Rage Against the Machine - Evil Empire (1996)

This album is why I read Ralph Ellison, Franz Fanon, and George Jackson's Prison Letters.

You may have listened to this. You may have scoffed at the alternative, funny haired, rebellious kids who aggrandize RATM. But did you really listen? Did you hear the message beyond the angst and furious instrumentals? The intellectual force and searing pleas for political, economic and cultural awareness couldn't be more important than in 2008. I doubt this album could have been released post 9/11 in the US. Consumers were warned of the dangers of US criticism. A nation who has lost respect for its leaders (money holders) is bound to fall. Shut up and assume it is all for the best. You can still lease a Hummer.

"Fuck the G-Ride, I want the machines that are making them" -Zach de la Rocha

WIND BELOW

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Flip this capital eclipse
Tha vocal tone has got 'em sweatin' their own apocalypse
Yes, rebel of tha grains stand masterless
Tha masked ones cap one
NAFTA comin' with tha new disaster
And yes we in wit tha wind an tha plan de Ayala kin
Are comin' back around again
Tha slave driver saliva, one night power turns
Them devils mouths dry, now Mexico burns
So here they come one by one them killers of the new frontier
Occupy, causin' fear, come on
Wit the wind
below

We in wit the wind below
Wit the wind

Flip this capital eclipse
Them bury life wit IMF shifts, and poison lips
Yo they talk it, while slicin' our veins yo so mark it
From the FINCAS overseers, to them vultures playin' markets
She ain't got nothin' but weapon and shawl
She is Chol, Tzotzil, Tojolobal, Tzeltal
The tools are her tools, Ejidos and ovaries
She once suffocated, now through a barrel she breathes
She is the wind below
The wind
She is the wind below

And all the shareholders gonna flex, and try ta annex the truth
While the new trust is gonna flex, and cast their image in you
Yeah all the shareholders gonna flex, and try ta annex the truth
And while the new trust tries ta flex, and cast their image in you
And GE is gonna flex and try and annex the truth
And NBC is gonna flex and cast their image in you
And Disney bought the fantasies and piles of eyes
And ABC's new thrill rides of trials and lies
And while the gut eaters strain to pull the mud from their mouths
They force our ears to go deaf to the screams in the south
Yeah!
But we in wit the wind below!
But we in wit the wind below!
But we in wit the wind below!

For more lyrics click here.

Evil Empire is here.