Pitchfork: The Coup Prepare New Album, DVD

Left-wing politics and rap music have a long history together (see: Public Enemy, KRS-One, Dead Prez, etc.), but the level of commitment Bay Area hip-hop group the Coup have given to their activism makes even the most resolutely anti-Man MC seem like a shill for the GOP.

The Coup's anti-capitalist stance invited controversy in 2001, when the original cover art for their last album, Party Music, featured MC/producer Boots Riley and DJ Pam the Funkstress standing in front of an exploding World Trade Center with Boots pushing the button on what appeared to be a detonator (it was actually a guitar tuner). The artwork was immediately scrapped after 9-11, but briefly received the unwanted attention of the FBI.

Five years later, in a landscape where national security concerns grow ever higher, the Coup are once again unwilling to play it safe. On April 22, they will release their Epitaph debut, Pick a Bigger Weapon. The record boasts an all-star lineup of cameos from lefty heavy-hitters: Audioslave/Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, former Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra, and rappers Talib Kweli and Black Thought (of the Roots).

All signs point to funk with a backing band consisting of Morello, Dwayne Higgins of Toni! Tony! Tone!, and vets from Parliament-Funkadelic, the Gap Band, and Frankie Beverly and Maze.

Lyrical themes include world leaders performing fellatio on each other, black market clothing, procreating before the end of the world, and the dangers of plastic surgery.

17 ways to kill a CEO:

01 Bullets and Love (Introduction)
02 We Are the Ones
03 Laugh/Love/Funk
04 My Favorite Mutiny
05 I Just Wanna Lay Around All Day in Bed With You
06 Head (of State)>br> 07 ShoYoAss
08 Yes 'Em to Death
09 Ass-Breath Killers
10 Get that Monkey off Your Back
11 MindFuck (A New Equation)
12 Two Enthusiastic Thumbs Down
13 I Love Boosters!
14 Tiffany Hall
15 BabyLet'sHaveABabyBeforeBushDoSomethin'Crazy (feat. Silk E)
16 Captain Sterling's Little Problem
17 The Stand

Tomorrow, March 14, Music Video Distributors and NSNG Films will release The Best Coup DVD Ever! (No, I'm not being overly enthusiastic, that really is the title.) A visual anthology of the group's career, it features all of their videos ("Not Yet Free", "Dig It, Funk (remix)", "Takin' These", "Fat Cats & Bigga Fish", "Me and Jesus the Pimp in a '79 Granada Last Night", and "Ride the Fence"), interviews with Boots and DJ Pam, and the documentary Eating Forever: A South African Hip Hop Travelog, directed by Boots and Chris Wroubel and shot in South Africa during the 2001 "Black August" tour.

The Coup have three live dates scheduled next month: a gig at New York University, and in-stores at the San Francisco and Hollywood branches of Amoeba Records.

Dates:

04-15 New York, NY - NYU Skirball Center
04-25 San Francisco, CA - Amoeba Records (in-store)
04-27 Hollywood, CA - Amoeba Records (in-store)