Customer Reviews

Party Music

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There are plenty of hip-hop joints that lament the male who is deceived by a woman who claims to be carrying his baby. Few, if any, examine the situation beyond the most superficial level. Fewer still have the wherewithal to express compassion and understanding for such actions. Boots Riley does exactly that on "Nowalaters", the eighth track on The Coup's exceptional release Party Music. Taking the noble idea presented on the track Boots goes even farther. He manages to imbue it with a literary quality one would expect to find in a James Baldwin novel rather than in most rap. The are few tracks in hip-hop so transcendental although it is probably worthwhile to mention that one of them would be another Coup cut "Me and Jesus the Pimp in a '79 Granada Last Night" off Steal This Album. The Coup have always worn their Marxist politics on their sleeves but have done it without coming off as self-righteous or oppressively heavy. The tracks on this album range from the overtly ("Ghetto Manifesto" and "5 Million Ways to Kill a C.E.O.") to the covertly revolutionary ("Wear Clean Draws" and "Thought About It 2"). "Wear Clean Draws" is Boots rapping advice to his daughter. It brings a refreshing dose of feminism to a genre where misogynistic chest-thumping chauvinism is the norm. "Ghetto Manifesto" is a superb track that's part "Kapital" and part "Tear the Roof Off" with a slow, grinding funk that makes Marxism danceable. There are a couple of guest rappers on this album. Dead Prez makes a typically tight appearance on "Get Up" and T-Kash spits with exceptional skill on "Pork and Beef". The track "Heven Tonite" is a sort of folk-rap challenge to organized religion that wouldn't sound out of place in a collection of IWW tunes. This album is tight from front to back and benefits from solid production that leans more towards P-Funk than most other Coup albums. A couple tracks sound like they have roughly similar drums to them but the overlay and fill is consistently tight. The beats vary wildly throughout the album but make sense enough to give the album a persistently funky flow. I don't know that I would go so far as to say this joint is better than Steal This Album, but it's certainly its equal which is to say, one of the high spots in all of rap music.

Yeah... I'm gonna go all the way with it.

Boots is the most talented MC to ever touch the microphone! His ability to tell a story, evoke emotions, entertain, enrage, impress and inform are unmatched in recent times.

No riddles. No moralizing. No heavy-handed b***h-slapping. Just righteous, funk-laden gangsta tracks with radical lyrics. The magic mix that no one else has succeeded with. Not PE, not X-Clan, not Dead Prez, not even Mos Def or Talib (although they all come close).

It's too bad that more people won't hear it.

When Genocide and Juice (another Coup masterpiece) was considered 'new' I was bumping it in my ride near a high school in Oakland. Some youngsters stopped by the car to inquire who the group was. They seemed so impressed with the music that I just gave them the CD and bought another one for myself.

The Coup should be leading the nation. They don't simply re-hash the same old stories of 'things they've seen.' They hold a mirror to my own face and force me to question why I think / feel / love a certain way. Who could ask for anything more?

It's unfortunate they had to change their album cover art.

Keep on bangin' them out Boots and Pam! Oh yeah... Bring E-Roc back for at least one track per LP.

The Coup is a great group; if you're not familiar with them, you should be. This album 'Party Music' is their third wide-released album. Although they've deleted a group member during the course of their career: they've stayed true to what they are: an incarnation of Public Enemy for the 1990s laying down perceptive, intelligent rhymes over tight backing tracks that sound someplace in between P-Funk and Dan the Automator. I'm not as big of a fan of this whole album as I am of their others; on individual songs, though, they are way ahead of anything that they've ever done before. Lots of stuff on this disk is head-music: blatantly "anti-"-- anti-establishment, anti-capitalism, anti-black and poor people being oppressed as society makes them apt to be. It's not head music, though, that you couldn't roll in your car with: you could blare this stuff and it'd still be worth it's weight. My only knock on this whole album is that it is too hook-reliant: you're going to have that, though, and it tells you more about my taste in music than how good this disk is. It is awesome: buy it if you can. If you have to think about it, read more reviews. It's totally worth dropping the cash....

Now I've never heard of The Coup before until about earlier this year. So I wanted to purchase Steal This [Double] Album and recently Party Music. I must have missed the message on Steal This [Double] Album, but I understood it on Party Music that they are heavily against Capitalism. But the content of the album is excellent. "5 Million Ways To Kill A CEO" is a good song if you can get past the dance type beat and listen to what Boots Riley is really saying. "Ghetto Manifesto" is nice song where he talks about people who are struggling at their jobs just to get minimum wage. "Ride The Fence" is another great song where he talks about the bad America is running things and he couldn't have said it better, "You can't do sh*t if you ride the fence..." (And if you put it in your computer or go to Yahoo music, you get the animated video- props to Halik Hoisington for putting that together) Another stand out song is the last song "Lazymuthaf***a" where Boots talks about how rich people have butlers because they're too lazy to do things themselves. The message is real clear on that song. Pam the Funkstress gets a few good cuts in the CD too, listen to "Tight" and the hook to "Ride The Fence". I'd say if there was a filler in the CD, it would be "Pork And Beef" which features T-Kash, which takes the beat from Tha Eastsidaz "Got Beef". Not a bad song, but if I had to pick a subpar one, it would be that one.

This group from Oakland is very unique and is a great example of standing up for what you believe in. People say that this album was either a hit or miss, and to me this one was hit out of the park. Many people may have a different opinions on what Boots is saying and may not believe him, but hey, opinions make the world go around. Thats something we definately need in life and in hip hip. This Bay Area trio did a good job since it was ranked #1 in 2001, by The Washington Post, and The San Francisco Chronicle.

Lyrics: 9.5/10
Beats/Production (and scratches): 10/10
Guest Appearances: Dead Prez, T-Kash, Martin Luther (does the "Yo, yo, yo, yo," in "5 Million Ways...) 9/10
Party Rating: 6/10 (Unfortunately not many people know who this group is, but if they listen to it, they may like it)

Overall Rating: 9.5/10

Great job!! Rumor has it that they may come out with a new CD later on this year called "Pick A Bigger Weapon." While they're at it, they need to reissue "Kill My Landlord" and "Genocide & Juice." (Oh by the way, I like the origonal album cover, before the event actually happened)

Incredibly good album, laced with incredibly catchy funk sounds and choruses. Lyrically the topics are very diverse and opinionated. The songs range from the most politically charged, to humorous songs about life's happenings. Overall an album with meaningful thought provocing lyrics (whether you agree or disagree with their anti-capitalistc theme)and catchy hooks, over great live funk band instrumentals. I highly recommend this purchase!!

We've all heard it before. The subject matter for this music is certainly nothing different than anything you could read in an undergraduate research paper from any student who's just encountered the campus Marxist brigade. This record--and The Coup in general--probably get a little more credit than they're due for espousing this sort of just-beyond-juvenile anti-capitalist agenda, but that's probably to be expected. There's nothing new here in terms of philosophy, and it continues to be a touch unintellectual to be considered any kind of enlightened study, but for Rage Against the Machine without the guitars, you get what you paid for.

And what you paid for is a decent hip hop record. And that's what you get. Indeed--I'd say that this record is probably a good sight better than your average hip hop album these days. The album arrangement (up until the last three tracks or so) is excellent, managing tone and rhythm very well, with a number of catchy, up-tempo, and funky songs interrupting the standard hip hop formula of droning, lyrically overwrought music. Indeed--the biggest problem that I see most folks who don't listen almost exclusively to hip hop struggling with in the genre is the fact that so many of the records tend to blend into a sort of dull, thumping, vanilla backbeat that does little more than dull the senses and befog the mind.

Simply for avoiding that fate, this album deserves three stars. The fact that it's also at least passably literary, has infectious hooks and beats, and features a lead figure who is, at the least, charismatic, fun to listen to, and possessed of the sense of humor that so many other rappers desperately need to develop nets it the fourth.

Unfortunately, the album DOES run out of gas near the end. I've had this CD for about three months now, and I find myself regularly popping it back out of the drive almost immediately after the end of Pork and Beef because the denoument just isn't that compelling. Had the group seen fit to add on another, slightly more upbeat number as an album capper (my personal solution has been the remix of Get Up released by 75Ark on their "Takes You to the Bridge" collection, which has since fallen out of availability after the label's collapse), I think I could justify giving the record five stars even with my general disagreement with it's philosophy.

As it stands, however, this is still a strong record, accessible both to hardcore hip hop fans and outsiders. Definitely recommended to any like-minded political listeners (translation: if you like Rage Against the Machine, you'll probably like this album), and also worth a listen for anybody else out there in the audience.

Before I bought this album, I wasn't sure if I liked the Coup for their music or for their vision. This is a good combination of both, "Lets make heaven tonight" illustrates their socialist vision, and shows Boots heart felt intelligence, I especially like "wear clean draws" "Ride the fence" "Get up w/ Dead Prez" "5 million ways to kill a Ceo". I saw them in concert and they were dope, live band and all make sure to check it out.

This album is probably the best from Boots Riley and Pam the Funkstress, simply because the beats are better and Boots rapping has improved...This album is very politically aware, all you have to do to see it is take the lyrics with a pinch of salt (like many do with rappers like Eminem, for example - do you think he wants to do everything he raps about?). This album attacks everything from corrupt cops, political apathy, to lazy businessmen. We have all been shocked by the actions of September 11th but I don't think this is reason for Boots to drop his rapping about business men just because many died in the tragedy. He wasn't attacking them specifically. If soldiers die in war it doesn't mean people should stop commenting on the horrors of war and the people who partake in them.
The reason Boots (and also Dead Prez) write about such things in their songs is because they are issues that are true to life - there IS police brutality, there ARE lazy, rich people who just sit around all day doing nothing. And lets not just focus on the negative either..., let's include songs such as 'Get Up' which is a song urging people to be politically active and 'Wear Clean Draws' - a song to Boots daughter telling her how the world works.
I do not believe completely with all the views expressed by the Coup but agree with the basic message and vibe that can be heard in their songs. This is a great album that doesn't deserve the slander which has been written by some of the other reviewers. Hands together to a group who are politically and socially conscious.

I have three of their albums and they never cease to amaze how pissed off they are. Especially early on. Oh yeah and they can rap, pump beat and Pam rips it up. Some of the best hiphop around if you can stomach it.

This album is great for those interested in conscious hip-hop. The track "Get Up" featuring Dead Prez is one of my personal favourites. I don't personally advocate killing cops and CEOs, but I think this album is a good wake-up call for those who think our country is so perfect. If you like this, you'll like KRS, Dead Prez, and other such conscious rappers. I also recommend that you pick up Michael Franti and Spearhead's recent release "Stay Human," which is an excellent anti-death penalty manifesto. Boots and DJ Pam have done a fine job.