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 recording hiatus to work as community activists before releasing
Steal This Album (the title of which pays tribute to 1960s radical
Abbie Hoffman's
yippie manifesto,
Steal this Book) to critical acclaim in 1998.
Steal This Album featured the stand-out single, "Me and Jesus the Pimp in a ’79 Granada Last Night." The online magazine
Dusted called
Steal This Album "the best hip-hop album of the 1990s".
Party Music and post-9/11 aftermath In 2001, The Coup released
Party Music to widespread praise. However, in part because of distribution problems, sales of the album were low. The original album cover art depicted group members Pam the Funkstress and Riley standing in front of the twin towers of the
World Trade Center as they are destroyed by huge explosions, and Riley is pushing the button on a guitar tuner. The cover art was finished in June 2001 and the album was scheduled to be released in mid-September. However, in response to the similarity of the artwork with the
September 11, 2001 attacks, the album release was delayed until November of that year with the cover featuring a hand with a flaming martini glass. The attention generated concerning the album's cover art precipitated some criticism of the group's lyrical content as well, particularly the
Party Music track "5 Million Ways to Kill a CEO." The song's lyrics includes lines such as "You could throw a twenty in a vat of hot oil/When he jump in after it, watch him boil." Conservative columnist
Michelle Malkin cited the song in calling the Coup's work a "stomach-turning example of anti-Americanism disguised as highbrow intellectual expression."
Mid-2000s On November 15, 2005, Tarus Jackson (AKA Terrance), who had joined the group as a promoter, was fatally shot during a robbery at his home in Oakland. December 2, 2006 saw another tragedy for the Coup: About two hours following a performance at the
San Diego House of Blues, the tour bus in which the group was riding drove off the road and flipped over before becoming engulfed in flames. All passengers managed to climb out alive, although some were badly injured and required hospitalization. The group did, however, lose all of its clothes, computers, cash, identification, house/car keys, cell phones, all of its instruments, and sound equipment. The ensuing insurance payment was delayed in its arrival, and the group was forced to cancel the rest of its tour. The group’s songs "My Favorite Mutiny" and "Pork & Beef" were featured in the 2007 film,
Superbad, with the former also being featured in the HBO miniseries
24/7 Flyers-Rangers, as well as in the video game
NBA Live 07, while "Ride the Fence" was featured in
EA's 2007
skateboarding video game
Skate. The song “Captain Sterling’s Little Problem” accompanied the closing credits of
Sir, No, Sir, a documentary about the GI anti-war movement.
2010–2020 On Wednesday January 13, 2010, The Coup’s bassist Dewey Tucker was shot and killed on the I-80 freeway in Hercules, CA, while driving from his home in Vallejo, CA, to rehearsal with The Coup in Oakland, CA. It was later found to be a case of mistaken identity. The Coup's sixth album, a
concept album entitled
Sorry to Bother You, was released on October 30, 2012, to wide acclaim. The first track, "The Magic Clap", was leaked by the band themselves and posted below an article on August 13, 2012. The album
Sorry to Bother You was inspired by a screenplay written by Riley, "a
dark comedy with
magical realism" that drew inspiration from his time spent working as a
telemarketer. The film's screenplay was published by ''
McSweeney's in 2014. Riley was able to secure funding to turn the script into the film Sorry to Bother You'', which was released in theaters by
Annapurna Pictures on July 6, 2018. The film, which follows a young African-American telemarketer who adopts a white accent in order to thrive at his job, stars
Lakeith Stanfield, with
Armie Hammer,
Tessa Thompson,
Terry Crews, and
Danny Glover in supporting roles. Having taken six years after their last album, The Coup recorded a full soundtrack to the film, entitled
The Soundtrack to Sorry to Bother You, and released the first single, "OYAHYTT (feat. Lakeith Stanfield)", on July 13, 2018. Guest artists included Janelle Monae, Killer Mike, and E40. Songs from the 2012 album were not in the actual film. Vinyl for the album was released in February 2020. == Band members ==