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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.
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 Indigenous American (Wampanoag), 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 a walkout organized by Riley and friends. Interested in politics at a young age, Riley joined the International Committee Against Racism at age 14 and the radical Progressive Labor Party at age 15.
In 1991, Riley founded the political hip hop group The Coup with E-roc. Alongside rappers Spice 1 and Mopreme Shakur (then known as Mocedes), they released a song on a 1991 compilation album called Dope Like a Pound or a Key, released by Wax That Azz Records. Group DJ Pam the Funkstress joined the following year. Riley was both chief lyric writer and music producer of The Coup's albums.
In 1992, The Coup signed to Wild Pitch Records/EMI, and released their debut album Kill My Landlord in 1993. Two of the album's singles, "Dig It" and "Not Yet Free" received play on national Black radio, BET and Yo! MTV Raps.
In 1993, E-40 released the video for "Practice Lookin' Hard", a song based around Riley's lyric, "I got a mirror in my pocket and I practice lookin' hard", from the song "Not Yet Free". The video featured Riley singing the chorus while he, E-40 and Tupac Shakur reflected light into the camera from a handheld mirror while dancing around.
In 1994, The Coup released their second album, Genocide & Juice, featuring guest appearances by E-40 and Spice 1. Fueled by video play and some radioplay for the single "Fat Cats and Bigga Fish", the album shot up the charts, but stalled when EMI absorbed Wild Pitch. At this point, E-roc left The Coup on amicable terms.
1998's Steal This Album, released on indie label Dogday Records, was called "a masterpiece of slow-rolling West Coast funk" by Rolling Stone magazine. The single, "Me and Jesus the Pimp in a '79 Granada Last Night", was an eight-minute song about the grown-up son of a prostitute driving his mother's killer to a secluded place in which to murder him. A novel, Too Beautiful for Words by Monique W. Morris, based on the story characters and descriptions in the song, was published by HarperCollins in 2000. Del the Funky Homosapien guests on the track "The Repo Man Sings for You".
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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.
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 Indigenous American (Wampanoag), 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 a walkout organized by Riley and friends. Interested in politics at a young age, Riley joined the International Committee Against Racism at age 14 and the radical Progressive Labor Party at age 15.
In 1991, Riley founded the political hip hop group The Coup with E-roc. Alongside rappers Spice 1 and Mopreme Shakur (then known as Mocedes), they released a song on a 1991 compilation album called Dope Like a Pound or a Key, released by Wax That Azz Records. Group DJ Pam the Funkstress joined the following year. Riley was both chief lyric writer and music producer of The Coup's albums.
In 1992, The Coup signed to Wild Pitch Records/EMI, and released their debut album Kill My Landlord in 1993. Two of the album's singles, "Dig It" and "Not Yet Free" received play on national Black radio, BET and Yo! MTV Raps.
In 1993, E-40 released the video for "Practice Lookin' Hard", a song based around Riley's lyric, "I got a mirror in my pocket and I practice lookin' hard", from the song "Not Yet Free". The video featured Riley singing the chorus while he, E-40 and Tupac Shakur reflected light into the camera from a handheld mirror while dancing around.
In 1994, The Coup released their second album, Genocide & Juice, featuring guest appearances by E-40 and Spice 1. Fueled by video play and some radioplay for the single "Fat Cats and Bigga Fish", the album shot up the charts, but stalled when EMI absorbed Wild Pitch. At this point, E-roc left The Coup on amicable terms.
1998's Steal This Album, released on indie label Dogday Records, was called "a masterpiece of slow-rolling West Coast funk" by Rolling Stone magazine. The single, "Me and Jesus the Pimp in a '79 Granada Last Night", was an eight-minute song about the grown-up son of a prostitute driving his mother's killer to a secluded place in which to murder him. A novel, Too Beautiful for Words by Monique W. Morris, based on the story characters and descriptions in the song, was published by HarperCollins in 2000. Del the Funky Homosapien guests on the track "The Repo Man Sings for You".