With lyrics comparing cops to Klansmen, a free-noise breakdown, and a bridge containing "FUCK YOU" repeated no less than 16 times, the rap-rock agitators Rage Against the Machine didn't expect "Killing in the Name," the first single from their self-titled 1992 debut, to be a hit. And it wasn't. At least not in the United States, where a choppy, radio-sanitized edit and gritty live-from-the-pit clip failed to get its radical fusion of metal, rap, and sci-fi guitar wonkery on any chart. But in post-Sex Pistols, post-KLF Europe, where both radio and video outlets embraced the whole "fuck you, I won't do what you tell me" thing, it was a tour de force, reaching...
Read the entire article at Spin.com: http://go.spin.com/1wPpylm
Watch Rage Against the Machine perform "Killing in the Name" Live in 2010 via YouTube: