“Renegades of Funk” by Rage Against the Machine

"Renegades of Funk" is Rage Against the Machine's remake of an old-school electro single, recorded for their 2000 album Renegades, and it's an inspired choice. The song comes from Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force, a 1983 Tommy Boy single written by Bambaataa, Arthur Baker, John Miller and John Robie, whose lyrics trace a line from past revolutionaries and bohemians to the street artists of the day.

Rage always carried hip-hop in its bones, and here it shows, trading the original's electro bleeps for crunching guitar, a funk-metal groove and a vocal delivered like a sermon from the barricades. Rick Rubin produced it with the band co-producing, David Schiffman and Jim Scott engineered, and Rich Costey mixed it into a big, bruising wall.

It went out as a single in 2001 and became a fixture on rock radio for years. "Weird Al" Yankovic even folded their version into "Angry White Boy Polka" on his 2003 album Poodle Hat, which is its own kind of tribute.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.