IN REVIEW: Prophets of Rage - S/T
Well, what happened was about what was expected; an initial flurry of excitement, a hastily recorded EP and a collective shrug. It's not that the original song they recorded was bad, it just didn't feel like the cosmic collision of musical forces that perhaps fans thought it might be. Add on the fact that the majority of '90s nostalgia projects and revivals have disappointed, and it wasn't exactly peak conditions for lightning to strike twice; remember that, without arriving during the peak of the angsty early '90s, Rage Against the Machine likely goes down as a cult favourite at best, and not the incendiary multi-platinum stars they ended up becoming. Which says nothing of the fact that it's been almost twenty years since RATM released their third and last album of original material, Public Enemy is nearly thirty years removed from their cultural and critical peak, and Cypress Hill got really popular for Insane in the Brain a quarter century ago. It's not like the world was clamoring for the star power here, because for an entire generation this is frankly a group of old, irrelevant dudes.
As for the "activism", most of the lyrical content on Prophets of Rage is a far cry to the bombs Zack de la Rocha was dropping during RATM's initial run; many of his lyrics felt important, even dangerous in their dismantling of the system. Likewise, Chuck D's prime with Public Enemy was incredible for the way he shone light on the dark state of race relations in the U.S. Simply put, albums like It Takes a Nation of Millions and Fear of a Black Planet are absolutely vital listening. In 2017, when a monster sits in the White House and race relations have gone backwards rather than forwards, the opportunity for some truly scathing and important messages was here, but most of the lyric sheet reads like barely passable bumper sticker logic, vaguely politicized sound bites that might offend a few senior citizens but won't provoke much thought or action. The sad reality is, you can make three swipes of your smartphone screen and see more poignant political commentaries on whatever social media outlet you choose than the ones found here.
There's a song called Hail to the Chief that exists so they can rhyme it with thief, like Radiohead did in 2003. There's a song about drones that doesn't offer solutions or discussion of any kind, rather just warnings that they're "gonna take you out"; this song also sounds a lot in places like David Bowie's Fame, and one of B-Real's verses is lifted from Mama Said Knock You Out, with a few words replaced (I checked, and neither Bowie nor LL Cool J receive writing credit). There's a ridiculously out of touch song called Legalize Me, which lists off the places weed is legal, expresses a desire to smoke said weed, and has a nonsensical verse thrown in that has nothing to do with weed.
That's not to say there isn't some fun to be had, and the music sometimes hits that good old nostalgic sweet spot alright, but it did that in Audioslave back in 2002. It did that again when Tom Morello released an album with Boots Riley as Street Sweeper Social Club in 2009. Hell, it does that every time Morello stomps on one of his many pedals, so why is Prophets of Rage really here? It doesn't offer any world-changing manifestos, it doesn't offer anything new musically, and a full-length album doesn't offer much aside from a few more Morello riffs for the pile. Simply put, it's just as I described above, a nostalgia cash-in that coasts on the coat tails of bands that mattered more than this one ever will and hopes that its audience doesn't spend too much time thinking about that. Coming from a self-described "elite task force of revolutionary musicians", the misdirection is almost presidential.
September 15, 2017 • Fantasy
Highlights Radical Eyes • Unfuck the World • Fired a Shot
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