The Battle of Los Angeles (album)

The Battle of Los Angeles is the third studio album by 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 Battle of Los Angeles
Studio album by Rage Against the Machine
Released	November 2, 1999 (1999-11-02)
Recorded	September 1 – October 1, 1998[1]
Studio	Henson (Hollywood) Sunset Sound (Hollywood) Westlake (Los Angeles) Royaltone (Hollywood) Silent Sound (Atlanta) Southern Tracks (Atlanta)
Genre	Rap metal funk metal crossover nu metal
Length	45:16
Label	Epic
Producer	Brendan O'Brien
Rage Against the Machine chronology
Live & Rare (1998) The Battle of Los Angeles (1999) Renegades (2000)
Singles from The Battle of Los Angeles
"Guerrilla Radio" Released: October 12, 1999 "Sleep Now in the Fire" Released: April 3, 2000[2] "Testify" Released: June 7, 2000

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,^[3] funk metal,^[4] and nu metal.^[5] "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".^[6][7] Another Rage–Mumia–Mao connection can be seen in Mumia's paraphrased words from Mao's "power grows out of the barrel of a gun" when Mumia gave testimony in his trial for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer in an altercation after a traffic stop: "It is America who has seized political power from the Indian [Native American] race, not by God, not by Christianity, not by goodness, but by the barrel of a gun."^[8]

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.^[9] Phantom's graffiti work regularly uses an outline profile of a human with text overlaid.^[10]

Release and promotion

The Battle of Los Angeles debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 420,000 copies 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.^[11][12]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[13]
Entertainment Weekly	A[14]
Houston Chronicle	[15]
Los Angeles Times	[16]
NME	7/10[4]
Pitchfork	8.7/10[17]
Rolling Stone	[3]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[18]
Spin	9/10[19]
USA Today	[20]

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 number 426 on Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2005, the album was listed at number 53 in Spin magazine's list of the 100 greatest albums from 1985–2005, as well as number 369 in Rock Hard magazine's book The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time.^[21] In 2021, Metal Hammer magazine named it one of the 20 best metal albums of 1999.^[22]

Awards

• 1999: #1 Time Magazine Critic Pick (The Best Music of 1999)
• 1999: #1 Rolling Stone Critic Pick (Best Album of 1999)
• 2001: "Guerrilla Radio" – Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Zack de la Rocha; all music is composed by Rage Against the Machine.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Testify"	3:30
2.	"Guerrilla Radio"	3:26
3.	"Calm Like a Bomb"	4:58
4.	"Mic Check"	3:33
5.	"Sleep Now in the Fire"	3:25
6.	"Born of a Broken Man"	4:40
7.	"Born as Ghosts"	3:22
8.	"Maria"	3:48
9.	"Voice of the Voiceless"	2:31
10.	"New Millennium Homes"	3:44
11.	"Ashes in the Fall"	4:37
12.	"War Within a Breath"	3:36
Total length:		45:10

Australian and Japanese edition bonus track

No.	Title	Length
13.	"No Shelter"	4:06
Total length:		49:16

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.

Personnel

Rage Against the Machine Zack de la Rocha – vocals Tom Morello – guitars Tim Commerford (credited as "Y. tim K.") – bass Brad Wilk – drums Production 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 coordination

Artwork 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 photography Studios 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) Peak position Australian Albums (ARIA)[23] 2 Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[24] 17 Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[25] 20 Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[26] 25 Canadian Albums (Billboard)[27] 1 Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[28] 19 Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[29] 28 Europe (European Top 100 Albums)[30] 7 Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[31] 2 French Albums (SNEP)[32] 10 German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[33] 7 Italian Albums (FIMI)[34] 16 New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[35] 1 Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[36] 2 Scottish Albums (OCC)[37] 68 Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[38] 11 Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[39] 4 Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[40] 15 UK Albums (OCC)[41] 23 UK Rock & Metal Albums (OCC)[42] 1 US Billboard 200[43] 1 US Top Catalog Albums (Billboard)[44] 43

Year-end charts Chart (1999) Position Australian Albums (ARIA)[45] 35 US Billboard 200[46] 139 Chart (2000) Position Canadian Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)[47] 169 US Billboard 200[48] 53

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[49]	Platinum	70,000^
Canada (Music Canada)[50]	3× Platinum	300,000‡
Japan (RIAJ)[51]	Gold	100,000^
New Zealand (RMNZ)[52]	Gold	7,500^
United Kingdom (BPI)[53]	Gold	100,000*
United States (RIAA)[54]	2× Platinum	2,000,000^
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Appearances in other media

"Maria" was covered by Canadian-American singer Grandson in 2019.^[55]