producers: boots riley, pam the funkstress, eddie from soulfuric nation, brother k.

Undeniably funky. Not jazzy funky, but phat ass-plain rear end-rotten-dirty-funk funky. That’s The Coup. Now mix that blues-roots-funky with conscious rhymes, and you really got the Coup. Check "Kill My Landlord" where Boots writes in the sleeve notes: "there’s hella shit on this album that’s naked-live, original basslines, hard to find drum samples, other live instrumentation, etc.". Same here. Yes, check the drums. Oh, and did I mention this is the funk?

And then there was the other album "Genocide & Juice" with the classic "Fat Cats, Bigga Fish", and the unofficial inspiration to the movie 'Bulworth': "Pimps". Never heard of that? Awww, man!!!

Well just listen to "The Shipment" and you know what I’m talking about. For example, check out his lines, "I slang rocks, but Palestinian style". See, Boots is known for his strong political and social beliefs, and you will hear them throughout the album; He does not always shove them down your throat and the message is more subtle. However, at times he is more direct, like on "20,000 Gun Salute". But often times, Boots uses characters like Jesus the Pimp (in the story telling "Me And Jesus The Pimp In A ’79 Granada Last Night"), the Repo Man, or stories like "Busterismology", to show you which illnesses he tries to rip out of the dying body of this society.

E-Roc, original member of The Coup, joins them back on "Breathing Apparatus", where Boots tells the world "I’m a Communist", and where he spits "my medical plan was to not get shot". Another high caliber collaborator is Del, courtesy of the Hieroglyphics, on "The Repo Man Sings For You".

Because of the strong militancy of Boots, him pissing into a coffin, talking about "44-caliber shots ain’t discreet", it will be hard to listen and to like and enjoy The Coup, if you don’t share the socialistic views and ideas of Boots. Not when things get emotional and supportive on "Underdog" though, where he shows his solidarity with everybody in the struggle, rhyming "you feel like swingin’ haymakers at a movin’ truck / you feel like laughin’ so it seems like you don’t give a fuck / you feel like gettin’ so high, you’ll smoke the whole damn crop / you feel like cryin’ but you think that you might never stop".

It feels good having an intelligent person in hip hop, expressing his views on society, using hip hop as his medium. The revolution of the ’88 era has now long ceased, but minds like Boots are still keeping up the consciousness. And even though he’s not the only political rapper out there, since rap that talks about Christianity or the Islam are also political, they are just less recognized as that. So do we want ideas as controversial as communist views being spread out to the masses through music? Yes, why not?  This album offers alternative ways of thinking about the state of things in our society.

Maybe some of the politically-minded lyrics on this album will inspire more rappers and listeners to re-think their thugness and positions, and again consider hip hop as a meeting-ground for the exchange of enlightening, educational and thought-provoking ideas.

An old saying goes that "the wise man speaks because he has something to say, while the foolish man speaks, because he has to say something". Hopefully, those of who enjoy good music can decide for ourselves what kind of men we're listening to.