Song: 5 Million Ways To Kill A CEO (long lost video that never came out)
Artist: E-40 w/ Boots Riley of The Coup, Song: Practice Lookin' Hard, Label: Sic Wid It/Jive 1994. Chorus from The Coup's "Not Yet Free". Video features: E-40, Boots Riley, and Tupac Shakur.
Documentary Film: Eating Forever. Shot in South Africa during the Black August Tour with Dead Prez, Black Thought, Talib Kweli, Jeru The Damaja, and Boots Riley. Directed by Boots Riley and Chris Wroubel.
Trailer for the Documentary Film: Sir! No Sir! In the 1960's an anti-war movement emerged that altered the course of history. This movement didn't take place on college campuses, but in barracks and on aircraft carriers. It flourished in army stockades, navy brigs and in the dingy towns that surround military bases. It penetrated elite military colleges like West Point. And it spread throughout the battlefields of Vietnam. It was a movement no one expected, least of all those in it. Hundreds went to prison and thousands into exile. And by 1971 it had, in the words of one colonel, infested the entire armed services. Yet today few people know about the GI movement against the war in Vietnam.
Rolling Stone
"Top 50 Albums Of The Year"
"Top 100 Songs Of The Year" ('Babylet'shaveababybeforebushdosomethincrazy' w/ Silk E)
Murder Dog
"2 Album Of The Year"
Chicago Tribune
"7 Album Of The Year"
Salt Lake Tribune
"4 Album Of The Year"
The Onion AV Club
"8 Album Of The Year"
Washington Post
"9 Album Of The Year"
Eastbay Express
"Most Wrathful Rock Album"
Hip-Hop Connection [UK]
"5 Freshest Sounds Of 2006"
Billboard says:
" the Coup is the best hip-hop act of the past decade."
XXL says:
"... the bigger weapon referred to in the album's title is the increasingly sophisticated live funk that oozes out of these grooves."
Village Voice says:
"Fact is, the brother's some writer... His lesser songs would be dookie gold on an ordinary undie-rap album."
and
"Their low-slung rhythms imagine what might have happened if Reagan-era Prince had been less into getting some action and more into kicking up some activism, or if P-Funk had dabbled in politics as well as psychedelics."
Rolling Stone says:
"Riley's rhymes work so well because they're more about real life than rhetoric... it's the rare record that makes revolution sound like hot fun on a Saturday night."
Filter says:
"Pick A Bigger Weapon is their best. It's their most musically realized, stylistically diverse, and personal record to date, and hence it's the most pointed weapon in Oakland hip-hop's booming arsenal."
Elle says:
"... a record that's hilarious, righteously angry, and highly danceable."
LATimes.com says:
"Front man Boots Riley shakes his metaphorical fist at all manner of political and economic injustices; you shake your booty at the Parliament-inspired grooves.This album has plenty of street cred..."
San Francisco Bay Guardian says:
"[With] the group's fifth full-length, [Boots Riley] has created a deeply personal, heartfelt, often funny body of work that captures the East Bay's radical legacy, as well as its funky, booty-shaking musical sensibility."
Time Out Chicago says:
"Riley, the Chicago-born, Oakland-raised, former teenage community organizer, also wields his chops as one the most talented arrangers in hip-hop. Each track is laced with sparkling, live-instrument love letters..."
USA Today says:
"Wicked funk and smooth soul grooves... They're serious, but they never lose their sense of humor..."
Entertainment Weekly says:
"[The Coup's] best yet." "A-"
Future Music says:
"The legit heir to George Clinton's twisted universe... A wild ride through the modern urban experience."
PopMatters.com says:
"the weapons the Coup use are wit, frankness, storytelling, poetry, smooth soul music and raw funk... Musically this is the sexiest Coup album yet..."
Elemental says:
"The beats sound fresh and bouncy, very unlike the typical aggressive and purposely chaotic political rap beats... a solid release that should finally allow The Coup to get the shine that has eluded them for some time."
College Times says:
"A-" "He pairs his sharp, often funny, lyrics with a head-bobbing groove..."
AllHipHop.com says:
"Like walking into a party drunk and pissing on the coats... MC Boots Riley is still in Richard Pryor-sharing-an-apartment-with-George Clinton-mode... The Coup up the ante..." "4/5"
Party Music:
"Best Hip Hop Artist" - Rolling Stone
"1 Album of the Year" - Washington Post
"1 Album of the Year" - Time Out New York
"1 Album of the Year" - San Francisco Chronicle
"Top Albums of the Year"- Los Angeles Times
"The Year In Pop, 3 out of 4 Critics Choices" - New York Times
"7 Pazz and Jop Poll"- Village Voice
"Top 40 Albums of The Year" - Rolling Stone
"14 Album of the Year" - Spin
"Best Albums" - Denver Post
"2 Album of the Year" - Philadelphia Inquirer
"25 Greatest Album of 2001" – Blender
Some things they've said about our live shows:
Montreal Gazette:
"[Boots Riley] is a consummately charismatic front man, establishing his as one of the best live rap acts going, after Philadelphia untouchables the Roots."
Austin American-Statesman:
"The Coup isn't a rock 'n' roll band. It's a hip-hop band. But they are a miracle of everyday life and proved it at Emo's on Saturday night. I have no idea when the Coup turned into one of the best bands on the planet, but here we are."
Salt Lake Tribune:
"The Coup now rules my world... possibly the best show I've seen this year... Riley is one magnetic frontman. If The Coup come back, don't miss the show."
Orange County Register:
"...after this tremendous breakthrough set [Coachella Festival], I can’t imagine the Coup will remain hip-hop’s best kept secret anymore."
SmokingSection.com:
"Everytime I see them they rock progressively harder...the whole house [was] going buck, even the cranky-ass security guard...crazy stage presence..."
San Jose Mercury/ Oakland Tribune:
"It's still early, but I'd be surprised if I see anything at Outside Lands that impresses me more than the Coup's set. It's always the same deal with this East Bay troupe, led by genius rapper Boots Riley. Whether they are playing Coachella or Rock the Bells or, now, Outside, they always seem to outshine the competition."
Pitchfork.com:
"Silk E sings and struts like Tina Turner raised on hip-hop."
Los Angeles Times:
"Considerable musical chops... The Coup throws one fine party."
The Coup and Boots Riley management contact:
Ken Erlick
503-233-4055
ken@rockshields.com
Interested in Boots Riley speaking engagements? Boots is occasionally available to speak at your school or event. Please contact Evil Twin Booking for more information:
Liz Cole
215-888-1756
liz@eviltwinbooking.org
Boots~Wishing you a wonderful weekend and wanting to thank you for keeping my house full of kick ass tunes!! Lovin' the new album...almost as much as I love you! Naw..thats not possible!!
Hey! Check out this cool interview with Tom Morello and Boots Riley on Baeble: http://www.baeblemusic.com/artistinterviews/StreetSweeperSocialClub/StreetSweeperSocialClub.html
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