The son of prominent US civil rights attorney Walter Riley, a teenage Boots led 2,000 of his fellow students in a walkout over cutbacks that were set to affect all the schools in the area, except the one with predominantly white students.
According to Riley, the school board capitulated as soon as they understood the size of the congregation heading towards them. It was one of Riley's first tastes of the power of collective action.
Riley's rise to international fame was as the lead vocalist of The Coup, a political hip-hop group that layers critique and lampoonery of capitalism, worker exploitation, police brutality and white patriarchy over irresistible bass-driven back beats.
In 2018, Riley parlayed into film, delivering the award-winning Sorry To Bother You, the dystopian tale of an African American telemarketer who is swept into a corporate conspiracy after learning how to utilise his "white voice".
His next screen project, the 2023 limited series I'm A Virgo, starred a 3.9-metre-tall teenager (Emmy-winner Jharrel Jerome) who becomes an unlikely folk hero for a community fighting against a tyrannical billionaire cosplaying as a Marvel-esque superhero.
Now, Boots is back on the big screen with I Love Boosters.
Inspired by a song from The Coup's 2006 album Pick A Bigger Weapon, I Love Boosters follows the efforts of The Velvet Gang, a…
