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I love hip hop. I mean I really love hip hop... and this is one of
the reasons why.
Steal This Album by The Coup |
| Distinctiveness: | No one is like The Coup. Ya dig? |
| Dopeness Rating: | This is one of the best album of the year. It's better than both of their last albums by a good stretch and I loved those albums. This is Phat+. No, it's better than that, it's 1988 Phat+. I've gots to jock: jock, jock, jock. |
| Rap Part: | Words fail me. Phat+. |
| Sounds: | It's like someone took all the bounce-bounce goodness from the West Coast production style and decided to use it only for Good. Phat+. |
| Predictions: | Y'all are some wack punks if you don't first go buy this, then get everyone else you know to pick it up. |
| Rotation Weight: | Minute by minute, day by day. This will keep you going for a damn good while. Remember: it's all about lyrics... over a phat-ass beat. |
| Message: | They'd tear this mf up if they really loved you...
and so would you.
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| Tracks: | 14. Even the skits work. Do you hear what I'm sayin? Even the skits are phat. |
| Label: | Dogday Records. Boots does the production. |
| Profanity: | I got a right to curse: my people are bein' persecuted. |
Having finally finished The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, I've begun writing two new reviews. One for the new joint by Mos Def and Talib Kweli (known now as Black Star) and the other for Steal This Album by The Coup.
Originally, I had a pretty hard time trying to decide which one to do first. First off, both are absolutely outstanding examples of hip hop. Both are politically-minded, well-produced, laced with lyrical pipe a mile long and just out and out phat.
Black Star is currently among the best that the East Coast underground has to offer and they've represented themselves well. They got the laid-back intensity that you get from such artists and they do what they do well. They've been bumping in my ride for a while now.
But in the end the Coup won out. I just couldn't wait that long. I'll try to do Black Star justice next week.
The Coup, made up originally of Boots, E-Roc and Pam the Funktress, first came into my radar with Kill My Landlord, one of my favorites of 1993 or whenever that was. Their extremely funky West Coast-ish beats combined with searing political manifestos and an assured delivery really seemed to resonate with a certain group of headz.
It certainly worked for me. By the time Genocide and Juice hit the stores, I'd pretty much decided that they were the only true modern-day heirs of Public Enemy. I happily declared them my favorite hip hop artists.
That was years ago. Label issues hampered the release of a new album, but knowledgeable headz waited eagerly. Finally, we've been rewarded with Steal This Album.
It's easy to say that The Coup has produced one of the best hip hop albums of 1998. But--and I don't know how else to say this--Steal This Album does that one better: it has got to be one of the best all-around CDs dropped this decade... and that includes competition from groups like The Roots, Common and all those other more popular folks you're so fond of.
No, I'm not exaggerating here. Why would I? And no, I'm not just caught up in the early moments of a nice hip hop release. No, I really mean it.
Although E-roc appears on only one track, The Coup has lost none of its edge. In fact the intervening years seems to have done nothing more but hone Boots' production skillz, sharpen his tongue and inspire him to make better (and equal parts more consistent and more varied) tracks than he's every done before.
This album is in turns hilarious, angry and sad enough to make you cry. Phat. Dope. F*ckin' stupendous.
If you're at all a Coup fan, you gotta buy this RIGHT NOW. It's a step ahead of all their early stuff. Imagine "Dig It!" and "Fat Cats, Bigga Fish"... but much better. See what I mean?
Now, if you're not a Coup fan, or you weren't as impressed as I was with either of their first two efforts, let me try to persuade you that this is still the album for you.
Anyway, enough of the packaging. Let's get to the album. Boots
decides to begin by breaking all the rules: Steal This Album
opens with a non-introductory track, "The Shipment."
"Pizza Man (skit)" begins a pretty serious run of phatness following
phatness and sly observation upon irony. This is the part of the
album that especially works as an album as opposed to a series of
songs.
In the end, "Underdogs" succeeds by being sad and straightforward, but
not morose. It succeeds, as the man says, by telling you something
you already know.
It also does the reverse mind-f*ck of seguing again into something
sillier and funny.
This is just funny. I'm not even going to try to explain it. Suffice
it to say that our hapless and hungry heroes end up scaming their way
into a funeral for a heartless businessman. It's just ridiculous. It
stands on its own as a funny and worthwhile track. Additionally, it
makes yet another segue into "Piss On Your Grave."
So.
Bottom line?
If I do nothing more with these long-winded reviews of mine this year
but convince you to go buy Steal This Album by The Coup, then it
will be all worthwhile. If ever there was a true heir to Chuck D as
the funky political voice in hiphop, it has to be Boots from The
Coup.
I don't want to raise your expectations too high, but look: every once
in a while, you've got to try to explain why it is that you love
hiphop. You've got to grab some examples.
No one will think less of you if one of the albums you grab is It
Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back by Public Enemy. I
suspect, depending on your age, that another might be Common's One
Day It'll All Make Sense (or maybe Resurrection) or something by
The Roots. Perhaps The Last Poets.
Who knows? You might try to find some tracks by KRS-ONE or Rakim or
early ATCQ to explain what it was that got you going. Some of you
younger bustas might even think of 2Pac in his better moments or,
perhaps, Goodie Mob, or Lauryn Hill. I can't really say... there are
lots of choices and a lot of it will depend upon when you were born.
But when you set yourself on a slightly different mission, when
you're really trying to explain what it is about this music that makes
it different than mamby-pamby pop music... when you're trying to
explain why you felt it and knew it was talking about you... when
you're talking to other headz about this, ones who either know better
or you want to teach better, you're only going to pick a few albums.
I can think of a few I'd grab. And I feel confident that ten years
from now I'll be able to grab Steal This Album by The Coup and turn
up the volume a bit.
There you go. I can't say much more than that. This is great stuff.
Pick it up. Tell a friend.
But that's just one Black man's opinion--what's yours?
All my Hip Hop reviews are available on the World Wide Web. Use the
URL: http://www.seditionists.org/HFh
and follow the pointers....
"Ex-ex-exhilarting!
I accuse you of nigga hating
and exploitating
for profit making
Don't cop a plea
'cause I'm B double-O T
from the C O U the P"
"Aspired to be famous
Putting fire in their anus
Made the ruling class hate us
more than child support payments"
There is something to note here: the production. I think some East
Coast biased headz have an automatic tsk-tsk reaction to anything that
sounds this West Coast muzakally. That's a mistake. It's not the
production you don't like (I mean, really how can you not like
P-funk style muzak?); rather, it's how that sound signals that the
album is from the West Coast... and all that this entails.
"Pissin' in your gumbo
and they tell you 'It's all gravy!'
See you can't trust a big grip and a smile
and I slang rocks Palestinian style"
But that's silly. After all, you like X-Clan's early stuff, and that
had West Coast bumpiness all over it. This music is phat, draws you
in and besides all that: the lyrics are phat, phat, phat. Come to
think of it, you probably liked much of Amerikkka's Most Wanted,
too, and that's about as West Coast as you can get.
"Who's pimpin' your bundle?
I'm fly like Seth Grundle
If you're snitchin' to Columbo
We're gonna drop you like a bundle"
Face it, you have no excuse.
"Savage storm troopers be less than seducin'
jailtime producin' silly Liliputians"
Anyway, this is a phat track and starts things off well. Still, I
think I would have been even happier with the next track as the first
effort. Why? Well, because "Me and Jesus the Pimp in a '79 Granada
Last Night" is a nice title and once you've given it a listen it's the
first real indication that this album is going to be something extra
special.
"Thirty years ago Jesus could pull a ho quick
But now he's fifty and his belly hangs lower than his d*ck"
Like a lot of the tracks here, it's got some funny lines, but there's
an underlying seriousness... and it ends up being about something
other than you may have expected. In part, this is a story about the
complicated relationship between a young man, his mother and a pimp
named Jesus.
"Well since my adolesence, cuz of his pimp lessons
Smack my woman in the dental just for askin' silly questions
Relationship reduction to either rock the box or suction
Ain't got no close partnas, socially I can't function"
"Used to tell me all the time to keep a b*tch broke
Did I mention that my momma was his number one ho?"
Musically, this track is relatively relaxed, the production is there,
but almost understated. This works well because truly, it's an
amazing piece of writing, full of quick deft rhymes, sly observations
about the little things that go into a lifestyle and make up memories,
all delivered in a barely detached style that befits the subject
matter and first-person point of view.
"City lights from far away can make you drop your jaw
Sparkin' like sequins on a transvestite at Mardi Gras
There's beauty in the cracks of the cement
When I was five I hopped over them wherever we went
to prevent
what it was the could break my momma's back
Little did I know that it would roll up in a cadillac"
This is "Fat Cats and Bigga Fish," but sadder and more pointed. I
suppose all and all, it's not a suprise that many have expressed this
as being one of their favorite tracks.
"I see the red and white lights as the ambulance flies
reminds me of midnight in a dope fiend's eyes"
Up next is "20,000 Gun Salute," a much more in-your-face effort.
"I'm abolitionary, wishin' the judicary
say this year for merry merry 'Free the penetentiary!'
Peoples gonna rumble as long as stomachs grumble
and crack pipes tumble over asphalt that's crumbled
Hundreds come in bundles and hop is mixed with funnels
'cause babies with shoes too small gonna stumble"
First off, it's got a few scritch-scratch moments, with Beavis and
Butthead, which you kinda have to respect. And it's got a bouncy beat
and nice chorus.
"This slug's for Newt!
Shut your mouth, don't pollute
Army of down motherf*ckers
sh*t, we're tryin' to recruit"
You know, at the end of the day, you just gotta respect Boots. This
is good stuff, even if it isn't the very best on the album.
"Old ladies play canasta under roofs of cracked plaster
little kids dive in the trash for discarded Dutchmasters"
I dunno, there's justg something impressive about The Coup's ability
to mix strident polemic with a completely funky beat and
delivery. Even if you didn't feel like listening to what Boots is
saying, the cadence and the muzak just work. It might be tacky to
actually dance to this in a club, but it's hard not to bob your head
with the rise and fall of syllables.
"That was fly"
"Busterismology" is another fine example of this.
"I'm rising like vapors from the dank
F*ck the mirror in my pocket
Had to break it for a shank"
What you thank? Walk the plank
is my motherf*ckin' attitude"
"I use to work at Mickey D's
and my old buster ass manager: licky these!
Had me workin' on my hands and knees
scrubbin' grease
and in the summer with the oven on
It's 110 degrees"
What may seem to be a standard day-in-the-life drama with some
braggodocio thrown in for good measure quickly turns into something
more, as announced by the chorus:
"When we start the revolution all they probably do is snitch"
...and it's all done in a funky, funky style.
"Punk asses like you is just here for confusion
be abusin' rhetoric and it's slightly amusin'
You be crusin' all the networks,
Ebony and Jet works along with your efforts
Now what's your net worth?
If you ain't talkin' bout endin' exploitation
then you just another sambo in syndication
always sayin' words that's gonna bring about elation
never doin' sh*t that's gonna bring us vindication"
"Car and Shoes" pops up next. This is a laugh-out-loud funny track
that I think manages to pay homage to and make fun of artists as
diverse as Too $hort and Sir MixALot.
"Now if ya gettin' in my car
don't sit down right away
'cause my passenger seat tilts sideways"
"Man you ain't nuthin' but a whiner
I almost swerved into those bushes
and scratched the primer
Yeah I know it's two shades...
I'm finta paint it money green when I get paid"
Every time I listen to it, I can pratically see Too $hort braggin'
about his Mercedes. I've been forced to stifile a few snickers up
here in the office.
"Once I did a job,
the lady didn't wanna pay me
So she offered me a hooptie instead
I said maybe
'Cause it looked like it went through a war
Missin' a door! Three out of four
ain't bad, but is it safe to drive?
I'll wait 'till payday then make it live"
"They need to pay me for all these adventures
Tell 'em to my grandkids when I got dentures
Makin' a buck really costs a buck fifty
It's only that cheap if your car's sh*tty
Motherf*ckers laughin' but it beats the AC transit blues"
Anyway, just to shock me a bit, Boots moves back into serious
territory with "Breathing Apparatus."
"Lean over the bed and lemme whisper somethin' close
Watch these motherf*ckers with the stethoscopes
You know I'm uninsured up in this bia-atch
My medical plan was to not get shot"
This one has it all: The return of E-roc, Toni Braxton samples hidden
behind an early Ice-Cube style beat, phat give and take lyrics, and a
backhanded slap at medical insurance and police brutality.
"It's some murderous medical supervision
Had my baby boy couldn't get a circumcision
You ain't got insurance that be costin' gees
they be actin' hands off like you got a disease"
"Hey man, I got a disease
(Damn what you catch?)
It's called broke with no motherf*ckin' respect
And it's an STD, but you ain't never gon' nut
'cause it comes from a long legacy of gettin' f*cked"
Now tell me that isn't a good line. I mean, re-read that. Add in a
funky beat and E-roc and Boots playing off one another like only those
who have rhymed together for years can, and I'll tell you what you've
got: phatitivity. I think the only bad thing about this track is that
it makes me miss E-roc.
"Motherf*ckas tryin' to live like the Huxtables,
comfortable
but my bank account ain't functional"
Admist a fading Braxton-inspired chorus, "UCPAS" ambles up to the
plate. Hmmm. I suppose one track has to be the weakest one on an
album, and I guess this is the weakest one on this album.
"It's not surprisin' that when folks start to uprisin'
it's police on the horizon
They been there all along
they just good at disguisin'
The po-po's supposed to keep the peace?
They gotta make the boss' money increase
You never seen a police break up a strike
by hittin' the boss with his baton pipe"
But it's not like it's actually bad. In fact, it's quite the phat
piece. Guest rappers Vexx and Clap from FTS acquit themselves quite
well. "UCPAS" just has the misfortune of being the track just before
the next six tacks, which together comprise some of the phattest
stuff put to wax (and whatever it is that CDs are made of) in a long
time.
"Pizza? Did I order pizza?"
This is not just one of the useless skits that hiphop artists
sometimes put on their albums, either as filler or just as a joke. No,
the skits in this next section are often events unto themselves and,
if nothing else, act as useful segues between a series of connected
but diverse songs.
"I'll just wait here by the TV"
This skit, for example, segues naturally into "The Repo Man Sings For
You" featuring none other than Del the Homosapien (an artist that I
took a little while to warm up to, but I've always respected). This
is a great effort and Del adds just the right touch of self-centered
contempt to his characterization. Add a phat beat and a really nice
chorus and you got a nice track.
"Bill collectors made my phone line rattle
Tell my kids don't tattle
When you pick up the receiver
I'm sick with a fever
You don't know where I am either"
"Don't cry to me and don't lie to me
Actin' like you ain't home, fakin' on the phone
You shoulda thought about that
when you bought the Benzy
You missed a few increments
Now we gotta come and get your sh*t"
This track is a sequel, I suppose, to the popular "Repo Man" from
Genocide and Juice. Like that track, it's funny, but (as always)
there's an underlying point to it all.
"My boys'll come back and get it later
with the forklift
We don't care how hard you work
We takin' your sh*t"
In fact, that point comes in loud and clear at the end when the
227-like sassy woman-next-door character goes from making ostensibly
funny remarks to the repo man...
"Imma go get my bat and whoop his ass"
...to making uncomfortably angry and sad ones.
"I've paid yall hundreds of dollars!
It-it seems like ain't never gettin' paid off"
This brings us quite abruptly from the funky beat and bouncy "la la
la" of "The Repo Man Sings for You" to the very different "Underdogs."
As our protagonist moves from a funny and threatening posture to a
resigned and bitter one, so does the music. We return to the musical
style and tempo of "Me and Jesus the Pimp in a 79 Grenada Last Night,"
complete with a (this time male) gospel-like chorus and hum.
"I can't take this sh*t no more!"
I suspect the transition is meant in part simply to shock and in part
to make a specific point. It succeeds at both. "Underdogs" is a
powerful, well-written piece of American poetry over a traditional
blues sound, spoken by an angry man who has "learned how to count very
slowly to ten."
"I raise this glass to those that died meaninglessly
and the newborns who get fed intraveneously"
"You feel like swingin' haymakers at a moving truck
You feel like laughin' so it seems like you don't give a f*ck
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"
"You like this song 'cause it's relatable
It's you in a rhyme
We go to stores that only let us in two at a time
We live in places where it costs to get your check cashed
Arguments about money usually drown out the tek blasts."
In my mind, this track captures what it is that makes The Coup better
than your average bear. It manages to justifies not only the price of
the whole album but my faith in hiphop. If I had to sum up what The
Coup is, I think it would be in this verse:
"You take the workers from jobs
You gon' have murders and mobs
A gang of preachers screamin' sermons
over mumurs and sobs
Sayin' pray for a change from the Lord above you
They'd tear this motherf*cker up
if they really loved you...
and so would you"
No, it's not really the almost-Marxist commentary on workers or the
possible indictment of waiting for the Lord to help you, it's the very
last line:
"They'd tear this motherf*cker up
if they really loved you...
and so would you"
It's what the Last Poets were saying in 1970. It's Public Enemy in
1988. It's what I was thinking somewhere in the back of my head when
I was younger, but I wasn't sure exactly how to put it into words. I
think you know what I mean.
"I ain't got no money...
How we gonna get in for free?"
The sudden shift may be Boot's way of making his audience feel either
more uncomfortable or more comfortable. I'm not sure, but I suspect
it's just a natural progression as far as he's concerned. Life is
sad and life is silly, often at the same time. Thus we move with
absolutely no real moment of demarcation to "Sneakin' In" which, as
you might imagine, is all about sneaking in.
"One thing I'll die for is bein' on the guest list
I'm talkin' 'bout a pissyfit
sayin' loud explicit sh*t
'Can't you read my name mothaf*cker?
Ain't you literate?!'
I be sayin' this even if it ain't legitimate
although it ain't considerate
I get in with no scrilla spent"
You know, my mom and I used to sneak between movies when I was really
young. In fact, that's how I saw Stir Crazy. I used to love that.
"I'm not a fronter and
This ain't no cover band
I'm always givin you the really and
no other than"
Anyway, "Sneakin' In" is short but sweet. After getting kicked out of
a movie theater he and his friend sneak into, we make a seamless segue
into "Do My Thang."
"While you was eatin' t-bone steaks
in palacial estates ornate with gates that automate
I was kissin' my mate through iron gates
while the guards wait"
Now, me personally, I really feel this track. I really like the
production (Boots in one of his loud moods) and of course the delivery
is top notch. It manages to be both funny and relevant, too.
"Your fifth period history teacher
'tellin lies like a tweeker
Bump this song through the speaker
Watch their face get weaker
'Less they righteous and they kickin' the facts
They gonna smile 'cause this sh*t is on wax"
However... some folks who've listened to it think it's just way too
silly and goes way past notions of good taste.
"One thing I gots to ask
George Washington down in hell can you see me?
I'm standin' on your grave
and I'm finta take a pee pee!
(Excuse me sir, did you say that you needed to pee?)
No, I said I love it here in DC"
I guess I can see that. I suggest you hide it from mom. Still, you
gotta admit that it's kinda phat.
"That b*tch ass on the front of the buck never gave a f*ck"
Anyway, there's no segue here, which is too bad, but one can't have
everything. Instead we move rather normally on to the last track,
"Fixation."
"I was on the verge of ejaculation
Police performed a home invasion
So I cut off the illumination
and jumped up out the ventilation
They were in anticipation
waiting in Voltron formation
I performed circumnavigation
then crawled throught the folliation
Started my legs to gyration
Caught me, took me to the station
Valuables? Confiscation!
Started the interrogation
Wanted to know 'bout this organization
'causing business complications
Said they wanted pacification
Said 'I know all your machinations!
What you want is more exploitation
You gets no respect, no information
One mo' thang for your gestation
Think you should try self-fornication!'"
This one is done in a different style than the rest of the efforts
herein, but it sounds pretty noice. I like it quite a bit, and it's a
nice way to wind down Steal This Album.
"They'd tear this motherf*cker up
if they really loved you...
and so would you"
I love hip hop. Damn.
"There is a difference, the true seditionist would argue, between a
revolution and a gesture of macho defiance. Gestures are cheap. They
feel good, they blow off some rage. But revolutions, violent or
otherwise, are made by people who have learned how to count very
slowly to ten."
-Barbara Ehrenreich
(c) Copyright 1999, Charles L Isbell, Jr.
