How do Mexican-German-Irish kids become revolutionary MCs?

Happy 40th Birthday, Zack De La Rocha

Rage Against The Machine
Evil Empire
1996 Epic/Sony Records
Produced by RATM

Zack's just too deep for me. Anytime I get a "suggested reading" list with my cd, I know I've bitten off more than I can chew. But hey, that's my excuse for owning 25% of Miles Davis' collection-I want folk to THINK I'm deep. For the record, 25% of that dude's collection is twice Jay-Z's catalogue. At least I aspire to depth.

What wins for Rage on their sophomore album they made newly ignited and incensed fans three hard years to receive, is a combination no other entity in music has ever encompassed.
First, Zack De La Rocha uses hip hop to address political wrong-doings worldwide in a way 9 out of 10 rappers aren't up on shit enough to express, let alone skillful enough to. He walks, no stomps the dangerous "white boy" waters in the 90s where no Eminem has yet to appear validate fair-skinned skills. (He's not white, of course, but you get my point.)
Second, Tom Morello's guitar work is innovation that should be chronicled, patented, and trademarked. To be able to create dj, keyboard, and other sounds to the point where nothing feels missing is beyond art, it's science.
Third, the combination of Morello's guitar, Commerford's bass, and Wilk's drumming is unclassifiable. What it does however, is satiate Zeppelin, Funkadelic, and Public Enemy followers simultaneously.

Evil Empire houses "Bulls on Parade." That alone makes it a classic recording. It also contains the killers "Vietnow," "People of the Sun" and "Year of the Boomerang" (from the film Higher Learning). But I say again, "Bulls on Parade" is on this album! It's hands down the funkiest rock outside of Prince's recently released Gold. But hey, that's Prince! The lyrics were insightful, if not “inciteful” and incendiary.

"Weapons not food, not homes, not shoes
Not need, just feed the war cannibal animal
I walk the corner to the rubble that used to be a library
Lined up to the mind cemetery now
What we don't know keeps the contracts alive and movin'
They don't gotta burn the books they just remove 'em
While arms warehouses fill as quick as the cells
Rally round the family, pocket full of shells"

The rhythm arrangement is split into three vicious movements where Morello, Commerford, and Wilk demonstrate funk/rock 101 for the next generation. The production and engineering delivering the previous ingredients is as monumental to metal and hip hop as Zeppelin to rock in the 70s.
Rage was ahead of their time, but pivotal to nearly any band annoying their neighbors for the remainder of the millennium and the decade to follow.