Freestyle

The Coup is performing at Bowery Ballroom tonight, and it’s worth your time to go. The Oakland natives have been a well-kept secret in hip-hop for a while now, but “Pick A Bigger Weapon” has been catching on. The Coup follow in the footsteps of Public Enemy and Dead Prez — they’re laying down the soundtrack to a revolution, and turning it into a big party. The music is a struggle against oppression, set to banging beats; the rhymes are clever send-ups of the system, observations of ghetto life, and powerful calls to action.

The rapping is radical, but the music is pretty old-school. The Coup borrows heavily from classic ’70s funk and soul sounds, filtered through the electronic sounds and bass-driven backbeats of early-80s hip-hop. At their best, The Coup rivals the best classic Prince & P-Funk jams for booty-shaking effect. The grooves range from being soulful (”My Favorite Mutiny”) to sexy (”Ijustwannalayarounalldayinbedwithyou”) to pissed off (”ShoYoAss”) — there’s even a rocked-out track with guitar work by Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave). The fight for liberation is wrapped in funky breaks and soulful choruses you can sing along with and move to. Revolution never sounded so good.

Since we’re talking about hip-hop and this city is its birthplace, we can’t ignore our local talent. One of the better local MCs is Talib Kweli, who’s gone back underground after trying to get that mainstream market. His last two albums, The Beautiful Struggle and Quality, both had their moments and are worth picking up for their strengths. Still, the production was too slick and polished for a guy who came up from the tough & competitive New York hip-hop scene. They also lacked that experimental sensibility that first got Kweli noticed. With his latest, Right About Now… the rhymes are leaner, meaner and angrier, with beats that feel raw, sparse, and rugged - just like what you’d hear in the underground clubs where Kweli made his name.

Most of the album is stripped-down hip-hop, with fist-pumping chants and classic battle-style boasting raps that get your head nodding. He sounds desperate to get things off his chest in “Who Got It”, and offers his street-level view of society in “Drugs, Basketball & Rap.” On “Supreme, Supreme” he collaborates again with Mos Def, another local hip-hop star & his old partner in the hard-hitting Black Star; the chemistry that made that album a hit is still there. Kweli gets deep with an introspective jam called “The Beast”, and delivers slow-burning beats and rhymes in “Roll Off Me.”

Gritty and streetwise, but still intelligent and observant, with razor-sharp wit and an aggressive delivery — this is what made hip-hop one of the world’s most popular musical styles, and Kweli shows it off in spades.

This entry was posted by A.Rehak on Thursday, June 8th, 2006 at 2:00 pm