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Back With A Bigger Plan

You probably remember The Coup and the unfortunate album art for 2001's Party Music, featuring an image of the World Trade Center going up in flames, with MC Boots Riley and DJ Pam the Funkstress standing in front of the Twin Towers, the former holding two drumsticks, the other clutching a detonator. The album cover was planned three months prior to the tragic events of 9/11, and though, 75 Ark Records withdrew the cover, critics assumed that The Coup was finished.


Thankfully, Pick A Bigger Weapon reaffirms that Pam and Boots Riley are anything but quitters.

The Coup Vs. George Bush

In fact, their blend of social commentary and outrageous humor is much more sagacious on joints like "ShoYoAss" and "MindF**k(A New Equation)." Similarly, the Bush-bashing "Head(of State)" is delivered with so much political stupor that it makes Pink's "Dear Mr. President" seem like a love ode: "Bush and Hussein together in bed, giving H-E-A-D, head/Y'all muthaf****s heard what we said."

Production on Pick A Bigger Weapon

Proving that the music is as vital as the missives, The Coup implores the sonic services of Audioslave's Tom Morello, Parliament-Funkadelic, Dwayne Wiggins, and the Gap Band for most of Bigger Weapon's soundbed. The Oakland duo shifts from thin-veiled sonic on "IJusWannaLayAroundAllDayInBedWithYou" to the trunk-rattling "Captain Sterling's Little Problem" to the funk-tinged "Get That Monkey off Your Back." Consequently, The Coup showcase harrowing diversity without compromise.

Even the bizarre concept and soundscape on "A** Breath Killers" does very little to hurt the album's overall wellness.

The Bottom Line

Boots Riley disclosed in his liner notes that the title came about while his woman, himself, and poet/publisher Jessica Moore were having dinner at a restaurant. "Dawnellisa was on her third Grey Goose and trying to order a 4th one when Jessica stopped her, saying 'C'mon girl, pick a bigger weapon.'" In an era when snickerdoodle complacency impostures as patriotism, the anti-authoritarian attitude of Pick A Bigger Weapon is pressed, sealed, and zip-locked, for when hip-hop evaporates into a state of tyrannical irrelevance.

Top Tracks

• "My Favorite Mutiny"
• "MindF**k(A New Equation)"
• "I Love Booster!"
• "The Stand"