Oakland-based rappers the Coup are about as adamantly political as hip-hop comes. The original cover art for Party Music, planned long before the events of September 11th, and originally intended to go to press on that fateful day, featured an image of the Twin Towers exploding, with the two rappers posturing in front of them-- one holding conductor's batons, the other holding a detonator. The image, says the duo, was intended as a metaphor for the effect music can have on a corrupt system. 75 Ark said no. A last minute phone-call stopped the presses and the cover was redesigned. Still, no doubt, the Coup will go down in history as a strange footnote to a tragic day, the unfortunate timing of the album cover remembered long after the music. And that's too bad, because Boots Riley and Pam the Funkstress deserve to be remembered for their music. You see, the Coup knows the secret to effective politicization: before you can change people's minds, you have to engage them.
Like Public Enemy and George Orwell before them, the Coup focuses on the art, not the politics, trusting that if they do one right, the other will follow suit. The result is music that questions the common presumption that all things political must also be dry and boring. For one, the Coup's is a sound drenched in R&B; and soul tradition, holding more in common with Outkast's raucous funk-driven beats than it does with similarly minded rap groups like Cannibal Ox. As such, the Coup are likely to reach an audience less accustomed to these types of ideas.
Wrapping their political missives in twisted, slithering rhymes like, "This is my resume/ Slash-resignation/ A ransom note/ With proposed legislation," Riley and Pam prove that the music is every bit as important as the politics. In "50 Million Ways to Kill a CEO," the Coup demonstrates a wickedly dark comic sensibility, taking the cartoonish tendency towards violence often prevalent in popular rap music and applying it to an uncharacteristic victim. Among their suggestions: "Toss a dollar in the river/ And when he jump in/ If you find he can swim/ Put lead boots on him and do it again/ You and a friend/ Videotape and the party don't end/ Tell him that boogers be sellin' like crack/ He gon' put the little baggies in his nose/ And suffocate like that/ Put a fifty in the barrel of a gun/ When he try to suck it out/ A-ha!/ Well, you know this one..."
For the less murder-inclined, Riley and Pam offer a few slightly less radical solutions to societal problems; simple things like rebelling against unjust authority or merely choosing a stance ("Take a look around/ And be for or against/ But you can't do shit if you ridin' the fence"). But things really hit their stride on "Get Up," where guest MCs stic.man and M-1 from Dead Prez intone, "It's a war goin' on, the ghetto is a cage/ They only give you two choices; be a rebel or a slave," while a group of female vocalists sing an atypical mantra in typical R&B; backup singer style: "You're 'sposed to be fed up right now/ Turn the system upside down."
The Coup cater masterfully to a wide audience, always holding fast to their values. Only once do they stray too far in their attempt for a broad listenership. "Heven Tonite" is the requisite sensitive rap song, and while the lyrics are stronger than most in this maligned subgenre, any sentiment is negated by the Swiss-cheese guitars lifted right off a smooth jazz station. Party Music doesn't quite pick itself up in the two songs that follow, but by this point, it doesn't much matter. They've already proven themselves worthy, and a few weak songs do not a weak album make.
There's been a tendency since the World Trade Center attacks to keep talk of political dissent to a minimum. In the meantime, our leaders have continued to act in their own best interests, using the current wave of patriotism as permission to hold open the federal wallet to corporations, cut funding to important programs, and refuse to sign the International Nuclear Arms Treaty. Meanwhile, the press reports little-to-none of this, fearing the possible consequences. In times like these, groups like the Coup become that much more important. Party Music is an effort both entertaining and politically motivating, a feat which many have attempted but few have successfully pulled off. Perhaps its radical message will succeed where other dissidents have failed: in galvanizing those who've become disenchanted with our fearless leadership of late, and in introducing a few others to the healthy practice of skepticism.
