probably one of my favorite songs of the past 6 months. The Party Music album was the one with the cover controversy, but their best work, I think, was 1998's Steal This Album. For a quick primer, check out The Repo Man Sings For You (feat. Del), Cars & Shoes, 20,000-gun Salute and Me and Jesus the Pimp in a '79 Grenada Last Night off that album, as well as 5 Million Ways to Kill a CEO and Everythang off Party Music, and Fat Cat, Bigga Fish off Kill My Landlord (I think).

This is one of the most underrated groups to never blow up, for obvious reasons, the subject matter and because they are signed to little labels like 75 Ark.

I'm also pretty sure Boots stays active in the community. I once read that you can't wear red, white and blue to a Coup show, and I know The Coup performed at an anti-war rally here in D.C. last year (still kicking myself for not going). And if you Google that album cover (try one of those hoax or real sites), you'll see comments from these crazy people that think they had something to do with 9/11.

Crap. I pretty much just wrote a post for the blog, huh?

What's the possible feature entail?

Yeah,
So basically that’s the gist.

And if you’ve read this far, you deserve to know about this album -- possibly the best thing out right now this side of MF Doom.

It doesn’t sound like anything else, although it’s funky, soulful and R&B-ish as Boots experiments with different musical styles and flows, once even rhyming in hackneyed British a la Dizzee Rascal. The album obviously saying something, for those of you who are tired of repackaged remedial rap, but even if you aren’t feeling the message 100%, it’s delivered with enough charisma and humor to get you to funk through it.

I’ll let the pros (linked below) review the music, and just leave you with my full endorsement.

There might only be two copies up on your local Best Buy rack next to 1,000 releases about rims and grills and whatnot, but you’ll look smart buying it and feel like an ass bobbing your head to it as you drive away.

Early recommendations beyond the lead single are We Are The Ones, Ass-Breath Killers and Head (of State).

Holler!

- TiVo

External article links:

The Washington Post, written by J. Freedom Du Lac (how can the article suck written by a guy with a name like that?)

Epitaph Records (get mp3s here)

Soul-Sides.com