Musically and attitudinally, Sorry To Bother You is a throwback to the early days of hip-hop, when Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five opened for The Clash, Blondie introduced new-wave denizens to hip-hop via “Rapture,” grubby graffiti artists rubbed shoulders with the bohemian art-world elite, Malcolm McLaren released seminal jump-roping jams, and black and white New York intermingled in all manner of new and revolutionary ways. Leadoff track “The Magic Clap” is a fuzzed-out rave-up with a revolutionary bent, complete with a cheerleading chant: Imagine a “Hey Ya” designed to be played at riots and insurrections rather than weddings and bar mitzvahs. “Your Parents’ Cocaine” would still suggest Riley leading The Clash on a merry, naughty, drunken sing-along in London circa 1979 even if it wasn’t powered by kazoos.
Sorry To Bother You takes The Coup’s fiery rhetoric and bohemian aesthetic from the revolutionary Oakland of the ’70s to the Soho of the early ’80s. The record speaks to a realm of seedy glamour and mindless decadence where self-destructive revelers are too enraptured of drugs, sex, and bad behavior to realize that they are the victims, pawns, and vessels of powerful forces beyond their control. Sorry To Bother You is the product of a man whose musical vision transcended even the most expansive conception of hip-hop long ago and today encompasses everything from Beatles-like orchestral pomp with a symphonic sweep (“Violet”) to snotty political punk (“You Are Not A Riot (An RSVP From David Siquieros To Andy Warhol)”) to sweeping anthems (“This Year,” “The Guillotine”). Funny, cinematic, and sweeping, Sorry To Bother You may have been written to soundtrack a film of the same name that Riley has written and plans to star in, but it’s more than that. It’s a concept album, a bold provocation, a statement, a riot, and a hell of a party to boot.
