It’s been six years since the politically conscious Bay Area rap ensemble The Coup dropped Pick a Bigger Weapon. Now, with the release of Sorry to Bother You, the band is back, although with a slightly different sound.
Straying away from a strictly sample-based approach to production, The Coup adds an assortment of sounds you wouldn’t normally hear on a hip-hop record. Kazoos and banjos accompany gritty but funky analog synths, hard-hitting drums and handclaps, and the odd sample thrown in there.
“It’s always been live instruments, from the very first album,” says vocalist Boots Riley.
In the six years since Pick a Bigger Weapon, the group’s hard-working frontman has been touring and releasing music with his other band, Street Sweeper Social Club, also featuring Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine. The Coup has also been gigging around, because, according to Riley, that’s what you have to do to put food on the table as a musician.
“Just touring,” he says, summing up the past few years for the band. “Basically, if you don’t blow the fuck up, then in order to survive in music you have to just gigÉ and so, you know, a lot of time is spent gigging to make ends meet.”
Sorry to Bother You was, interestingly enough, the name of a screenplay that the rapper wrote himself, inspired by his time working as a telemarketer.
“It’s a dark comedy with magical realism and science fiction all inspired by my time as a telemarketer. It’s being filmed in the spring. It’s produced by Ted Hope, who produced 21 Grams, The Ice Storm, American Splendor, and Eat Drink Man Woman. But you don’t have to know the movie to enjoy the soundtrack,” Riley says of the album.
Sorry to Bother You is a dance-ready, funk-filled album and starts off with a bang, with Riley saying “we are the bomb” to homeland security on lead single “The Magic Clap.” The line has two meanings: one is that the people, the movement, are the ones to fear. Also, “We are the bomb means we are the shit,” says Riley.
Writing screenplays, collaborating on albums with Tom Morello, and finding time to craft an album while touring heavily is a tough feat for most, but the rapper takes it on with a certain attitude and determination that is inspirational in itself.
Now, moving ahead with positive feedback from fans about the new album and a nationwide tour on the go, The Coup is ready for the future.
“The reaction is good,” says Riley. “It’s always weird to have been working on something for a while and have other people look at it but, you know, the reaction has been affirming.”
The Coup
Sunday, November 18
Club 9one9, $7.80
strathconahotel.com.club90ne9