by Chris Narkun
Daily Lobo
When I read that Raymond "Boots" Riley described his hip-hop duo's album, Pick a Bigger Weapon, as "a little edgier," I immediately put it on the must-listen list.
After all, the Coup is the group whose cover art for its last album, 2001's Party Music, featured Riley using a guitar tuner to set off a massive explosion high in the World Trade Center - weeks before Sept. 11, 2001.
Michelle Malkin - the conservative screech-queen second only to Ann Coulter - wrote that Riley "belongs in a capitalism-free cave in Tora Bora, spewing his 'poetry' around an al-Qaida campfire." She came to this conclusion after being stricken to the depths of her tiny, star-spangled brain by lyrics to the song "Piss on Your Grave," from 1998's Steal This Album, describing Riley performing the titular act on George Washington's burial site in Arlington National Cemetery.
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A little edgier? This I had to see.
And, of course, the Coup obliges. Pick a Bigger Weapon is not just lyrically and musically the best hip-hop from anyone in a while, it's the Coup's best and most envelope-pushing work yet.
Its sound is more finessed and precise, and every track will make you laugh and shake your head at the skilled wordplay and Riley's gusto. Not halfway through the hour-long album, listeners are treated to the singsong voices of children repeating a schoolyard chant, "Bush and Hussein together in bed, giving H-E-A-D: head."
The rap version of Rage Against the Machine - if Rage Against the Machine had a sense of humor - the Coup has long relied on mixing an old-fashioned sound based on drum machines, Pam the Funkstress' turntable skills, and a smattering of live instruments with Riley's funky anti-capitalist rhyming sensibilities.
On this album, the production quality is increased several notches, from the spacey background noise of the intro track "Bullets and Love" to the soft-string section backing guest vocalist Silk E on "BabyLet'sHaveaBabyBeforeBushDoSomethin'Crazy."
The Coup's transition to a mainstream sound, while not diluting its best traits in the least, will give them the chance for mainstream success that has thus far been as elusive as Riley claims to be when the cops come after him - "When I'm running from the police, I don't have to rush, I'm so dope, I just jump into the toilet and flush."
Riley's hard-left politics shine through on most of the best tracks, including "Head (of State)" - with the aforementioned fellatio-centric chorus and a description of the United States' pre-Gulf War dealings with Iraq - and "My Favorite Mutiny." That Riley holds his own with the latter track's high-quality guests, the Roots' lead vocalist Black Thought and Talib Kweli, testifies to his ability as a lyricist. Riley's verses on "We Are the Ones" rips on cops and details a drug-dealing trip to prison in the high-pitched, nasal tone of a "Masterpiece Theater" host.
As for new fodder for Bill O'Reilly's rants, the album's penultimate track, "Captain Sterling's Little Problem," embarks across a brave frontier of offending conservative Americans. A first-person description of a soldiers' violent mutiny in Iraq, the song features Riley fragging officers and politely asking, "Excuse me Colonel sir, may I request please, permission to go home, or blow off your knees?" One can guess where Michelle Malkin would like the Coup to go after hearing this album.
Bring a Bigger Weapon
The Coup
Grade: A
