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90's rock band Rage Against the Machine combined funky metal riffs with their leftist ideology to become one of the most successful political bands ever. Guitarist Tom Morello provided the band's backbone with his thick, lurching chords while frontman Zack de la Rocha shouted staccato raps and charged slogans over Brad Wilk's brutal drums. Zack de la Rocha's father was a member of Los Four, LA's first majorly exhibited Chicano arts collective. However, he suffered a nervous breakdown and forced Zack to fast, seclude himself and help him burn his own paintings, His father's views and life proved a serious influence on Zack. Zack and Tom met while both gigging around the LA club scene, and found that they shared a political ideology-they took the name Rage Against the Machine from a local left wing zine. Their first album, the self-titled Rage Against the Machine, caught national attention with its debut single, "Killing In the Name"-the song had a profane, rabble-rousing chorus that was infamously, accidentally played uncensored during primetime on BBC radio. For their single "Bulls on Parade" off their sophomore album Evil Empire, Rage Against the Machine went to Wall Street and gave a performance, shutting down the New York Stock Exchange. Video of young, suited up stock brokers headbanging made it into the video. Their last original album, The Battle of Los Angeles, debuted at #1. However, success proved polarizing for Rage Against the Machine-Zack de la Rocha split to concentrate on solo work while the remaining three band members hooked up with Chris Cornell to form the supergroup Audioslave.

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