Boots Riley

He is the son of Walter Riley, an African-American attorney, and Anitra Patterson, whose father was African-American and whose mother (Boots' maternal grandmother) was a Jewish refugee from Königsberg who fled Europe with her parents as a teenager in 1938.

He is the fourth youngest of five siblings there are additionaly two step sisters.

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.

Raymond Lawrence "Boots" Riley (born April 1, 1971), is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, rapper, and socialist activist.

He is the lead vocalist of The Coup and Street Sweeper Social Club.

Riley was born in 1971 in Chicago into a family of social justice organizers.

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".

The group's fourth album, Party Music, was released on 75 Ark Records in 2001.

The photo was taken in May 2001, with the album scheduled to be released just after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

In response to the uncanny similarity of the artwork with the attacks, the release was delayed until an alternative cover could be prepared.

The album hit No. 8 in the 2001 Village Voice Pazz and Jop Poll- the most important year-end critics' list, was named "Pop Album of the Year" by The Washington Post, and "Hip-Hop Album of the Year" by Rolling Stone.

The album included a guest appearance by dead prez on the song "Get Up".

Riley released a controversial press release on September 18, 2001, later published in the book, Another World Is Possible.

The press release stated that "last week's events were symptomatic of a larger backlash against U.S. corporate imperialism".

The controversy surrounding the cover art, press release and the lyrics from Party Music (specifically the song "5 Million Ways to Kill a CEO") led to Riley appearing on local network news affiliates all over the U.S. He appeared on Fox News's Hannity and Colmes and ABC's Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher.

During this time, conservative commentator Michelle Malkin called Riley's lyrics "a stomach-turning example of anti-Americanism disguised as highbrow intellectual expression".

The Independent concluded it was "protest album of the year, by a million-man march".

In 2003, guitarist Tom Morello invited 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.

The tour, hosted by Janeane Garofalo and Naomi Klein, featured acoustic performances by Riley, Morello, Billy Bragg, Steve Earle, Mike Mills, and Jill Sobule.

It was re-released in 2005 by Epitaph Records.

The original cover art depicted group members standing in front of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center as they explode.

Riley is depicted pushing a button on a bass guitar tuner and DJ Pam the Funkstress is shown holding conductor's wands.

In 2006, The Coup released Pick a Bigger Weapon on Epitaph Records, featuring guest appearances by Tom Morello, Talib Kweli, Black Thought from The Roots, and Jello Biafra.

He made his feature-film directorial debut with Sorry to Bother You (released July 2018), which he also wrote.