#9: RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
When it comes to mixing rap and metal there were obviously bands that did it before Rage Against the Machine, but those bands shouldn’t be credited/blamed for fucking up metal as much as Rage Against the Machine did for the following reasons:
- They did it on a one-off basis instead of making a career of it.
- They precipitated the rap metal fad by way too many years to be considered true progenitors.
- They didn’t do it nearly as fucking well.
If rap metal had continued to be as expertly-crafted and powerful as what Rage Against the Machine debuted with their self-titled effort in 1992, then it surely wouldn’t have become such a bad word. But perhaps it was inevitable. While Rage mixed deep grooves and Tom Morello’s hard-hitting riffs and Harvard-inspired guitar wizardry with Zack de la Rocha’s politically righteous rhymes, all the elements were practically laid out on a plate for a generation of imposters to steal and dumb down. It’s not hard to see how point A leads to point B when it comes to Rage Against the Machine and Limp Bizkit; LB and their cohorts basically just took what Rage did and made it bigger, stupider and easier for the masses to digest.
But holy fuck did Rage Against the Machine blow minds when they came out in ’92. The sound was fresh, it was powerful and it was incredibly invigorating. If you were a kid in the ’90s and you claim that you didn’t go around screaming “Fuck you! I won’t do what you tell me!” at the top of your lungs for weeks after you first heard “Killing in the Name,” you’re a fucking liar.
-VN
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