The Coup w/Grayskul, Sirens Echo, Cancer Rising

Fri Dec 3, Chop Suey, 9 pm, $12 adv.

On the second track ("Shake It on Down") of DJ Zeph's 2004 CD Sunset Scavenger, guest rapper Boots Riley of the Coup says he's trying to "start the revolution and make your speakers pop." This is the essence of the Coup, a duo from "the land where the Panthers grew"--Oakland, California. The Coup are radically opposed to capitalism and all of its manifestations and mechanisms: private property, consumerism, low wages, police repression, corporate welfare, and the absence of universal healthcare. But while the group is politically committed to the destruction of institutions that produce and reproduce what the French Marxist Althusser calls the "capitalist ideological apparatus," their music is committed to keeping the dance floor hot and packed.

Riley and Pam the Funkstress have been trying to start the funky revolution since their 1993 debut, Kill My Landlord. Pam (one of the few recognized female DJs in the land of hiphop) cuts records down to the bone while Riley holds the mic like a weapon aimed at the heart of the system. Indeed, Riley is often considered a descendant of Chuck D, which is only partially true. To begin with, the Coup's frontman is a lot more laid-back than the Public Enemy icon. Riley raps as if he's leading the liberation troops in a convertible; Chuck D delivers his words as if he's leading from a tank. Chuck D's political position is also closer to the mainstream than Riley's. The former wants to concentrate black economic power, increase black investments, and quadruple the number of black CEOs; Riley wants to kill all CEOs (black or white) and to "turn this system upside down" ("Get Up").

In our late and exhausted age of hiphop, there aren't many groups that make politics their starting point, and only one that is openly oriented to Marxism. But being a Marxist is easy; what is far more difficult, and what the Coup have accomplished over the years, is to bring Marx into the "Da Club."

charles@thestranger.com