RATM's music is best described as Rap-Core. 
The band singer, Zack de la Rocha rapping to the other band members heavy, distorted Hardcore.
Many people mean, that you can't compare them to any other group, and I think I agree on that.
I've never heard any other group which creates such incredible sounds, without samples, synths etc…

Politically, RATM support human rights and is against capitalism and oppression. 
In their lyrics there are many messages about the little man's rights.
They have given many charity concerts, and much of their incomes is donated to different
 "human rights organisations" e.g. Amnesty International.
They also support the animal rights, and 3/4 of the band members are vegetarians.

After they had played live together with groups like, Pearl Jam, Public enemy and Suicidal Tendencies, they became very popular. 
Through their fan club they sold over 500 ex, of a demo with 12 songs.
They got contacted by Sony Epic and wrote record-deal and released their debut with the name "Rage-Against-The-Machine".
In 1994 the band broke up for a couple of months and Zack de la Rocha went down to the Zapatists in Mexico.
When he came back, they started working on their next album.
In 1996 they released the second album "Evil Empire" and got a "Grammy" for the song "Tire me".

Zack de la Rocha was born in Long Beach, California in 1970, and grew up with his mother in Irvine.
Zack's parents got divorced when he was only one year old.
His father Beto de la Rocha, who lived in Lincoln Heights, was an artist.
After a mental breakdown, Beto became fanatically religious,
locked himself up in his own home and was sometimes fasting for weeks.
Zack also had to do this when he came to visit.
This was too much for Zack, and he partime stopped visiting his father, but they kept a good relation.
Zack was very fascinated by the Zapatists* in Mexico and became a member 
of the "National Commission for Democracy" in Mexico.
He went down to Chiapas, Mexico to visit the Zapatists.
When he came back, he started the band Inside Out.
Inside Out released the album "No Spiritual Surrender" in 1990,
After that he created RATM.

*The Zapatists in Mexico fight for a democratic society and base their struggling
 in Emiliano Zapata (1883-1919) struggling against the dictator Porfirio Diaz 1911
Zapata was murdered in 1919.





Tom Morello (guitar)




Tom Morello was born in New York in 1964 and grew up in Libertyville, Illinois. 
His father was a member of the Mau Mau guerrilla, that liberated Kenya from British rule. 
His mother founded the organisation "Parents for Rock and Rap".
Toms parents got divorced when Tom was young.
Tom educated himself as a political specialist at the Harvard-university in Massachusetts
He worked as a secretary for senator Alon Cranston, when a woman complained that too many black people were moving into town.
Tom explained to her that she was a stupid unknowing racist, and he got fired.
It's said that he bought his guitar in a pawn shop for $80.
He's one of the world's greatest guitarists, and he's capable of getting the most incredible sounds out of his guitar.






Brad Wilk (drums, percussion)




Brad Wilk was born in 1969 in Portland, Oregon, and lived for a while in Chicago, then, after a time he moved to California.
He listened to groups like Led Zeppelin, The Who and John Bonham, before he started to listen to Sex Pistols, which changed him…
Brads father died in 1992, and Brad means that money ruined his life before he died. 
This got him to appreciate the small things of life, that you can't get for money.
Brad was considered as the good hearted in the group, who understand everybody elses feelings.
He said in an interview: "I really wish I could be a fucking asshole sometimes." He's most famous by the music, not the politics…






Tim Commerford (aka. Tim Bob) (bass)




Tim Commerford grew up togheter with Zack de la Rocha in California.
His father was a flight mechanic, and his mother was a mathematician
until she got a brain tumour, which erased her "better side".
When Tim Was in 3:rd grade she couldn't understand the math exercises Tim got.
Her illnes hurt the whole family, so the father got divorced an remarried.
The mother moved to her sister in Sacramento. Then the relationship between Tim and his father broke up. 
Tim cooled his anger with poetry, art and music, but this only brought forth a dark side that he's not amused of.
"I have a lot of anger towards certain things - for example the police.
I understand what they're all about and I don't like what they do to people, 
and I draw pictures of what I like to do to them. And it's not good things. It's mean, horrible things…
Someday I'll display my art for people to see, but right now it just kind of scares me…"


Thanks to Dr Henrix for the translation from swedish.