American - Musician | April 1, 1971 -
No one has a copyright on working-class struggles.
Boots Riley
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When we were doing shows in the mid-'90s, the audiences were 95% black. What's happened now is the gentrification of hip-hop. A lot of cities passed ordinances that made it hard for black audiences to gather in large groups. Clubs are more open to hip-hop now 'cause it's the same crowd that goes to rock shows.
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I just look at music as a retreat from organizing. It's like a tug-of-war with me. Music can be effective, but it's not any good if there isn't a grass-roots movement going on to support it.
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The album 'Party Music' is a beautiful album, and people need to hear it.
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I'm not trying to make a speech on CD because who wants to buy that?
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Music is first for me. How the music makes me feel, it's like energy. It has to match my life. What's happening around me or to me. That's where it comes from.
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I listen to everything from The Cure and The Clash to Prince and George Clinton.
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I can run the gamut with beats that no one else would think of. I'm not a trained musician, so I focus on what feels right before I dispatch to writing.
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Every progressive movement in U.S. history has been portrayed negatively by the media at the time it happened.
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The folks that are suggesting Occupy move to electoral politics are ignoring history, ignoring what actually creates change. People get involved in electoral politics because they think there is no movement that can create change.
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What I wanted to do is put forth, musically, the idea that there's hope that we can change the system.
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'Redistributing the wealth' - that phrase gets used so much that you almost get numb to it.
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