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Originally Posted by dead_battery
im amazed at how testify by RATM can be read as a literal prophecy of what would happen in the years after it was released.
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I'm glad you picked up on the less than subtle rage reference.. I really liked that band, lyrically. If folks read the lyrics sheet and had no idea who that band was or have any of the MTV baggage, I think they'd be impressed. Self/Titled is still a masterpiece of intellectualized angst, and not just of the teenage variety. It was pissed off for a good fucking reason, it so poetically encapsulated ALL the post-Vietnam, fuck Reagan rage that defined that era..
1992 was a watershed year, we had the LA Uprising that year for a reason. It was a conclusion of the previous 25 years.. The corporations had finally sunk their teeth back into America, dominating LA real estate. Schools had collapsed under their own weight as a kind of racist retaliation to LBJ's efforts at a great society. In 1876 the US Federal troops withdrew from Southern occupation and ALL of the black institutions were destroyed, Jim Crow was retaliation for those uppity Negros. Well, 1980 "its morning in America" era is THE SAME FUCKING THING. White, redneck, rich America said, "FUCK LBJ AND HIS SOCIETY." They took back. Jim Crow returned in different ways, under corporate guises. Why are over half of Americans working in shit service jobs for minimum wage or slightly more? Oh right, corporate America took over and put everybody "in their place."
Rage Against The Machine Self Titled reflected what everybody in LA felt like before 1992. The Uprising was the final turning of the tide.. After that LA felt like we could take it back. To live in post-Uprising LA from 1993-2000 was a beautiful thing, to watch what was realistically a Third World nation suddenly shake off all its shit and start inching towards becoming Finland...
But like I said, I fear we lost the Battle For Los Angeles....
We got greedy, we started to think it was easy, and that became our complacency. We gave LA back to the assholes. We gave the country back to the assholes. We traded our reality for Starbucks and Samsung.
"What do you want a Lexus or justice, a Beamer or substance?" Dead Prez