Classic Album #123: The Coup- Genocide & Juice

The Coup--- Genocide & Juice

Like their forebears in Public Enemy, the members of The Coup have always treated hip-hop and grassroots political activism as interchangeable. Both groups have taken advantage of hip-hop's unique ability to reach listeners on a visceral level, but the two differ wildly in their approach. Where Chuck D's booming voice and The Bomb Squad's overpowering sonic fury constitute a full-frontal assault on listeners' sensibilities, The Coup favors a more subtle approach, rooted in a sophisticated sense of irony rare in any form of popular music, but nearly unheard of in hip-hop. That gift has never been more apparent than in the masterful three-song suite that opens Genocide & Juice, a newly reissued 1994 album that spent years out of print due to a disastrous distribution deal. After the obligatory intro, the album opens with "Fat Cats, Bigga Fish," an assured comic narrative that finds frontman Boots Riley running a series of small-time scams, until he stumbles into a party attended by rich capitalists and discovers who's really being hustled. "Pimps (Freestyling At The Fortune 500)" continues the narrative, with a freestyling session among party-going members of the ruling cIass serving as a witty parody of both corporate greed and hip-hop braggadocio. "Takin' These" completes the tale, with MCs Riley and E-Roc bursting into the soirée and engaging in some impromptu redistribution of wealth. The rest of the album nearly matches the brilliance of its opening sequence, with "Santa Rita Weekend," "Repo Man," and "Interrogation" offering vivid, evocative, and often extremely funny snapshots of urban life as one long bad joke, with revolution as the only way out. JCOR's re-release of Genocide & Juice, part of a series of reissues of the Wild Pitch catalog, doesn't offer any extras, but fans of smart, socially conscious hip-hop would still be wise to pick it up. As it is, it's one of the most overlooked masterpieces in hip-hop history.

Written by Nathan Rabin for A.V. Club: http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-coup-genocide-juice,18261/ 

songs:

Takin' These
Fat Cats, Bigga Fish

yezzir, cIassic in my books 

No. Coup blows.ghostphantom563

No

How does this album not have enough votes..... did people not listen to westcoast rap music in the 90s? :(

Gets my vote as a Cla$$ic yes.\

Boots is one of the best mcs ever imo, dude spits some real lyrics.

Dont really understand how the Eminem and Binary Star albums are cla$$ics but not this, oh well :(

How does this album not have enough votes..... did people not listen to westcoast rap music in the 90s? :(

Gets my vote as a Cla$$ic yes.\

Boots is one of the best mcs ever imo, dude spits some real lyrics.

Dont really understand how the Eminem and Binary Star albums are cla$$ics but not this, oh well :(

kozzy1234

Yeah man, I love the Coup, even though I don't agree with Boots' political standpoint. He's still a smart dude though.

^Cause eminem appeals to the angsty surbuban teenagers, and binary star appeals to backpackers. Both of those scenes run rampant on the internet. The west coast rap fans? Not so much.HerbertdaPerv

Hey I enjoy those two albums myself alot, but I just think if those two are cla$$ics then this sure is just as much.

But thats just my opinion.

My favorite album frmo The Coup is Steal This Album, its fantastic

[QUOTE="HerbertdaPerv"]^Cause eminem appeals to the angsty surbuban teenagers, and binary star appeals to backpackers. Both of those scenes run rampant on the internet. The west coast rap fans? Not so much.kozzy1234

Hey I enjoy those two albums myself alot, but I just think if those two are cla$$ics then this sure is just as much.

But thats just my opinion.

My favorite album frmo The Coup is Steal This Album, its fantastic

I don't think it's necessarily that people wouldn't think it's a cIassic, it's just that not as many people have heard it. I know I still haven't got around to listening, and I'm pretty sure I'd like it going by the coup songs I've heard. There's only so many hours in the day damn it. :(

I was thinking of bumpin this thread. This is definitely a classic album to me. Takin' These is probably my favourite track but its solid throughout. This is a 'political' album that isn't preachy. More rappers need to read Marx.bradleybhoy

More rappers need to read Marx? Dear god no..

More rappers need to stay real like The Coup do. Keep representing their people honestly. They don't need to take it to communism, but make sure you get it out there and say how the area you grew up in was terrible and how it needs help.

[QUOTE="bradleybhoy"]I was thinking of bumpin this thread. This is definitely a classic album to me. Takin' These is probably my favourite track but its solid throughout. This is a 'political' album that isn't preachy. More rappers need to read Marx.taj7575

More rappers need to read Marx? Dear god no..

More rappers need to stay real like The Coup do. Keep representing their people honestly. They don't need to take it to communism, but make sure you get it out there and say how the area you grew up in was terrible and how it needs help.

Oh definitely, that's exactly what the Coup do so well without getting too abstract or theoretical. But there's no doubt Boots wouldn't have gone in that direction, be so opposed to inequality, expolitation, so vehemently anti-capital, if he hadn't read the Communist Manifesto. The Coup's whole stance is clearly informed by the legacy of the Black Panthers, also from Oakland and also Marxists.

[QUOTE="taj7575"]

[QUOTE="bradleybhoy"]I was thinking of bumpin this thread. This is definitely a classic album to me. Takin' These is probably my favourite track but its solid throughout. This is a 'political' album that isn't preachy. More rappers need to read Marx.bradleybhoy

More rappers need to read Marx? Dear god no..

More rappers need to stay real like The Coup do. Keep representing their people honestly. They don't need to take it to communism, but make sure you get it out there and say how the area you grew up in was terrible and how it needs help.

Oh definitely, that's exactly what the Coup do so well without getting too abstract or theoretical. But there's no doubt Boots wouldn't have gone in that direction, be so opposed to inequality, expolitation, so vehemently anti-capital, if he hadn't read the Communist Manifesto. The Coup's whole stance is clearly informed by the legacy of the Black Panthers, also from Oakland and also Marxists.

Yeah definitely. The problem is, if these other rappers read it, they'll just be rapping about how they read the Manifesto, no more, no less. And yeah, the Coup get their motivation from plenty of things. And like you said, they deliver their message without making it too complex or annoying (like Immortal Technique).

Boots Riley was actually in Bill Maher's old show, Politically Incorrect by the way. Like I said before, he's a smart guy, and he definitely knows what he's talking about.

By the way..When I say "like immortal technique", I mean IT does it in an annoying way and uses too many conspiracies and other stuff..