The Coup

The Coup understand that there are no easy answers in life or politics, so instead of going for the easy route of anti-Bush screeds, the true heirs to Public Enemy's throne of agitprop hip-hop opt for the dicey task negotiating political disillusionment with personal salvation. "I'm a walking contradiction like bullets and love mixin'," is the album's first line, and over the course of Weapon's 17 tracks, frontman Boots declares himself "Kunta Kinte with a Mack 10," reassures his girlfriend that they're "in bed together like Bush and Hussein" and confesses that "I'm here to laugh, love, f*ck and drink liquor/and make the revolution come quicker." The album reaches its zenith on the sultry and apocalyptic "BabyLet'sHaveABabyBeforeBushDoSomethin'Crazy." Good luck finding a better hip-hop album this year.

Boots Riley's live-in-the-studio funk is as retro as his Afro, and when Talib Kweli percusses next to him you'd think his flow was straight out the Watts Prophets. So call him corny if his Marxist talk makes you nervous. Fact is, the brother's some writer, with his own Oaktown sound. Marxism fans should start with the two love songs: "Ijustwannalayaroundalldayinbedwithyou" lays out the rationalization of the capitalist workday, while the Silk E. feature "BabyLet'sHaveABabyBeforeBushDoSomethin'Crazy" speaks for itself. Plus the Chomskyite "Head (of State)" also has sex in it, the sponsored "Ass-Breath Killers" will help cure your bootymouth, and "I Love Boosters!" is merely the warmest of many shout-outs to a criminal community he's too busy to join. Riley understands as well as any songwriter in America how the black poor and other barely employeds get by, and he also understands who's taking their money, and how. His lesser songs would be dookie gold on an ordinary undie-rap album. And he's no moralizer: "I'm here to laugh, love, f*ck, and drink liquor/And help the damn revolution come quicker." (Grade - A)