[rating=2.50]
Regionalists and record labels in hip-hop are badges of honor. From Southern Crunk, to East Coast Raw, Death Row to Def Jam to Purple Ribbon the players bring their own sound to the game from their home towns, which makes The Coup, (Boots Riley and DJ Pam the Funkstress with various special guests) stand out. The Bay Area veteran’s new album, Pick a Bigger Weapon, is its second release on Epitaph. They join counterparts Blackalicious and Danger Doom on the old school punk label hoping to reach a broader audience. Yet despite all of the rhetoric over the essence of labels and the importance of hometowns, in the end it comes down to music and lyrics, and Pick a Bigger Weapon just barely delivers.
Syrupy cuts play on a Junior VarsitySouthernplayalisticadillacmuzik vibe, the beats are sparse and meander with tweaky keyboards and 7-up fizzle bubbles of bass. The sound drips much too thin on certain tracks, yet can still flash various textures like the eastern sounding electric guitar background in the body moving “MindFuck,” a song where Boots successfully speeds up his flow. The rest of the songs and skits with only a smattering of guests meld into a full album and, when the music is over, no track stands out as great.
The majority of rhymes are never in a hurry “See I’m old school/like coke lines an LP covers” this from the disk closing “The Stand” is an accurate summary, old school fans will dig this much more then new jacks. Choruses are repeated till they sink in, Riley has something to say, whether he wants to get freaky, start a party, or preach political his thoughts are pushed to the forefront.
Boots Riley has never been one to back down from controversy, the last Coup’s album cover showed the crew blowing up the World Trade Center with drumsticks and, even though it was completed months before 9/11, it was a PR disaster. The new album does not back down, and in fact it’s best songs are political, such as the pumping conspiracy theory of “Head of State” with the chorus, “Bush and Hussein together in bed/Giving H.E.A.D, Head/Ya’ll Muthafuckers heard what we said/Billions made and millions dead.” The political songs on the album sound like The Coup has a purpose and they are delivered with more precision and power then some of the sloppier get down joints.
The party tracks like “Laugh/Love/Fuck” are included so the album isn’t overly heavy. You can still get your groove on with jams like “I Just Wanna Lay Around All Day In Bed With You”, in these tunes The Coup’s most obvious influence. Parliament/Funkadelic, comes out, Like the ATLiens, The Coup hav taken what Clinton, Bootsy and Worrell were funking on in the 70’s and filtered it for a new generation through a hip hop lens, sometimes successfully sometimes lacking. The humor, the bubblegum snapping bass lines, the moments of clarity followed by dream like rambles that wander nowhere, all here and updated for the 2006.
Unlike the Original Funkateers (who were from another planet entirely) The Coup’s ideas are grander then the actual sound on this disk, but they vary up their hip-hop style enough to keep listeners who are not trapped in the club engaged and thinking about searching out a bigger weapon for when the revolution comes.
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