The Battle of Los Angeles (album)
The Battle of Los Angeles is the third and final 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 Grammy Award for Best [Hard Rock Performance|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.
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".The album's cover art was an original piece spraypainted by Joey Krebs, 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 Stone's 2003 list of The [500 Greatest Albums of All Time|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
- 1999: No. 1 Rolling Stone Critic Pick
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" and "Hadda Be Playing on the Jukebox" . 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.Personnel
Rage Against the Machine- Zack de la Rocha - vocals
- Tom Morello - guitars
- Y. tim K. - bass
- Brad Wilk - drums
- Brendan O'Brien - producer, mixing
- Rage Against the Machine - co-production
- Nick DiDia - engineer, recording
- Russ Fowler - additional engineering
- Sugar D - additional engineering
- German Villacorta - assistant engineering
- Roger Sommers - assistant engineering
- Kevin Lively - assistant engineering
- Ryan Williams - engineering
- Karl Egsieker - assistant engineering
- Monique Mitzrahl - assistant engineering
- Kevin Dean - assistant engineering
- Michael Parnin - assistant engineering
- "Atom" - assistant engineering
- Stephen Marcussen - mastering
- Andrew Garver - digital editing
- Cheryl Mondello - production coordination
- Erin Haley - production coordination
- Rage Against the Machine - art direction
- Aimee Macauley - art direction
- Joey Krebs, The Phantom Street Artist - original spraypainted artwork
- Danny Clinch - photography
- Matt DeMello - photography
- Steven Tirona - additional photography
- 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