 Boots from the Coup is kickin' up dust and bringing some serious heat to Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown. Several times a day folks who are tuned into the Bay Area's most popular music station 106 KMEL get to hear a commercial in which Boots gives a scorching, hard hitting, one minute break down about what's wrong with Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown and some of his 'urban renewal' policies. The radio spot immediately catches your attention because it features the music of The Coup's popular underground song 'Jesus The Pimp'. Instead of rapping, you hear an impassioned Boots pulling no punches as he talks to listeners about everything from sky rocketing rent prices to police brutality to gentrification or 'Jerrification' as it's called in Oakland. The ad starts off with Boots explaining how he was recently forced to move from his two bedroom flat due to rent increases. He then goes on to note how difficult it is to find any sort of affordable housing in Oakland because poor people are being priced out the market. He demands that Mayor Jerry Brown come up with an effective rent control policy and that he implement a living wage increase for people working at service sector jobs. Boots really captures people's attention when he screams on the Mayor's gentrification plans which are forcing long time Black and Brown Oakland residents out of the city only to be replaced by outlandishly rich Silicon Valley and Yuppie types. This has been a big cause for concern especially in historic west Oakland which gave birth to the Black Panther party. The west was recently profiled and unfairly lambasted on the TV news show '60 Minutes'. Boots really hits home when he talks about the Mayor's new zero tolerance policy which has resulted in a substantial police crack downs and many of Oakland's young people of color being targeted as potential criminals and made to feel 'unwelcome' in their own neighborhoods. Boots warns listeners to 'not get slipping' by having to look for a new apartment or house and to remember that when Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown says he wants a new Oakland he means he wants an Oakland with less Black people. The ads were paid for by the Bay Areas largest and most influential weekly the San Francisco Bay Guardian [http://www.sfbg.com]. Recently they have been running ads that spotlight troubling Bay Area issues which they superbly cover in their articles. By teaming up with Boots and letting him break things was an ingenious move. The man definitely struck some nerves and got people talking. It's gotten to the point where listeners are calling up the station requesting the commercial. This may be something rappers from other cities may want to consider doing, especially in New York where so many people find themselves under the gun with respect to Mayor Giuliani. |