"H
ey, what's up, Boots? How's it
going? When's your new album
coming out?" It seemed like
THE
we couldn't walk five feet on the
sunny streets of Berkeley without
someone coming up and talking
to the mastermind behind the
Bay Area's politically charged
hip-hop group The Coup.
Boots seemed to know everyone
on the street, and he treated the few
people he didn't know with the
respect you would give an old
friend. His charisma comes across
clearly in the carefully crafted songs
that he played for me from the Coup's new
song collective, Steal This Album. I wasn't
sure that they could top their last album,
Genocide and Juice, after such a long hiatus, but
if the songs "Butterismology" and "Me and Jesus
the Pimp in a '79 Grenada Last Night" are any
indication of the caliber of the new record, then
you can look forward to another potent dose of
hip-hop revolution for your radio. In the mean-
time, sit back and peep game as Boots lectures
on the current state of hip-hop.
T54: There was a time when
COUR
ing
about it when they're listening to music.
You can't put it down to that. Puffy has had
millions of dollars out behind every single
he's had out. I don't think that's neces-
sarily the natural human way of being.
It's not just in the music that people
want to escape. It's in real life peo-
ple want to escape. So if it's in real
life that most people want to do
that most peopl want to do
something and
and change things, that's what
what
the music will end up reflecting. On the
whole, most hip-hop that's trying to be
conscious doesn't sound good to me
because there aren't t enough people doing it
to get that trial and error. If
there were millions
of people doing it, you could pick and choose the
great stuff. All of these
I of these rappers talking about drink-
champagne in a
in a bubble bath-a lot of them,
first of all, don't have money, but what they're sell-
ing isn't anything new. It's the American Dream. I
think people need to
I to struggle and strive
for some-
thing better; everybody feels that way inside,
because there's something about human nature
that says that you want to get up out of your con-
dition. They're selling because
there's a
sa movement
behind them. What I'm saying is that people will
start seeing that these kinds of ideas
actually bring about material change
popular hip-hop had an intelli- POLITICAL MOBILIZATION OF THE HIP HOP GENERATION while there's also the means for them
gent, meaningful voice, but
now it seems that the music is dominated by
materialistic rappers who are interested in
more than size of their next check. Do
notree?
you
Boots: I think that in general material things cre-
ate culture. For instance, in the late '60s, you start-
ed getting a lot of music that was talking about a
movement, talking about self-empowerment and
so forth, as far as black music was concerned. The
ideas had som
I some real meaning to them. But pretty
soon, people were like, OK, yeah, I'm doing this,
and then
they go home and 's no food on the
and there's no f
table and the bills are still piling up, so they look
around for a
for a material
I movement that they feel can
have something to do with. I think that the only way
hip-hop is going to progress, artistically and con-
is if there's a movement. Who is control-
tent-wise is if
ple
ling what styles predominate and what styles peo-
think are better? Is music progressing along
of what groups have more money put
the lines of what
behind them to promote them, or is it along the
lines of
this is where the people are at the time?
Does the music really encompass what they
feel? Once you make music a commodity, that's
what
happens. Any
ens. Any time
time music has become a
commodity, it's
it's stopped development, whether
talking about
about jazz, blues, rock 'n' roll,
you're
everything. Capitalism kills artistic expression.
What do
do you think was
was the last major innova-
tion in terms of hip-hop?
There are people who are making innovations,
but it's not
not affecting anything because the gate-
keepers of
of hip-hop a
o are these corporate controllers.
Once you make things a mar
sa market, no matter even if
you're an independent label, you're still controlled
by the people who control the market. And the way
they do that is that they can tell the buyer in the
retail store, "Look, if you buy the new Artifacts
record, we're not giving you the new Gang Starr."
Simple as that. And what are they gonna pick? If
the people really controlled the music, there would
be real development in music. When that happens,
we'll get out of this thing of commercialism and
everyone talking about houses they don't have
and the cars they don't have-they say they have
it, but they don't really have it. If there were freer
distribution channels or if retail stores fell through
112 THRASHER
and people got on, say, the Internet, and gave an
album away to 2 million people all at once, what
would happen? The things that got more popular
would be the ones the public really liked it would
be more democratic. You'd have the people who
just want to be in it
to be in it for fame and money, and then
people who want to be in it to say something. A
major label wouldn't be able to compete because
sa material way
they wouldn't make any money. It's a
to compete with corporations for control of a cul-
ture. I'm trying to find a place
ture. I'm trying to find a place in the system where
I can do something culturally that affects people
and ties in with the material movement. I'm in kind
of a loose-knit organization called the Young
Comrades and we've done things around
nity to help start some sort of mass movement.
Some sort
mass movement around hip-hop?
sort of
No, around material issues, but with the gener-
ation that's listening to hip-hop. And out of that
mass movement will come rappers. People rap.
So the ideas that are going on around them.
Oakland, doing lot of things around the commu-
a
"CAPITALISM KILLS
ARTISTIC EXPRESSION"
that's what they'll end up rapping about. The
question is how to get more stuff in there that's
relevant to the people. And there are two ways to
do that: a mass movement making the people
have more control and say in what they hear and
what they're able to hear, and having those
routes for people to go and hopefully you popu-
larize to the point where it's a lot more popular
than the commercial routes. It'll start a cycle. I'm
not saying that by making hip-hop free or
what-
ever that it's gonna change. But what's gonna
change the content is that material movement so
when somebody does come out with an album
saying this and that, there's a whole tradition
behind it. There's people who feel that way.
But people want escapism in their music.
That's why Puffy sells more than KRS-ONE,
because for most people in America, reality
sucks so much that they don't want to think
the
them
to get out those ideas if they
if they want to
you
rap. What we need to do is make people see that
the ideas are relevant to them, and that'll be done
through a movement. And so basically my whole
theory is that in
in talking a
about music, won't be
able to talk about changes in music creatively or
content-wise without a movement goin
a movement going on. A lot of
talented artists of the Renaissance would com-
plain
plain about having to live by
to live by painting rich people's
portraits, saying they weren't developing like they
should because they had to spend their whole time
doing that. Because the people with the money
control capitalism and the eway wit
goes.
You're saying you don't want to make your
money
through MCing.
Well, I hope this album sells a lot and makes a
I
ton of money so I can do what I want to do. If hip-
hop weren't the newest American dream
scheme, then it would develop in a much differ-
ent way. As it did when it was just something that
people said, oh, we can't make any money off of
this. So people were doing things based on the
crowd reaction, not based on who had the
most backing behind them.
Do you have a favorite song
song?
There's a song
a song by a guy named Swamp
Dogg recorded in 1970-something. It's an r&b
song called "My Résumé" and it's a sad slow
song about writing his résumé. He says, this
is my résumé and I can put the few measly jobs
I've had, but I can't write about all the pain I've
gone through. I I can't tell them about all the les-
sons I've learned in life and which really make
me who I am. They won't know who I am through
reading my résumé. I think that if people are true
to themselves and write about themselves, they
won't write just the same old songs. A A lot of
times artists just take a little bit from all over and
put it together and that's what's they com
with. And you know, that's fine, but I don't like my
lyric-writing like that. I
I like it to
it to be something.
pure. I think hip-hop could be the same thing.
People don't have to write about revolution, but
life is so vast that there's millions of angles to
come from, and millions of thoughts and feel-
ings, and inhibitions and confidence, and things
that make you scared and things that make you
joyous that nobody writes about.
come up
FURY 66
for lack of a better word...
*
SESSIONS
RECORDS
SINGLES ON 7" VINYL
GWAR
MOCK
BRISE AUXHAL
FURY 66
POLIT
MOCK
CDEP
IN PARADIS
for lack of a better word.....
FULL LENGTH CD
Distributed By: Choke,
Crosstalk, Revelation,
Rotz, Smash,
Sound of California
DESCENDENTS
DESCENDENTS
BOMBING
THE BAY!
blueberries & chrome
API SWINGIN' UTTERS
FU MANCHU/FATSO JETSON
www
15 JANIS WAY SCOTTS VALLEY CA 95066 www.SESSIONS.COM FAX.408.461.4680 SESSIONREC@AOL.COM
SESSIONS
Mail Order
www.sessions.com
AIRWALK
"Geoff Rowley"
Black AWSH24
$77.95
VANS
DC
"Syntax"
Grey CDSHO8
$72.95
VANS
"Old School Low"
PH:1.800.637.9239 FAX:408.461.4680 BAND TS
International orders call:408.461.4699
15 JANIS WAY SCOTTS VALLEY, CA 95066
SEND A DOLLAR (NO CHECKS) AND WE'LL SEND A CATALOG
THESE T'S PLUS HUNDREDS MORE
Black VNSH02
Navy VNSH26
Biege (all suede) VNSH21
"Omar Hassan" Pine Green VNSH24
Black VNSH28
Navy VNSH29
$69.95
26 REDTRED
"Big Mac"
Navy/
y/Ice RDSH04
$62.95
SESSIONS
MAN ORDER
kg / The the Ter O Out
All Orders Subject to Avalability
Mail in Orders Pleas
for information on our retumachange policy
CA RESIDENTS ADD IS SALES TAX
$39.95
Gibson
8 Eye
EMERICA
"Phocus"
White ETSH21
$62.95
VANS
"Old School High"
AirWair
Black VNSHOS
Navy VNSH27
$43.95
Steel Toe
RANCID
NOFX
BAD
RELIGION
$17.95
Rancid
RNHT02
$19.95
NOFX
NXHT02
$19.95
Bad Religion
BRBS01
Bauhaus
BHBS01
Dead Kennedys
DKBS04
Exploited
EXBS02
Voodoo Glow
Skulls
VGHT02
Anarchy
ANHTO2
$16.95
Anarchy
Wallet
CODE TITLE
7SM902 7 SECONDS THE CREW
$16.95
PWWT01
$11.95
RANCID
Misfits
MSBS04
Pennywise
PWBS01
Ramones
RMBS01
Rancid
RNBS02
Q
Sex Pistols
SPBS06
Subhumans
SUBS02
Social Distortion
SDBS02
Total Chaos
TCBS02
Regular
$104.95 Gibson
$119.95 7 Eye
$109.95
$129.95
10 Eye
$129.95 10 Eye
$144.95
14 Eve
$144.95 14 Eye
$159.95
20 Eye
$159.95
U.S. Shipping & Handling
(Call For Other Countries
CD/CS
$11.95/$7.95
Subtotal
$0-$30.99
$31-$50.99
$51-$75.99
UPS Ground
A1MS01 ADOLESCENTS BRATS IN BATTALION
$13.95/$9.95
AFMS02 ANTI FLAG DE FOR THE GOVERNMENT
$12.95
$5.00
1BM602 BOUNCING SOULS MANIACAL LAUGHTER
$11.95
$6.00
CRMSOS CRAMPS BIG BEAT FROM BADSVILLE
$13.95
$8.25
DKMS01 DEAD KENNEDYS BEDTIME FOR DEMOCRACY $11.95/$7.95
$76-$99.99 $9.25
$100-$150.99 $10.50
$151-$300
AAMEC2 GBH CLAY PUNK SINGLES
$20.95
MTMS01 MINOR THREAT COMPLETE DISCOGRAPHY
$15.95
$13.50
NXMS02 NOFX PUNK IN DRUBLIC
$12.95
ANMS01 RANCID LETS GO
$12.95/$8.95
Vandals
VNBS02
VGS
Vodoo Glow Skulls
VGBS04
Operation Ivy
OIMNO
$39.95
Sessions Star
7STS02