Steal This Double Album is
the Coup's masterstroke, taking the advances of Genocide and Juice to the next level and coming up with one of the most underappreciated hip-hop albums of the '90s. Down to a duo,
the Coup officially becomes a vehicle for
Boots Riley's observations, which it mostly was already; still, there's a greater focus simply because of the fact that it's a product of one ambitious vision.
Boots' impassioned political rhetoric is still in full-force, but the main strengths of
Steal This Double Album are its fleshed-out characters and witty, detailed, image-rich storytelling that would do
Slick Rick proud. Its intellectual and emotional depth come from
Boots finding the humanity not only in his ideology, but in a much-maligned class of people articulating their frustrations and analyzing the world they live in from both the inside and the outside. His flair for the dramatic reaches its apex on the seven-minute saga "Me and Jesus the Pimp in a '79 Granada Last Night." It's a complex, cinematic story about a young man who loathes his father -- an abusive pimp who eventually beats his mother to death -- but can't help internalizing some of the same behavior. Equally touching is "Underdogs," a heartbreaking account of the everyday reality of poverty.
Boots' ironic wit is all over the rest of the record. The dark-humored "Breathing Apparatus" finds a gunshot victim with no health insurance pleading with his friend not to let doctors pull the plug. Elsewhere, the
Coup's "Repo Man," from their Genocide and Juice and
Steal This Album LPs returns (in the person of
Del Tha Funkee Homosapien) on "The Repo Man Sings for You"; and
Boots acts out a gleefully provocative fantasy (on record, anyway) with "Piss on Your Grave," which concerns slave owner George Washington. The whole album is strikingly consistent, managing to be smart, funny, touching, and funky all at once; it's nothing short of brilliant. [Like
the Coup's first two albums,
Steal This Album went out of print rather quickly; it was later reissued as
Steal This Double Album, which included two bonus tracks and an extra disc of live performances.] ~ Steve Huey