Tuesday, December 11, 2012
The Coup: Sorry To Bother You (2012)
While we're talking about radical musicians like The Weavers (see HERE), let us stop to praise veteran hip-hop revolutionaries, The Coup*. In my sole previous hip-hop centered post, I confessed "MRML can't apologize for being a mostly white-punks-on-guitars blog. It's not deliberate; it's just what we know!" Regardless of my own musical limitation, when I hear drug-war scouring, kazoo-dominated, Anti-Flag-borrowing, shout-along ska-rap, like "You Parent's Cocaine" I get moving.
Between their supposed communist-leaning [!], their longevity [20 years strong] and their signing to Brett Geurewitz's [of Bad Religion/Epitath Records fame] Anti Records the band clearly has a different kind of cred from the mainstream of hip-hop. It's a little like how Anti put out records by country artists like Merle Haggard and Porter Waggoner who'd fallen out of the mainstream of their own chosen genre. Like those two legends, The Coup keep it real, whether means playing as a full band or giving respect to the old school (which in this case might include The Bay City Rollers and Wilson Pickett):
There's plenty of other precedents for The Coup's work; you'll hear traces of Sly and The Family Stone, The Jungle Brothers, Fishbone The Roots and dozen others I'm nowhere near cool enough to recognize.
*Imagine The Weavers' Peter Seeger singing the chorus of the "The Guillotine" to Bob Dylan when he threatened to cut the power cables backstage at Newport in '65!
The following bands and artists were name-dropped over the course of this post: The Weavers, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Bad Religion, Anti-Flag, Merle Haggard, The Bay City Rollers, Wilson Pickett, Porter Waggoner, Sly and The Family Stone, The Jungle Brothers, Fishbone and The Roots.
Ridiculous!!
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Wow. That's really cool. I had never heard of them - thanks for the heads up.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy - the whole album rocks!
DeleteOn a second listen I have to say I'm loving "Parent's Cocaine" & "The Guillotine".
ReplyDeleteCallPastorJerkface
Second listens rule!
DeleteBoots Riley is one of the best damned lyricists stalking this puny planet these days. He can go straight from dizzying political polemics to heartbreaking storytelling (check out "Me & Jesus the Pimp in a '79 Granada Last Night" from STEAL THIS ALBUM) without breaking a sweat. Brilliant band, brilliant album.
ReplyDeleteNow I have to go back and check out some of their earlier work!
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