Before Prophets of Rage invade Cleveland Tuesday night for a performance in the shadow of the Republican National Convention, the supergroup composed of Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy and Cypress Hill members dropped their first studio recording, a track titled after and inspired by their namesake, Public Enemy’s “Prophets of Rage.”
Opening with the wail of sirens and the repeated whisper of “Clear the way,” Prophets of Rage launch into the updated take on the It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back track with a hallmark Rage Against the Machine groove before Chuck D jumps on with a fierce retelling of that 1988 song’s opening verse.
After a chorus inspired by the original song, B-Real unleashes his own lyrical mission statement. “People hungry and tired/ They ain’t got a home/ This is the nature created for the Terrordome/ Turn the stage, I’mma burn the stage / Clear the way for the Prophets of Rage,” the Cypress Hill rapper says on the track.
Prophets of Rage, which guitarist Tom Morello described as an “elite task force of revolutionary musicians determined to confront this mountain of election year bullshit,” will stage the television debut of “Prophets of Rage” on the July 25th episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live. The song also features on the group’s upcoming debut EP.
Prophets of Rage have promised to “cause a ruckus” in Cleveland this week for the RNC, which includes a Tuesday night gig at the city’s Agora Ballroom plus potential pop-up shows. On Friday, the band performed a free warm-up rooftop concert along Los Angeles’ Skid Row.
(via Rollingstone.com)