The Coup; Pick a Bigger Weapon

The Coup's new album "Pick a Bigger Weapon" is the best hip-hop album in ages. Definitely the best so far in 2006. Boots Riley and Pam The Funktress are joined this time around by an all star live band including members of Tony! Toni! Tone!, The Gap Band and Rage Against the Machine, and guest rappers Talib Kweli and Black Thought from The Roots.

Bigger Weapon finds The Coup ready for revolution as always, but there is a stronger sex and funk vibe here than ever before. IJuSWANNALYAROUNDALLDAYINBEDWITHYOU manages to work complaints about the crap jobs we all report to each day in with a slow jam about how much better off this particular member of the work force would be if he could just stay right where he is, in bed with his sweetie. "Monday rush, I'm sposed t skip, But I just found Sunday in your hips, Magic in the fingertips and lips." Yeah, that's what good sex rhymin' sounds like, and it gets even sexier.

The Bush administration and the Iraq mess predictably get skewered, but it's done so well and so straightfoward that you'll giggle at the brazenness of it, and then get pissed as the reality of the situations is layed out from a very personal perspective.

The ryhymes, the music, the big huge brass balls, this is what hip hop is all about at it's best; super sexy and confrontational as all hell.