PROPHETS OF RAGE
Photo Credit: United Rock Nations
Prophets of Rage were formed in 2016 with Tom Morello, Brad Wilk, Tim Commerford from Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave. DJ Lord and Chuck D from Public Enemy, and B-Real from Cypress Hill. The band's name came from Public Enemy song "Prophets of Rage" originating from its album ‘It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back’. The band played their first live show in January 2016 in a performance at the Republican National Convention, where it released its self titled single called "Prophets of Rage". In 2016, the band went on a North American tour, dubbed the "Make America Rage Again Tour".
The songs they played on this tour were songs from each of the previous bands that they had played in as well as new material written by the band. Their first LP came out last year called The Party’s Over with five songs these are titled ‘Prophets of Rage’, ‘The Party’s Over’, ‘Killing in the Name’ (live), ‘Shut ‘em Down’ (live), ‘No Sleep Till Cleveland’ (live). In September this year they will be releasing a new album with twelve songs. When asked about this album they said, “Our album is coming out September 15, ‘Unfuck the World’ is the first single from that album and we are very excited to be putting out this new music. It’s very rocking but speaks about what is going on today in the world not just back home in the United States. The album was produced by Brendan O’Brian who we’ve worked with before for Rage Against the Machine and Audio Slave. This European tour is to make the world rage again, this record is a continuation of that we are, the sonic resistance, every resistance movement needs a sound track and our record will provide that.”
Two of the songs on this album have already been released, the first song comes with a accompanying video called ‘Un Fuck the World’, available from the June 2017. Their second song, ‘Livin on the 110’ has just been released. They are now on their "Make the World Rage Again" tour for the rest of this year and played at Hellfest.
Photo Credit: United Rock Nations
Asked about the current interest in the revival between rap and metal with bands like Body Count they said, “For us it wasn’t really about playing a particular style, it was about playing important songs. Eventually as we were playing these songs, we felt we had an undeniable chemistry and we decided let’s take that chemistry into the studio. We wrote a brand new album that speaks to today with a sound that would become our own sound and it just happens that it is hip hop along with punk metal and funk and a very strong mixture. You know the others that are coming back into this type of fusion more power to them. Music is universal, it doesn’t matter how you make it and there’s always somebody who wants to hear it and this was very powerful with hip-hop and metal fusion. Rock rap isn’t an easy style to do you have to be the right person to do it and we are. I have to say we aren’t reviving shit; this is Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy and Cypress Hill. I mean these are three of the most potent artists to ever stick a toe into that water so I don’t look at it as a revival this is a brand new beginning.”
Prophets of Rage are to be genuinely admired for the stance that they take on current global affairs as they try to make people more aware of the dire evils they befall the world. When asked about why they are trying to get this message across they replied with, “That’s why we are in the trouble we are in because people are less engaged because there’s a disconnect between the politician and the people they lie to every year for their votes. Their positions and legislation mean that and all that people have lost trust so instead of going out to vote for people who would make their lives better they do nothing and that is a very big problem. People need to engage people need to be aware of what’s going on, to pass information to others so people can do something and make a change.”
CHECK OUT THE PROPHETS OF RAGE INTERVIEW HERE:
