Boots Riley is a co-founder of the critically acclaimed and overtly political hip-hop group The Coup, as well as the group's lead producer, arranger and songwriter. Boots is an activist whose fervent dedication to social change is the overriding influence on every Coup album. His involvement in music was informed by earlier work in radical community organizing, artists like Public Enemy and KRS-One, and a heavy-duty leftist reading list that included Marx and Mao. Since their last release in 2012, The Coup has toured Europe and the US extensively. In the summer of 2014, The Coup’s Shadowbox premiered at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Boots’ latest projects include the screenplay Sorry to Bother You, published by McSweeney’s and set to begin production later this year, as well as a book of lyrics and anecdotes Tell Homeland Security- We Are The Bomb, out now on Haymarket Books.