producer: boots riley

You all have heard about the controversy surrounding the original cover of this album, hence there's no need for this review to go into that. Everything that was written about The Coup back then also allows us to take a shortcut and start talking about the music. And if we want to mention a first impression of the album, then it seems that Boots is getting more radical with every album, while musically he always changes things up from one release to the next. It might be a surprising statement, saying that some person that never even bothered to say anything sugar coated can get even more radical. But just like the anti-globalization movement, whenever they meet, the situation escalates more.

Hence the first track we talk about shall be "5 Million Ways To Kill A CEO", where Boots introduces himself and creates the mood with stating "I'm a white chalk stencil but I push a pencil", explaining where he comes from "I mighta be born here but I'm a foreigner / spillin' swigs for victims of pigs and Afeni's kid / flip off the lid, now who you pourin' for?", to finally giving us the manual "tell him it's a fifty in the barrel of a gun / when try to suck it out - well you know this one...". Musically this is paired with 'party music', having it gain the militant moods from the adrenaline that gets pumped through your system just by feeling good. The moguls are further getting slapped on "Lazy Muthafucka", that's profiling the ones too rich or fat to work. Also very militant is "Get Up", where The Coup teams up with like minded soldiers dead prez.

Showing that Boots likes it relaxed and somewhat African too, there's "Wear Clean Draws" (and very slightly also on the nice "Heven Tonite"), one of the best overall tracks. Boots uses it to address his daughter and sharing some of the conclusions he found. And how that daughter came about is touched upon on "Nowalaters". On the music tip, another one of the best offerings is "Ghetto Manifesto", as this is bringing out the good times funk that we learned to expect to come from The Coup. More of that can be heard on "Ride The Fence", that Boots opens with "I'm Anti-Imperial, Anti-Trust, Anti-gun if the shit wont bust / Anti-corporate / they Anti my essence / Anti-snortin'-them-anti-depressants / but I'm not pro-poppin'-'em / I'm provocative / and pro-stoppin'-them-FBI-operatives", once more reminding us of his political ideology, while on "Pork And Beef" the funk gets down and dirty.

In times of political correctness censoring all honesty and what needs to be said, this is very appreciated. At the same time however, it's very unbalanced, falling prey to find a comfortable and self-excusing solution in blaming easy targets in a blue eyed fashion, putting everything in a harsh no shades allowing reality. But today this voice is needed, not because the world needs to be the way Boots wants it (as it doesn't), but because it's becoming too much like how he describes it to be, turning his fiction into real time. Hence once more we are giving The Coup a lot of props, for coming with the funk, and coupling it with the militancy we can find is so little hip hop of today.