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The Coup
The Coup is an American hip hop band from Oakland, California. Their music is an amalgamation of influences, including funk, punk, hip hop, and soul. Frontman Boots Riley's revolutionarily-charged lyrics rank The Coup as a renowned political hip hop band aligned to radical music groups such as Crass, Dead Prez and Rage Against the Machine. The Coup's music is driven by assertive and danceable bass-driven backbeats overlaid by critical, hopeful, and witty lyrics, often with a bent towards the literary. The Coup's songs critique, observe, and lampoon capitalism, American politics, white patriarchal exploitation, police brutality, marijuana addiction, romance, and disparities among races and social classes. History First decade The Coup's debut release was 1991s ''The EP'' and almost all of the songs on it (except "Economics 101") were put on 1993's '' Kill My Landlord''. In 1994, the group released its second album, '' Genocide & Juice''. The group took a four-year r ...
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Oakland, California
Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the most populous city in the East Bay, the third most populous city in the Bay Area, and the eighth most populous city in California. It serves as the Bay Area's trade center: the Port of Oakland is the busiest port in Northern California, and the fifth- or sixth-busiest in the United States. A charter city, Oakland was municipal corporation, incorporated on May 4, 1852, in the wake of the state's increasing population due to the California gold rush. Oakland's territory covers what was once a mosaic of California coastal prairie, California coastal terrace prairie, oak woodland, and north coastal scrub. In the late 18th century, it became part of a large ''rancho'' grant in the c ...
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Star Fucking Hipsters
Star Fucking Hipsters is an American punk rock band from New York City who have released albums on Fat Wreck Chords and Alternative Tentacles records. They have been called a "punk Supergroup (music), supergroup" and feature members from numerous notable bands including Leftöver Crack, Ensign (band), Ensign, and The Ergs! History Initial formation (2005) The band was started in 2005 by Leftöver Crack vocalist/guitarist Stza, and drummer Brandon Chevalier-Kolling. However, they were derailed shortly afterward due to the death of Brandon. Stza decided to continue the band with a line-up consisting of vocalist Kisston (from Help Me Help Me I Can't Breathe), guitarist Jamie Toulon (from Old Skull), and drummer GiGi (from Another Dying Democracy). This line-up played two shows in the summer of 2005 before disbanding. ''Until We're Dead'' (2006–2009) The following year, Stza wrote and rehearsed seven new songs with Leftöver Crack drummer Ara Babajian and Ensign guitarist Frank ...
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Political Hip Hop
Political hip hop (also known as political rap and conscious hip-hop) is a subgenre of hip hop music that emerged in the 1980s as a form of political expression and activism. It typically addresses sociopolitical issues through lyrics, aiming to inspire action, promote social change, or convey specific political viewpoints. The genre draws inspiration from earlier politically conscious artists, such as The Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron, as well as movements like the Black Power movement and the Black Panther Party from the 1960s and 1970s. Notable early political hip hop artists include KRS-One and Boogie Down Productions, as well as Public Enemy, both of whom were influential in establishing political rap in the late 1980s with albums that addressed social and political concerns. Other artists, often labeled as part of the "conscious rap" movement, such as X-Clan, Poor Righteous Teachers, Paris, and Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, followed in subsequent years, expanding th ...
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Boots Riley
Raymond Lawrence "Boots" Riley (born April 1, 1971) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, rapper, and communist activist. He is the lead vocalist of The Coup and Street Sweeper Social Club. He made his feature-film directorial debut with '' Sorry to Bother You'' (2018), which he also wrote. In 2023, the television show '' I'm a Virgo'' premiered, which Riley wrote and directed. Early life and education Riley was born in 1971 in Chicago into a family of social justice organizers. He is the son of Walter Riley, an African-American attorney, and Anitra Patterson, whose father was African-American and whose mother was a Jewish refugee from Königsberg who fled Europe with her parents as a teenager in 1938. By the time Boots was one, his family had moved to Detroit, and when he was six they moved to Oakland, where he later attended Oakland High School. When the school faced cutbacks in the 1980s, 2000 of Oakland High's 2200 students protested by participating in ...
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Vernon Reid
Vernon Alphonsus Reid (born 22 August 1958) is an American guitarist and songwriter best known as the founder of the rock band Living Colour. Reid was named No. 66 on ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's 2003 list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, and in August 2023, was ranked #42 in Rolling Stone Magazine top 250 Greatest Guitarists of all time. Critic Steve Huey writes, " eid'srampant eclecticism encompasses everything from heavy metal and punk to funk, R&B and avant-garde jazz, and his anarchic, lightning-fast solos have become something of a hallmark as well." Early life Reid was born 22 August 1958 in London, England, to parents from Montserrat. In 1959 the family moved to New York City. He attended Brooklyn Technical High School, then New York University. Career Early career He first came to prominence in the 1980s in Ronald Shannon Jackson's avant-jazz-rock band The Decoding Society, and is on six studio and three live albums recorded with that group from 1980-1986. '' ...
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Japanther
Japanther was an American punk band established by Matt Reilly and Ian Vanek, then students at Pratt Institute. Japanther was featured in the 2006 Whitney Biennial, the 2007 Performa Biennial, and the 2011 Venice Biennale, and collaborated with a diverse pool of artists such as gelitin, Penny Rimbaud, Gee Vaucher, Dan Graham, Eileen Myles, Kevin Bouton-Scott, robbinschilds, Dawn Riddle, Claudia Meza, Todd James, Devin Flynn, Ninjasonik, Anita Sparrow and Spank Rock. Japanther made its name with unique performance situations, appearing alongside synchronized swimmers, atop the Williamsburg Bridge, with giant puppets, marionettes and shadow puppets, in the back of a moving truck in Soho, and at shows with giant dinosaurs and BMXers flying off the walls. Installations include The Phone Booth Project at The Clocktower Gallery in New York. Described as "art-rock installation paratroopers" and "a studied form of New Wave anarchism" by ''Flash Art'', a "Performance Gala ...
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Joe Henry
Joseph Lee Henry (born December 2, 1960) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer. He has released 15 studio albums and produced multiple recordings for other artists, including three Grammy Award-winning albums. Early life Henry was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, the state where his parents, whom he described as devout Christians, were also from. He grew up in Oakland Township, Michigan, and attended Rochester Community Schools. He graduated from Rochester Adams High School, then graduated from the University of Michigan. Career 1985 to 2005 Henry moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1985 and began performing in local music venues. He released his first album ''Talk of Heaven'' in 1986. The album earned him a recording contract with A&M, which subsequently released the albums ''Murder of Crows'' in 1989 and ''Shuffletown'' in 1990. ''Shuffletown,'' produced by T Bone Burnett, represented a shift in musical direction towards the " alt country" genre. He ...
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Jolie Holland
Jolie Holland (born September 11, 1975) is an American singer and performer who combines elements of folk, traditional, experimental, and rock. Career Growing up in her birthplace of Houston, Texas, Holland left in 1994, moving to Austin, New Orleans, and San Francisco before ending up in Vancouver, Canada, where she was one of the founding members of The Be Good Tanyas. Holland left the band before the release of their debut album, '' Blue Horse'', on which she appears prominently. She returned to San Francisco, where she recorded her first album, 2002's ''Catalpa''. Originally self-released, the album was later picked up and re-released by ANTI-. In 2004 she released her first album for ANTI-, 2004's '' Escondida''. ANTI- labelmates Tom Waits and Sage Francis are both outspoken fans of Holland's: Waits nominated her for the Shortlist music prize, while Francis has said that ''Escondida'' was his most listened to album of 2005. As well as releasing another four solo albums ...
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Killer Mike
Michael Santiago Render (born April 20, 1975), better known by his stage name Killer Mike, is an American rapper, singer and activist. He made his recording debut on Outkast's fourth album ''Stankonia'' (2000), and guest appeared on the duo's Grammy Award-winning single "The Whole World" from their greatest hits album ''Big Boi and Dre Present... Outkast'' (2001). He signed with Big Boi's Purple Ribbon Records (known then as Aquemini Records) and Columbia Records to release his debut studio album ''Monster (Killer Mike album), Monster'' (2003), which was met with critical acclaim and peaked at number ten on the Billboard 200, ''Billboard'' 200. He parted ways with the label and released two albums—''I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind'' (2006) and ''I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind II'' (2008)—before signing with T.I.'s Grand Hustle Records, Grand Hustle to release his fourth album, ''Pledge (album), Pledge'' (2011), and later Williams Street Records, Williams Street to release h ...
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Atari Teenage Riot
Atari Teenage Riot (ATR) is a German band formed in Berlin in 1992. Highly political, they fuse anarchist and anti-fascist views with punk vocals and a techno sound called digital hardcore, which is a term band member Alec Empire used as the name of his record label Digital Hardcore Recordings. After a long hiatus in 2000, they re-formed in 2010. History Atari Teenage Riot was founded as an attack on the Neo-Nazi subculture by fusing hardcore punk views with German techno; it consisted of three Berliners—Alec Empire, Hanin Elias and MC Carl Crack. ATR's early releases (which included the track "Hetzjagd Auf Nazis!"/"Hunt Down the Nazis!") were surrounded by controversy in Germany. After signing to major European label Phonogram Records in 1993, the band received a large financial advance which they duplicitously used to set up their own record label: Digital Hardcore Recordings (DHR). ATR never delivered a commercially viable demo to Phonogram. The major label Intercor ...
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Latoya London
LaToya Renee London (born December 29, 1978) is an American R&B and soul singer and stage actress who was fourth-place finalist on the third season of ''American Idol.'' Her debut album, '' Love & Life'', was released in September 2005 and spawned a number of moderate R&B chart hits. She has concentrated on stage work, including originating and performing the role of Nettie in the national tour of the Broadway musical '' The Color Purple'' from 2007 to 2010, for which she won an Ovation Award. She was the lead in the U.S. regional debut of '' The Bodyguard,'' a musical based on the 1992 film. Early life London was born in San Francisco, California and raised in Oakland, California, where she had her first public musical performance when, at the age of 7, she sang in her mother's wedding. Her interest in singing began when she was just 4 years old, when she frequently sang when attending Allen Temple Baptist church. As a teenager, she sang with the Oakland Youth Chorus from ...
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Das Racist
Das Racist was an American alternative hip hop group based in Brooklyn, composed of MCs Heems and Kool A.D. and hype man Ashok Kondabolu (a.k.a. Dapwell or Dap). Known for their use of humor, academic references, foreign allusions, and unconventional style, Das Racist was widely hailed as an urgent new voice in rap, after occasionally being misunderstood as joke rap when they first appeared. After rising to Internet fame with their 2008 song " Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell", Das Racist established themselves as rappers with the release of their 2010 mixtapes '' Shut Up, Dude'' and '' Sit Down, Man''. '' Spin'' picked Das Racist as one of fifty acts to watch at the 2010 SXSW festival, and in April 2010, MTV Iggy selected Das Racist as one of the "25 Best New Bands in the World". ''Rolling Stone'' declared the song "Hahahaha jk?" from ''Sit Down, Man'' one of the fifty best singles of 2010. In September 2011, Das Racist released their only studio album, ''Relax'', which ...
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