BY ZO • July 20 2018

The Sorry To Bother You director discusses his acclaimed debut, his father’s activism, and the horrific crash that nearly ended The Coup, in a new interview.
As Boots Riley‘s directorial debut continues to rack up rave takes, The Coup frontman, and mind behind Sorry to Bother You, has been embracing the requisite press run.

This week, he joined Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air for a revealing interview that detailed some of the more autobiographical aspects of the film, his surprisingly-effective run as a telemarketer and a family lineage of activism and art. Riley championed his father’s founding of Durham, NC’s chapter of the NAACP, moderating a debate between Malcolm X and Floyd McKissick at just 18 years old upon joining CORE and relocating to The Bay. He goes on to recount the 2006 tour bus accident that left singer Silk E with broken ribs and multiple lung punctures, and the lingering trauma of the experience. Elsewhere, he expresses a warranted paranoia over the 2020 presidential election, and how his instincts have rarely failed him in the political arena.

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