Rage Against the Machine: Self-Titled

Why, oh why didn't I take the blue pill?

Hi Son,

I wasn’t going to bring up how RATM has impacted me and helped put a voice to my core principles as a person, but the second inauguration (occurred today) of Donald J. Trump to the American presidency is eating at me. Like many bands of the 1990s, I didn’t really catch onto them until the 21st century. For Rage Against the Machine, it took me until 2018 for their Self-Titled debut album to really start to hit home.

The first time I can remember hearing any RATM song was at the end of one of my all-time favorite movies, The Matrix. The song that played during the end of the movie was “Wake Up.” My first impression of “Wake Up” was the fact it was sampling Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir.” The guitar riff and orchestural background of “Kashmir” is legendary in my opinion. I could argue it’s Led Zepplin’s best song musically (sorry Stairway, not sorry).

The context of why “Wake Up” was chosen as part of The Matrix soundtrack and to place it at the end of the movie speaks to the plot of my favorite movie of the 1990s. The human race has been defeated by artificial intellegence and their central nervous systems are being used as “batteries” to power The Machines. In order to keep the human race desolate, the machines hardwire into humans and place them in an imaginary world that is seemingly your “everyday normal” civilization. The main character and another handful of humans have broken free from the imaginary world, The Matrix, and are revolting to free the human race from the control of The Machines. In doing so, they have to pull the wool from over each individuals eyes and show them the bleak and dark reality that is the world.

The actual message of “Wake Up” was to bring attention to the racism occurring in the American goverment and federal law enforcement. It goes so far to suggest that federal law enforcement targeted black activists to suppress the black nationalist movement. This was something I had not learned until decades after hearing “Wake Up” for the first time as a junior in high school.

For the first half of my life, sat fairly middle when it came to my politics. Maybe part of the reason was that I was raised Christian, but the older I got, the most I realized my core values were much more liberal than conservative. That started to become prominent in the late 2000s, but it really did not hit a head until after the 2016 presidential election. The results of that election sent shockwaves and fear, especially amongst those who had similar beliefs to me (and also your mother). For the first time I felt compelled to make my voice heard. Maybe it took for me to feel like my values were truly being threatened to “Wake Up” and start speaking out.

I didn’t give RATM’s debut album a full listen until after I heard an episode from Alan Cross’s podcast, “Ongoing History of New Music.” Alan had dedicated an episode to the debut album, especially highlighting the album cover of a Vietnamese monk, Thích Quảng Đức, setting himself on fire in protest of persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government. After listening to the podcast episode, I felt compelled to give self-titled a listen.

One thing I need to mention is that I actually owned the CDs of RATMs other two albums (I don’t count Renegades one of them, because it is all covers). I listened to “Evil Empire” and “The Battle of Los Angeles” quite a bit. For some reason I never felt compelled to buy self-titled. In 2017 your mom and I got Spotify accounts (which we no longer have thanks to their contract with Joe Rogan) so I was able to stream self-titled in its entireity. The track listing is a masterpiece. It’s rap metal at it’s finest, without any “skipable” tracks. “Wake Up” is my favorite track on the album with “Killing in the Name” and “Know Your Enemy” right behind it. As I kept listening to the album more I wanted to understand the meaning of the songs. A lot of their meanings help put a voice on how I felt the United States was being led by the Trump administration.

On May 25 2020, in the midst of the COVID pandemic, George Floyd lost his life. His neck and back were knelt on by police officer Derek Chauvin for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. The incident propelled a movement against police brutality in a manner that galvanized many. This incident like many others brought RATMs song “Killing in the Name” to the forefront for me. “Killing in the Name” was released soonafter the Los Angeles rioting, which was in response to the beating of Rodney King by several police officers. The lyrics of the song mention that some who are in law enforcement are white nationalists: “Some of those who work forces, are the same that burn crosses.” This song would unfortunately become as prevalent in 2020 as much as it was in 1992. There would be more incidents to Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Ahmaud Arbery and other black Americans which unfortunately did not unite the American society in ways I had hoped. This issue continues to be a highly polarized topic, despite the facts of the frequency of black individuals losing their lives to police officers.

The last track I want to bring up is “Take the Power Back.” It became my anthem of the 2020 election and sat dormant until now. The next 4 years under a second Trump administration will be harmful to the fabric of those who want equality amogst all people in the United States. The damage that was done between 2016-2020 has now set up 2024-2028 to be irreparable. Really the only way that can be minimized is to fight against the executive orders, unconstitutional bills and laws to be presented and the erosion of the free press. I’ll end this note with the lyric of the song that speaks most to me right now. It will be a difficult time for me and I can only hope I provide an example to you that does not stoop to the lows of those who believe different than I do.

• Holes in our spirit causing tears and fears

  One-sided stories for years and years and years

  I’m inferior? Who’s inferior?

  Yeah, we need to check the interior

  Of the system who cares about only one culture

  And that, is why we gotta take the power back

Love,

Dad