The highest-profile Rage Against the Machine fan this decade was almost inarguably Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan—currently, and with any justice permanently, stuck between Trump and a hard place. But the 2012 election cycle, when he ran for veep and played up his incongruous love for RATM, already seems like a lifetime ago. He eventually denounced Rage’s lyrics—a step he has yet to take with his party’s 2016 presidential candidate, by the way. Guitar hero Tom Morello, meanwhile, denounced Ryan in a Rolling Stone op-ed.
Four years later, Morello credits the current cycle’s constantly aggravating references to upstart White House hopefuls on both ends of the spectrum “raging against the machine” for spurring him toward his new supposedly-not-a-supergroup Prophets of Rage. His partners in protest are RATM rhythm section Tim Commerford (bass) and Brad Wilk (drums), Public Enemy bellower Chuck D and turntablist-since-1999 DJ Lord, and Latin linguist B-Real from Cypress Hill.