It’s been
five days since my last review. This is mostly because this next album was both
new to me (necessitating multiple listens) and long (meaning those listens each
took a while). Ah, well – it’s the journey, not the destination that makes
Odysseus’ journey so interesting.
Although
that whole “slaughter the suitors” thing at the end of the Odyssey is pretty
dope…but I digress. Back to the music.
Disc 1371 is…. Steal
this Double Album
Artist:
The Coup
Year of Release: 1998
What’s up with the
Cover?
Boots Riley and Pam the Funkstress get locked up in Barcode Prison, presumably
for…stealing this album?
How I Came To Know
It: Just
digging through the Coup’s discography after I heard about them in some
article. I certainly did not come to know it by stealing the album, despite the
Coup’s encouragement. I bought it from my local record store with cash money. Hopefully
as dedicated revolutionaries, the Coup will appreciate me thinking for myself on this one.
How It Stacks Up: I have four Coup
albums so far (still searching for two more). Of those four, “Steal this Double
Album” comes in at #4. Hey, something had to be last.
Ratings: 3 stars
No more than 14 songs. It is a simple guideline that ensures you keep
only the best tracks for your album and leave the other ones on the cutting
room floor. Bands violate this guideline at their peril. In this case the peril
is real, as is the bloated nature of the record. Fortunately, while it would
have been better with less content "Steal the Double Album" still delivers lots of hard hitting,
funky hip hop.
The album is a mix of almost free form narrative flow, funky grooves and
humour, all of it infused with a heavy dose of social commentary.
While the Coup is often political, on “Steal this Double Album” rolls a
lot of their social commentary into intensely personal explorations of poverty. When
they get dark, they get really dark. “Underdogs” tells the story of a mom
eating spoonfuls of peanut butter and drinking water to stave off hunger so she
can feed their children. But they also find the adventure in it all, such as reminiscing of a youth spent trying to get into concerts for free on “Sneakin’ In”.
Somewhere in between is “Repo Man Sings For You,” a song that
starts with a “is that that pizza man?” skit, but quickly converts into the
murky worldview of the morally ambiguous title character, seemingly taking delight
in his work. “Repo Man Sings for You” is one of about a
half-dozen songs the record could live without. Listening to it, I just wanted
to hear the far funkier, funnier and more thoughtful “Repo Man” from
their previous record, “Genocide & Juice.”
On the funky side, “20,000 Gun Salute” and “Busterismology”
both bust out seventies grooves and mix them with furious rhymes and great
chorus catch phrases, including my personal favourite:
“When we start the revolution
All they’ll prob’ly do is snitch.”
These songs have a natural swagger, combined with some furious and creative rhyming that makes them better and better on repeat listens. You can agree with the message or you can oppose it, but you'll probably bob your head to the beat all the same.
As you might expect from advocates of revolution, the Coup don’t terribly
care that they might offend you. “Piss On Your Grave” is a metaphor but they
also mean it literally. The song features the Coup picking through a mix of traditional
bad guys up as well as lauded political figures and gives them all the same
violent payback, before er…reminding you of the song’s title. The tune has an
exceptional horn section that gives the whole thing a fun groove but make no
mistake; the Coup is only kidding around on the surface.
The record has some exceptional rap gymnastics from frontman Boots Riley,
although there are also times where it doesn’t hit as hard as I’d like and
instead favouring a jazzier delivery. I like the album best when they lay in
the horns and the funk as the backdrop to their revolutionary zeal.
Fortunately, despite the excess, there are plenty of grooves to go
around, and while some are better than others, none of the tracks are truly bad.
I just wanted the whole thing to be a bit tighter.
Best tracks: The
Shipment, 20,000 Gun Salute, Busterismology, Cars & Shoes, Piss on Your
Grave, What the Po-Pos Hate
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