Boots Riley is the lead vocalist of The Coup and Street Sweeper Social Club.
19 Facts About Boots Riley
2.
Boots Riley made his feature-film directorial debut with Sorry to Bother You, which he wrote.
3.
Boots Riley is the son of Walter Riley, an African-American attorney, and Anitra Patterson, whose father was African-American, while her mother was a Jewish refugee from Konigsberg who fled Europe with her parents as a teenager in 1938.
4.
Interested in politics at a young age, Boots Riley joined the International Committee Against Racism at age 14 and the radical Progressive Labor Party at age 15.
5.
In 1991, Boots Riley founded the political hip hop group The Coup with E-roc.
6.
Boots Riley was both chief lyric writer and music producer of The Coup's albums.
7.
The video featured Boots Riley singing the chorus while he, E-40 and Tupac Shakur reflected light into the camera from a handheld mirror while dancing around.
8.
Boots Riley is depicted pushing a button on a bass guitar tuner and DJ Pam the Funkstress is shown holding conductor's wands.
9.
Boots Riley released a controversial press release on September 18,2001, later published in the book, Another World Is Possible.
10.
The controversy surrounding the cover art, press release and the lyrics from Party Music led to Boots Riley appearing on local network news affiliates all over the US He appeared on Fox News's Hannity and Colmes and ABC's Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher.
11.
In 2003, guitarist Tom Morello invited Boots Riley to be part of the "Tell Us the Truth Tour", which was meant to shed light on the monopolization of the media and the coming FTAA agreements.
12.
In 1991, the same year Boots Riley co-founded The Coup, he and other activists and hip hop artists created the Mau Mau Rhythm Collective.
13.
In 2005, Boots Riley produced the score for an episode of The Simpsons entitled "Pranksta Rap".
14.
In 2007 and 2008, Boots Riley toured heavily with New Orleans-based band Galactic.
15.
In 2010 and 2011, Boots Riley recorded with Ursus Minor on the album I Will Not Take "But" for an Answer, and toured with the group in France.
16.
When E-Roc left The Coup in 1994, Boots Riley decided to stop making music in favor of forming an organization called The Young Comrades, with a few other radical, black community organizers including journalist and activist JR Valrey.
17.
In 2002, Boots Riley taught a daily high school class, "Culture and Resistance: Persuasive Lyric Writing", at the School of Social Justice and Community Development in East Oakland.
18.
At the 34th Independent Spirit Awards in 2019, Boots Riley criticized US involvement in the 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis during his acceptance speech for the Best First Feature award for Sorry To Bother You.
19.
In February 2020, Boots Riley announced his support for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in the 2020 United States presidential election.