The Battle of Los Angeles is the third studio album by the American rock band Rage Against the Machine, released by Epic Records on November 2, 1999. At the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards, it was nominated for Best Rock Album, and the song "Guerrilla Radio" won the award for Best Hard Rock Performance. In their year-end lists, Time and Rolling Stone magazines both named the album the best of 1999.

The album has been certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, indicating sales of at least two million units. It would be the last full-length studio album of original material released by the band before their first breakup in 2000 (their next album consisted entirely of covers and was released after the breakup).

Music and concept Musically, The Battle of Los Angeles has been described as rap metal, funk metal, and rap rock. "Voice of the Voiceless", a song referring to American political activist and journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, references a letter written by Mao Zedong, called "A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire".A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire, Marxists.org

The album's cover art was an original piece spraypainted by Joey Krebs (also known as "The Street Phantom", "The Phantom Street Artist", or Joel Jaramillo), a well-known Los Angeles graffiti artist who has exhibited at numerous galleries in Los Angeles, New York City, and throughout the United States. Phantom's graffiti work regularly uses an outline profile of a human with text overlaid.

Release and promotion The Battle of Los Angeles debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling around 420,000 copies in its first week and keeping Mariah Carey's highly anticipated new album Rainbow from reaching the top of the chart. It was nominated for Best Rock Album at the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards.

The music videos made for "Sleep Now in the Fire" and "Testify" were directed by documentarian Michael Moore, who appears in both videos.

Critical reception

In their year-end lists, Time and Rolling Stone magazines both named The Battle of Los Angeles the best album of 1999. Retrospectively, it was ranked No. 426 on Rolling Stones 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2005, the album was listed at No. 53 on Spins list of the 100 greatest albums from 1985–2005, as well as No. 369 on Rock Hard magazine's book The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time. In 2021, Metal Hammer magazine named it one of the 20 best metal albums of 1999.

Awards 1999: No. 1 Time Magazine Critic Pick (The Best Music of 1999) 1999: No. 1 Rolling Stone Critic Pick (Best Album of 1999)

Track listing

Bonus promo CD/tape In the US, some retail stores gave a free promo CD to those who pre-ordered the album that contained the songs "Clear the Lane" (from the "Killing in the Name" single) and "Hadda Be Playing on the Jukebox" (Live) (from the "Bulls on Parade" single). In Australia, certain chains gave a promo tape titled New... Live... Rare to those who pre-ordered the album that featured "Calm Like a Bomb" and the aforementioned two songs repeated on both sides. The versions of all three songs were the same as those that had been previously released.

PersonnelRage Against the Machine Zack de la Rocha – vocals Tom Morello – guitars Y. tim K. – bass Brad Wilk – drumsProduction Brendan O'Brien – producer, mixing Rage Against the Machine – co-production Nick DiDia – engineer, recording Russ Fowler – additional engineering Sugar D (David Russo) – additional engineering German Villacorta – assistant engineering (at A&M Studios) Roger Sommers – assistant engineering (at Royaltone Studios) Kevin Lively – assistant engineering (at Silent Sound Studios) Ryan Williams – engineering (at Southern Tracks) Karl Egsieker – assistant engineering (at Southern Tracks) Monique Mitzrahl – assistant engineering (at Sunset Sound) Kevin Dean – assistant engineering (at Sunset Sound) Michael Parnin – assistant engineering (at Westlake Audio) "Atom" – assistant engineering (at Westlake Audio) Stephen Marcussen – mastering Andrew Garver – digital editing Cheryl Mondello – production coordination Erin Haley – production coordinationArtwork and design Rage Against the Machine – art direction Aimee Macauley – art direction Joey Krebs, The Phantom Street Artist – original spraypainted artwork Danny Clinch – photography Matt DeMello (as "eye cue") – photography Steven Tirona – additional photographyStudios' A&M Studios, Los Angeles, CA – recording, mixing Royaltone Studios, Los Angeles, CA – recording, mixing Silent Sound Studios, Atlanta, GA – recording, mixing Southern Tracks, Atlanta, GA – recording, mixing Sunset Sound, Los Angeles, CA – recording, mixing Westlake Audio, Los Angeles, CA – recording, mixing A&M Mastering Studios, Los Angeles, CA – mastering

Charts

Weekly charts Chart (1999) PeakpositionDanish Albums (Hitlisten)19Europe (European Top 100 Albums)7Italian Albums (FIMI)16Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)11

Year-end charts Chart (1999) PositionAustralian Albums (ARIA)35US Billboard 200139 Chart (2000) PositionCanadian Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)169US Billboard 20053

Certifications

Appearances in other media "Maria" was covered by Canadian-American singer Grandson in 2019.

References

External links