Boots Riley

People want things that address their everyday reality, and that goes for stuff that isn't political - with singer-songwriter music, people want things that touch them.

We're told, 'If you want to change the world, vote.' And really, if you want to change the world, there's a lot more things that you can do.

The United States is going to keep on with its imperialist ways.

People want something that's relevant to their lives. They want something that means something to them, and they want something where it seems like people have thought about what they're saying.

Many people feel that unions aren't militant enough for them and don't do anything.

The Occupy Wall Street movement, in general, by putting this idea out there that the one percent is leeching off the 99 percent, is making a new discussion, making people figure out how to withhold their labor and come and put their issues on the table with the ruling class all over the country and all over the world.

I want to fight the McCarthyist state that's developing in this country so my kids won't live in a world where people are afraid to speak out.

In Chile, they had penas, where the community would come together to sing and plan how they were going to overthrow the government. There's a real hopefulness in that community style of organizing.

There's a very thin line between rock and funk. Funk is like a dirtier blues, and so is rock. They're close cousins.

The Coup does not support the American flag.

Either I'm really into the organizing, or I'm really into the music. As I've been going, I've been able to figure out ways to even it out a little more.

I was born in Chicago. I moved to Detroit until I was six and moved to Oakland at that point. And then we had a couple years in Stockton and Pasadena. And by the time I was 13, I was back in Oakland.

If the only time you bang the drum is when it's time to get someone elected, and you don't get involved in a mass movement, then you're working against real and substantive change.

It's nice to be recognized for what you do, but that doesn't satisfy what I wanted out of this music, which is for people to hear it and get involved in movements and campaigns.

A record is a commodity, but so is a hamburger. Just because I work at McDonald's doesn't mean I reap the benefits of that commodity. That's the reality with most artists in the record industry: They're getting paid a subsistence wage so they can keep producing a commodity for the record label.

Trying to get somebody to read your script and you're a musician? That's the last person whose script you're gonna read!

With a movie, you have the power of putting out an idea about the world and for people to take it seriously.

I chose to do art in the way I always do it, which is with all the crazy contradictions of life in there.

I grew up around politics. I organized my first campaign when I was 14, a walk-out in my high school to protest the year-round school schedule.

We all - even at a base level, even a Republican - understand that the people with the money are the ones with the power. We all learn that.