Rage Against The Machine or RATM are a group consisting of four members; Zach De La Rocha on Vocals, Tom Morello on Guitars, Brad Wilk on Drums and Tim Commerford on Bass. The group formed in 1991 in Los Angeles and had their first public performance during the same year in a living room at Orange County, Florida. Their style is a combination of Heavy Metal, Hip Hop, Punk and Funk music. Before the formation of the group Zach De La Rocha was in a band called “Inside Out”, the title of their second album was to be called “Rage Against The Machine” and this is where the band got their name from. The group produced a 12 track album featuring including the original version of “Bullet In The Head”; they where able to sell over 5000 copies through their fan club and at performances during live events. On the 13th of July 1992 the group supported “Porno For Pyros” in their debut LA performance and also performed at Lollapalooza in Irvine Meadows, LA, which is where they where spotted by Epic Records. On the 1st of October 1992 they performed as a supporting act for Suicidal Tendencies; shortly after the tour they finished recording their first album release self titled “Rage Against The Machine” which received a lot of attention from critics; Timothy White from Billboard stated: “On the strength of the album, they must be viewed as one of the most original and virtuosic new rock bands in the nation…” The album went onto go platinum and stayed on Billboard’s Top 200 for almost 90 weeks. It received critical acclaim and RATM where due to go down in history as one of the most successful metal/ hip hop groups of all time. A year later they toured alongside a very successful hip hop group “House of Pain” famous for their track “Jump Around”. In the same year they appeared at Lollapalooza III in the main stage, however remained silent throughout the performance as a form of protest against censorship. The basic premise for this protest was that if people became tolerant of censorship, then band’s such as RATM would never be heard.In 1994 the group orchestrated a benefit concert entitled “For the Freedom of Leonard Peltier” and featured appearances from both The Beastie Boys and Cypress Hill. The group also organised a second benefit show entitled “Latinpalooza”, which was a joint benefit concert for Leonard Peltier, United Workers and Para Los Ninos, a Los Angeles based non-profit agency that provides child care, schooling and other services to at-risk children and their families.Leonard Peltier was a citizen of the Anishinabe, Chippewa, Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota and a citizen of the Lakota Nations; he has spent over 30 years in prison for a crime he did not commit and is considered a political prisoner by Amnesty International who has stated that he should be “immediately and unconditionally released.” Rage Against The Machine are not the only ones to have campaigned for his freedom; Jesse Jackson, Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights, the European Parliament, the National Congress of American Indians and the Assembly of First Nations are only a few who have campaigned for his release. He grew up in poverty and suffered at the hands of the US government due to their policies aimed to assimilate Native Peoples. For many years of his life he was a political activist protesting against the US government’s treatment of Indigenous Peoples and their culture. He was wrongfully imprisoned in 1975 yet still continues to help Indigenous people from behind bars; whilst in prison he helped to establish scholarships for Native students and has served on the advisory board of the Rosenberg Fund for Children. He has sponsored children in Central America and has also donated to battered women’s shelters. Leonard Peltier is an artist, writer as well as a grandfather. The band members Rage Against The Machine didn’t really have the time to get to know one another due to such a heavy tour schedule and rumours that the band where going to break up began circulating. The band then moved in together in Atlanta and attempted to record another album, due to unsuccessful attempts the band moved back to Los Angeles where they began recording their second album “Evil Empire” which in July of 96 entered the US top 200 charts at number one and lead to a tour across the US. In 1997 Zack De La Rocha and Tom Morello took part in a two hour radio show entitled “Radio Free LA” which was broadcasted on over 50 commercial radio stations and all over the web. It included two live sets featuring Zack performing on vocals, Tom on Guitar, Steven Perkins from Porno for Pyros on Drums and Flea from Red Hot Chilli Peppers on bass. In the same year the track “Tire Me” won best musical performance at the Grammy Awards, shortly after RATM began touring in a series of concerts as a supporting act for U2; the band donated their earnings from these concerts to organizations such as The International Concerned Family And Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, FAIR and Women Alive.
Mumia Abu Jamal is a political activist who started a career in journalism with the infamous Black Panther movement, he was wrongfully imprisoned and sentenced to death, some would argue, due to his political beliefs. Whilst some strongly believe that he is guilty of murder, and an unrepentant killer, the controversy surrounding his case lies in the fact that his trial was grotesquely unfair and highly unconstitutional. On the 9th of December 1981, Mumia was shot and brutally beaten by Police Officers for trying to help his brother, who was being beaten with a flashlight; he was found dangerously wounded only a few feet away from Officer Daniel Faulkner, Aged 26, who died of gunshot wounds. He was taken into hospital for emergency surgery in critical condition, and was subsequently charged for the murder of Daniel Faulkner and sentenced to death; the bullet found in Mumia’s body matched that of Faulkner’s gun. The events which led to his death are highly suspect; a female security guard working at the hospital claimed that Mumia had confessed to everyone at the hospital that he was guilty of the murder yet the surgeon who dealt with him stated that he was too weak to talk and Officer Wakshul, the man who took Mumia into custody and stayed with him the whole time stated that “’the defendant made no comment” and remained silent for the entire time he was with him. This statement was not included in court proceedings due to the fact that the Officer was on holiday at the time. The woman who stated that she had heard Mumia confess claimed that she suddenly remembered the confession two months after it had transpired, and it turns out that she was a friend of the deceased. The key prosecution witness was a prostitute with a long history of arrests whose statements did not correspond with that of her friend, and her friend, who now testifies in support of Mumia’s case, stated that she was threatened with the loss of her children if she did not support the police evidence. On top of this Mumia was given in incompetent lawyer who did not want his case. Mumia and his supporters, including Rage Against The Machine, only want a fair trial. Mumia has petitioned for a retrial and unless he gets a fair trial in the next few years, it is likely that he will be put to death.
In August 1997 Rage Against The Machine where scheduled to tour with the Wu-Tang Clan however this did not come about. Instead RATM performed alongside The Foo Fighters and The Roots. In 1998 they recorded the track “No Shelter” which featured on the soundtrack to the Godzilla remake. In January 1999 they organised a benefit concert for Mumia Abu Jamal which attracted a lot of media attention to the point that it wasn’t going to be allowed to go ahead, however in the end was allowed to transpire and included tracks from The Beastie Boys, Black Star and Bad Religion. On April 12th Zach De La Rocha appeared before the United Nations regarding the case of Mumia Abu Jamal and the US Death Penalty, it was one of the few occasions in which Zach can be seen wearing a suit. The group then went onto play at the Tibetan Freedom Concert and then onto Woodstock 99, where they burned an American flag on stage whilst playing “Killing In The Name”.
RATM released their last album entitled “The Battle of Los Angeles”; it became available in US stores on November 2nd 1999 which coincided with election day. On the same day the group appeared on the David Letterman Show performing the track “Guerrilla Radio” which subsequently led to an appearance on the Conan O’Brien show, which led to the National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) to boycott the NBC network for allowing Rage Against The Machine to play. FOP boycott anything relating to support of Mumia Abu Jamal including Filmmakers Spike Lee, Oliver Stone and John Landis; Writers Norman Mailer and Joyce Carol Oates; Supermodel Naomi Campbell and Musicians Rage Against the Machine, The Beastie Boys, Sting, David Byrne and Michael Stipe of REM. Incidentally, in 2001 Mumia Abu Jamal had his appeal hearing and his conviction stands as it is. Unless an incredibly vast amount of support can be gathered for Mumia, it is likely that he will face the death penalty.
To the great disappointment of many fans all across the globe, Rage Against The Machine split up in the year 2000. On Oct 18th, 2000, Zach De La Rocha issued this statement:
“I feel that it is now necessary to leave Rage because our decision-making process has completely failed. It is no longer meeting the aspirations of all four of us collectively as a band, and from my perspective, has undermined our artistic and political ideal. I am extremely proud of our work, both as activists and musicians, as well as indebted and grateful to every person who has expressed solidarity and shared this incredible experience with us.”
Zach went onto start a solo career and has performed with many successful artists including KRS-ONE, Dead Prez, Planet Asia, Roni Size and The Roots. The remaining members of the band went onto form another group known as “Audioslave” along with Chris Cornell, former member of Soundgarden. In April 2007 Rage Against the Machine performed together at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival for the first time in seven years, and have since gone onto perform at several other live events. They where one of the most popular and politically influential bands of the twentieth century and has made their place in history as one of the greatest pro-revolutionary groups of all time. They have won a number of awards including a Grammy for Best Metal Performance in 1997 and another Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 2001; they where also nominated for three MTV Video Music Awards however lost to groups such as Metallica, Aerosmith and Limp Bizkit.
With their pro-revolutionary lyrics and their fiery political attitude, it is easy to see why Rage Against The Machine has become such a worldwide phenomenon. In a war-ridden world and politically daunting times groups such as “Rage” come as a warm welcome against the music constantly churned out by the mainstream music industry. As of this year, 2007, the group are still performing together and I doubt that we have seen the last of them; I expect that we’ll see much more of Zach De La Rocha and Rage against the machine in the years to come.
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