The Coup - Pick a Bigger Weapon

[roaches]

The Coup's new album, Pick A Bigger Weapon, kicks off with a classic Boots Riley line — "I'm a walking contradiction/Like bullets and love mixin'…" — and then it just gets better. After a 14-year career that has defined the word "uncompromising", the Coup return armed with bigger funk and taller tales.

Backed by a stellar band that includes Audioslave's Tom Morello, Dwayne Wiggins, and veterans of Parliament-Funkadelic, the Gap Band, Toni! Tony! Toné!, Jesse Johnson, and Frankie Beverly and Maze, the sound is a little edgier on this record and the beats a little faster." The Coup's uniquely bent grooves point to "Dirty Mind"-era Prince, late-80s Too Short, and the trunk-rattling hyphy sonics of the New Bay movement.

The song-cycle of Pick A Bigger Weapon highlights Boots' storytelling gifts — the same outrageous humor, underdog love, and righteous rage that produced classics like "Fat Cats/Bigga Fish" ("Genocide & Juice") and "Me & Jesus The Pimp In A '79 Granada Last Night" ("Steal This Album"). The songs capture the collisions between economics and everyday life, the political and the personal.

The album begins with "We Are The Ones", the story of a street player who could be related to Slick Rick or the late Bay Area rap hero, Mac Dre. "Laugh/Love/Fuck" is a breezy manifesto. "My Favorite Mutiny" showcases a lyricist’s dream session with the Roots' Black Thought and Talib Kweli. "Head of State" turns war-weariness into a riotous joke.

Songs like "Mindfuck (A New Equation)", "Captain Sterling's Little Problem", and the true-life tragedy of "Tiffany Hall" are as harrowing as "Two Thumbs Way Down/I Love Boosters" (with a cameo by Jello Biafra) is hilarious. "BabyLet’sHaveABabyBeforeBushDoSomethin’Crazy" (featuring the stunning singer/rapper Silk E) is an apocalyptic love song that recalls X's "The World's A Mess, It's In My Kiss" and Marvin Gaye's "If I Should Die Tonight". "IJusWannaLayAroundAllDayInBedWithYou" finds utopia in the bedroom.

"All we have on earth are our seconds and minutes, and in order to survive, we're forced to sell that time. We sell our lives off to the highest bidder," Boots says. "The question is how would we use those seconds if we had control of that time?"


01. Bullets And Love (Introduction)
02. We Are The Ones
03. Laugh/Love/Fuck
04. My Favorite Mutiny
05. I Just Wanna Lay Around All Day In Bed With You
06. Head (Of State)
07. ShoYoAss
08. Yes ‘Em To Death
09. Ass-Breath Killers
10. Get That Monkey Off Your Back
11. MindFuck (A New Equation)
12. Two Enthusiastic Thumbs Down
13. I Love Boosters!
14. Tiffany Hall
15. BabyLet’sHaveABabyBeforeBushDo Somethin’Crazy
16. Captain Sterling’s Little Problem
17. The Stand

Anyone heard this yet? I just grabbed it.

 

[Lok]

BabyLet’sHaveABabyBeforeBushDo Somethin’Crazy
lol. I need to hear it.

 

[roaches]

I was disappointed by that song. Great fucking title, but there's no rapping at all on it. Just some singer Boots is trying to put on.

 

[HitEmUp21]

Doesn't seem to have made too much of a splash in the internet, been on the lookout for it for a couple of days but haven't seen anything.

Could I possibly be PM'd a link?

 

[roaches]

Because people whose hip-hop experience is limited to the Internet generally have bad taste. Look at the political rappers they like: dead prez, Immortal Technique, the new Public Enemy... *throws up*

 

[HitEmUp21]

Because people whose hip-hop experience is limited to the Internet generally have bad taste. Look at the political rappers they like: dead prez, Immortal Technique, the new Public Enemy... *throws up*

Gracias.

One thing I like about Boots Riley is versatility. Unlike DP and Paris etc. he doesn't feel the need to put on the serious, "revolutionary" persona everytime he drops a verse or writes a song. So we got a nice variety on this album: political, love, humor, existentialist shit ("Laugh, Love, Fuck"). That said, Party Music > Pick a Bigger Weapon. I really enjoyed the first half of the album (bar "I just wanna lay in bed..."). "My Favorite Mutiny" is still my favorite off the album (which maybe gave me unrealistic expectations about what the album had to offer). Other notables include "We are the Ones", "MindFuck", "I Love Booster!", and "The Stand." I didn't mind "BabyLet'sHaveABaby...", although, like too many R & B songs it did have me instinctually waiting for a drum beat to drop (that never came).

Best from the Bay so far though. (I thought E-40's album wasn't worth the hype, although I'm glad he finally got up there on the Billboard).

 

[troublesome2004]

'My Favorite Mutiny' is a very good song. I didn't listen album yet...

 

[albohemia]

I'd like this album more if I wasn't such a fan of Genocide & Juice

 

[roaches]

Yeah, Genocide and Juice and the two albums after that are masterpieces. I'd still put this ahead of Kill My Landlord, though. The only thing I don't like about the album is the production - a little too live, the experiments weren't exactly successes, etc.

 

[Advocate]

like dead prez

you aint got no love for DP ?

 

[roaches]

I like "Hip-Hop" and thought the video to "Hell Yeah" was great, but on the whole I think they are terrible hacks who need to delouse and stop making music.

 

[Lok]

I agree that they should have stopped making shit after "Let's Get Free", but that album is a classic.

Anyway, this is a solid album. Has quite a bit of replay value. Definitely worth checking out.

 

[troublesome2004]

I like "Hip-Hop" and thought the video to "Hell Yeah" was great, but on the whole I think they are terrible hacks who need to delouse and stop making music.

I agree that they should have stopped making shit after "Let's Get Free", but that album is a classic.

Anyway, this is a solid album. Has quite a bit of replay value. Definitely worth checking out.

DPZ went through many difficulties as an artists. I agree that after the 'Let's Get Free' (which was a real classic) they made small turn with 'RBG'. But, they never changed, they just wanted to show people other sides of themselves. They don't like to be labeled as a 'revolutionary rappers'. They rather wants to be recognized as a dope MCs. I think that they stated this in one interview way back in XXL.