“How do we make people feel engaged?”
This is the question that musician and activist Raymond “Boots” Riley asked repeatedly Wednesday night, offering a smattering of answers that come down to one basic idea: Involve yourself in the moment to change the world.
Splitting the evening into two parts — a lecture on campus and a concert at WOW Hall — he revealed two of the ways he has become engaged in changing the world: making music and becoming involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Riley is most widely known as the frontman of the political hip-hop funk group The Coup,@@http://www.myspace.com/thecoupmusic/music/songs?filter=featured@@ but he is also recognized as an active organizer behind a number of movements. He became involved with the Occupy movement in his hometown of Oakland, Calif., shortly after the first raid and organizes meeting and events for the group.
In a lecture organized by the University Multicultural Center as part of their Deconstructing Hip-Hop series, he spoke to a crowd of approximately 60 people Wednesday evening, discussing the Occupy movement, what he hopes for the future of the movement and how he became involved as an organizer.
“I got involved in movements in the first place because of girls. Nobody’s debating that,” he said with a laugh, remembering the first event he organized when he was 14 years old. Riley continued to explain that the other big draw to organizing movements is that he wanted to feel he was a part of something.
As an organizer of the Occupy movement today, he expressed hope that people can feel the same way toward the movement.
“This is a movement that will change power relationships, and that’s the most important part,” he said, stating that the group is currently working on addressing everyday issues that affect all people, such as wages and labor rights.
Riley’s biggest suggestion was that the movement work out ways to give people hope they can make a change in the world through their campaigns.
“People want to be engaged. It’s one of the reasons I became an artist; it’s one of the reasons people go to parties; it’s one of the reasons people fall in love. You want to feel like you’re here in that moment,” he said.
Later that night and with this in mind, Riley and his band The Coup played to a packed crowd at WOW Hall, delivering a high-energy hour and a half-set of funk-infused hip-hop music, all with the goal of engaging people in the moment.
Opening the set with an electronic loop that repeated: “Who knows where the party is at? Oakland knows where the party is at,” the six-piece live band filed onto the stage, wasting no time in inviting Eugene to party with them. Kicking the set off with a hard-rocking number, the opener was led by complicated licks on the electric guitar and backed by a constant organ and a groovy bass line. The crowd responded immediately, jumping and dancing right along with the band, waving their hands in the air and headbanging along with him.
The set followed a similar pattern, building from slow, classic funk grooves into intense headbanging bridges. Riley rapped with a fast-paced intensity, offering a distinct tone with his delivery that was often paired with powerful and soulful vocals by Erica Reynolds, who goes by the stage name Silk E.@@http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/silk-e-venom/Content?oid=1176283@@
The Coup played a number of older songs throughout their set, spanning their discography over the past 15 years. The set included the songs “We Are the Ones,” “Sho Yo Ass” and “Get That Monkey Off Your Back.”
“There’s a lot of important stuff going on in the world right now. That’s what we’re talking about,” Riley told the audience partway through their set, lightly touching on the “Occupy” movement. “But right now we’re talking about this: We’re gonna keep y’all dancing!”
The group closed the set with fan-favorite “Fat Cats, Bigga Fish,” which was shortly followed by an encore.