Boots Riley Lyrics In Context 1993 2012

"Every line brims with the grit of the underdog, burns with rage and tenderness. It's no secret he is one of the most influential poets of this generation."and#8212;Jeff Chang, Can't Stop, Wont Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation

"Boots' lyrics contain the wit and satire to match their venom and potent political punch. His intricate yet relatable rhymes are like a combination of a Richard Pryor sketch and a guerrilla warfare manual."and#8212;Tom Morello, Rage Against the Machine

"Fact is, the brother's some writer. . . . 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."and#8212;The Village Voice

"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."and#8212;Rolling Stone

Boots Riley has written lyrics as the frontman of underground favorites The Coup for two decades. An activist, educator, and emcee, Riley combines hip-hop poetics, radical politics, and the wry humor of the everyman. Including not-yet-released lyrics, photos, and backstories, here's an in-depth portrait of Riley's life and work.

A popular leader in the struggle for radical change through culture, Boots Riley is best known as the leader of The Coup, the seminal hip-hop group from Oakland, California, where he is an organizer and has been active in the Occupy movement. Billboard magazine declared the group "the best hip-hop act of the past decade."

Praise for Boots Riley and The Coup

Praise for Boots Riley: Collected Lyrics and Writings

and#147;Every line of Boots Rileyand#8217;s work brims with the grit of the underdog, burns with rage, wit, and tenderness. Itand#8217;s no secret he is one of the most influential poets and thinkers of this generation.and#8221;

and#151;Jeff Chang, author of Canand#8217;t Stop, Wont Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation

and#147;Boots lyrics contain the wit and satire to match their venom and their potent political punch. His intricate yet relatable rhymes are like a combination of a Richard Pryor sketch and a guerrilla warfare manual.and#8221;

and#151;Tom Morello

and#147;Bootsand#8217;s unparalleled lyrics are here, but thereand#8217;s so much more, tooand#151;all of it bearing Bootsand#8217;s trademark combination of revolutionary politics, absurdist humor, and rare lyricism. This is a great book about a great man.and#8221;

and#151;Dave Eggers

and#147;Marx wrote, and#145;To be radical means to go to the root, and the rootand#151;is man himself.and#8217;and#8221; For Boots Riley, and#145;manand#8217; is and#145;the people,and#8217; the root is where he lives, creates, and resists, and this book is one of the most genuine expressions of a radical voice you will find anywhere. His lyrics, musings, and memories reveal a brother at home in the world; no struggle or corner of the globe goes unthought, unsung, or unmoored from its mythical veneer. No mere compendium of rhymes, Boots Riley: Collected Lyrics and Writings is his Red Bookand#151;at once a manifesto, a work of art, an archeology of knowledge, a genealogy of revolutionary funk, and a window onto a world of injustice and joy, pain, and possibility. Dig it!and#8221;

and#151;Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original

and#147;The very existence of a person like Boots Riley is a miracle: he unites profound theoretical insights into the deadlocks of global capitalism, authentic political engagement in the Occupy movement, and wonderful musical performances. I am simply proud to be associated with himand#151;as long as guys like Boots are around, the radical Left is not dead!and#8221;

and#151;Slavoj and#381;iand#382;ek

and#147;Itand#8217;s not every day that you have a poet from Oakland kick start a political hip-hop movement, but thatand#8217;s what Boots Riley specializes in: bringing the concentrated, undiluted vision of his area to the world. When you look at the traditions of poetry he evokes from Iceberg Slim, The Watts Prophets, Amiri Baraka, Allen Ginsberg, Chuck D, Claude McKay, The Last Poets, Jean Toomer, Saul Williams, Sarah Jones, and moreand#151;you can see where this collection of his poetry comes from. This is the sound of twenty-first-century paradoxand#151;beautiful, enigmatic, deep like a river. Boots Rileyand#8217;s poetry is distilled from the strength of his insights into the abstract but made all the more powerful for its concerns with the everyday life of the people that his words speak of. As Allen Ginsberg once said, and#145;Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture.and#8217; Boots Rileyand#8217;s poetry takes aim at that situation, and puts it front and center, where it should be. Oakland flow, yand#8217;all. Check it.and#8221;

and#151;DJ Spooky

and#147;Iand#8217;ve always respected and admired Bootsand#8217; unique style as a lyricist. He is at once a storyteller, agitator, educator, comedian, poet, and emcee with a degree in authenticity and a double major in empathy. Iand#8217;m happy to see this collection come together from my friend and comrade who is so humble yet an icon in hip-hop. All Bob Marley ever had was redemption songsand#151;and all Boots ever wrote are lyrics of liberation!and#8221;

and#151;STIC of dead prez

and#147;For more than two decades, the music of Boots Riley and The Coup has been my soundtrack: a spicy synthesis of filthy funk and prophetic political fire. Boots Riley: Collected Lyrics and Writings is an epic achievement: twenty-five years of genius between two covers. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.and#8221;

and#151;Dave Zirin, author, Whatand#8217;s My Name, Fool?

and#147;Boots Riley is the voice of his generation. There is anger here for a heartless system, but there is also a great deal of compassion and hope for the future of humanity. Inside these lyrics and these sentences can be measured the heart rate of Occupy, BlackLivesMatter, Anonymous, Dreamers, Dream Defenders.and#8221;

and#151;Vijay Prashad, author, The Poorer Nations

and#147;When I tried to open the document a message said, and#145;unable to open because there is trouble with the content.and#8217; Now you know that must be some hip shit!and#8221;

and#151;Amiri Baraka

Praise for The Coup

and#147;The Coup isnand#8217;t a rock and#145;nand#8217; roll band. Itand#8217;s a hip-hop band. But they are a miracle of everyday life and proved it at Emoand#8217;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.and#8221;

and#151;Austin American Statesman

and#147;Iand#8217;d be surprised if I see anything at Outside Lands that impresses me more than the Coupand#8217;s set. Itand#8217;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.and#8221;

and#151;San Jose Mercury/ Oakland Tribune

and#147;Silk E sings and struts like Tina Turner raised on hip-hop.and#8221;

and#151;Pitchfork.com

and#147;Considerable musical chops... The Coup throws one fine party.and#8221;

and#151;Los Angeles Times

and#147;Incendiary... Live instrumentation to challenge even the wildest rock music.and#8221;

and#151;Punknews.com

Born in Chicago into a family of radical organizers and raised in Oakland, Boots became a community

organizer at the age of 14, but later switched from a clipboard to the microphone, forming The Coup with rapper E-Roc. Pam the Funkstress, the first female DJ star in the famously competitive Bay Area turntablist scene, later signed on.

Their 1991 self-distributed EP landed them a deal with Wild Pitch Records. Two singles, and#147;Dig Itand#8221; and and#147;Not Yet Free,and#8221; cracked BET, Yo! MTV Raps, and national Black radio. Their 1993 album Kill My Landlord debuted to wide acclaim. The next year, Genocide and Juice shot up the charts. E-Roc then left the group on amicable terms.

Steal This Album, released in 1998, was called and#147;a masterpieceand#8221; by Rolling Stone and sealed The Coupand#8217;s reputation. It was reportedly the most stolen album of 1999. The single from that album and#147;Me and Jesus the Pimp in a and#145;79 Grenada Last Nightand#8221; was an 8-minute opus about the grown-up son of a prostitute driving his motherand#8217;s killer to a secluded place in which to murder him. A novel based on the story characters and detailed descriptions in the song, and#147;Too Beautiful for Wordsand#8221; by Monique W. Morris, was published by HarperCollins in 2000.

The bandand#8217;s next record, Party Music, scheduled for release shortly after 9/11, became a cultural flashpoint amid Cheney-Ashcroft hysteria. The albumand#8217;s original cover (completed three months prior to 9/11) depicted the crew setting off an explosion in the World Trade Center using a guitar tuner and drumsticks. The cover was pulled immediately after the attacks. and#147;As far as the record industry was concerned, it was the end of my career,and#8221; Boots says. Instead, Bootsand#8217; defiant refusal to and#147;ride the fenceand#8221; and the albumand#8217;s undeniable funk made it an underdog favorite. The album hit #8 in the 2001 Pazz and Jop poll, the most important year-end criticand#8217;s list and was named and#147;Pop Album of the Yearand#8221; by the Washington Post.

At around the same time, Boots, through his workshop on Art and Organizing, led a group of young artists to create and#147;Guerilla Hip-Hop Concertsand#8221; on a flatbed truck that traveled throughout Oakland to protest Californiaand#8217;s racist Proposition 21. The workshop also distributed tens of thousands of free cassettes of and#147;The Rumble,and#8221; which he called and#147;newspapers on tapeand#8221;. Boots also founded Shoyoass Words, Sounds and Pictures, a record and media company specializing in music and art that he calls and#147;relevant to social change.and#8221;

In 2006, The Coup released their critically lauded album Pick a Bigger Weapon, which was named album of the year by the Associated Press. Rolling Stone wrote of the album: and#147;Rileyand#8217;s rhymes work so well because theyand#8217;re more about real life than rhetoric...itand#8217;s the rare record that makes revolution sound like hot fun on a Saturday night.and#8221;

In 2007, Boots and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine formed Street Sweeper Social Club. SSSC combines Rileyand#8217;s humorous, witty, and incisive lyrics and vocals with Morelloand#8217;s fiery rock riffs. They released their self-titled album in 2009 and toured amphitheaters, hit the main stages of music festivals across the United States, and played the late night network talk shows. The new turn in Rileyand#8217;s career has exposed his work to a new and much larger audience. Their follow-up The Ghetto Blaster EP will be released this summer.

Boots Riley is currently working on The Coupand#8217;s next album, which is the soundtrack to a film script he is writingand#151;a dark comedy with magical realism, inspired by his time as a telemarketer. The filmand#8217;s title is Sorry to Bother You.

Intro by Adam Mansbach

Adam Mansbach's Go the Fuck to Sleep is a #1 New York Times bestseller, and one of the most talked-about books of the decade. A viral sensation that shot to #1 on Amazon.com months before the book was even available, it has been published in forty languages, and is forthcoming as a feature film from Fox 2000.